heathrow horror

[fabman]

I arrived back in the uk on wednesdsay evening and almost every guy travelling alone on the thai air flight was pulled over by customs and taken into a holding room , i had all my personal stuff sorted through , all the pics on my camera looked at , i also had 4 cds with photos on, which they took away for about 40 mins and studdied.

i was then asked all sorts of nasty questions and given filthy looks by the middle aged english women officer ( did i meet my wife in a bar , am i a sex tourist and some worse questions which i wont repeat )
when they finally returned with my camera and cds with no incriminating evidence what so ever ( just happy photos of my thai wife and me and her family) there was no apology of course !
welcome back to good old england ( not )

i know they have to do these checks now and again but some of these falang women ( not all ) do seem to be very vindictive

thank god i am moving to hua hin in march . but airports ( particullary heathrow ) are a nightmare in every way now !

[pharvey]

Not good......

Whilst I've never had an experience as bad as that at Heathrow, the experiences I have had, have never been good. These days I avoid that cesspit, sorry - airport like the plague (especially T3). Being one of the busiest airports in the world, quite frankly I think Heathrow is an embarrassment with regards to facilities and quality of service.

Mind you, customs officials and immigration seem to be horrible little b@st@rds wherever you go......

[caller]

I arrived back in the uk on wednesdsay evening and almost every guy travelling alone on the thai air flight was pulled over by customs and taken into a holding room

Thats never happened to me, it sounds as though they could have been acting on specific information?

[STEVE G]

This sounds like a ridiculous affair and I would lodge a complaint immediatley if that happened to me; what right does a customs officer have to ask you questions about your wife? If you're smuggling they should arrest you, if you're not what are they asking you questions about? Surely anything else is an affair for the police and not the customs.

[fabman]

i was told its a random thing they do ( on thailand flights ) they had sniffer dogs checking bags as well ..

ive been travelling to los for 15 years and never experienced anything as bad before

good job i didnt have any personal pics of the missus lol

its the last thing you need after a 13 hour flight as well

i really dont look forward to passing through heathrow t3 anymore ( thankfully not to often in the near future

i did think of making a complaint but i doubt anything would become of it..

in the uk if your a tax paying law abbing white male you get nothing and are at the bottom of the list for everthing ! thats my experience

[STEVE G]

Yes, I don't know the exact procedures but there seems to be something very wrong with this; surely the customs or UK Border Agency or whatever should confine themselves to looking for contraband and I don't see what the pictures on your camera have got to do with that. If the Police want to search you for other offences, surely they need a search warrent.

[pharvey]

Heathrow (T1 - T4) truly is dire, but the problem being that you'll tend to get the lower cost flights from there (or similar) rather than the smaller regional airports. Admittedly, I'm in the enviable position when returning/visiting the UK from China in that I have a return flight for myself and the Long haired General each year included in my contract. It is of course economy class, however I can pick a flight to an airport local to my family/UK office - Bristol in my case. This makes a world of difference! In all honesty, if paying for the flight myself - price would certainly be a factor!! In general, each ticket costs up to 300GBP more in flying to Bristol rather than Heathrow.

As to customs officers - they have far more power than the (UK) police quite frankly. Complain.... and you'll just be a target for these ********** in future (truly, I've seen it before). You were quite right (and amazingly restrained) IMHO just to leave in this case - unfair, unwarranted, insulting as it was..... it's not going to change soon. Maybe set up your own religion and complain on the grounds of religious harassment? Kiss a bloke - plead "Gay Rights"? Nappy on the head, plead temporary insanity?

Just as an aside T5, which I don't actually class as Heathrow is a superb terminal......... unfortunately run by BA.... "The World's Favorite Airline" - MY FECKIN @RSE IS IT!!

[Big Boy]

almost every guy travelling alone on the thai air flight was pulled over by customs and taken into a holding room

With the volume of people arriving at Heathrow every hour, I find it amazing that you could distinguish every guy who was travelling alone on your flight. Immigration is chaotic enough, but by the time you get to customs, you'd have been well segregated. If they took you into a holding room (I've been there with my wife), how could you tell what happened to everybody else? How do you know everybody stopped that day were asked similar questions?

I'm sorry fabman, but while I don't doubt that it happened to you, saying it was every male travelling alone, and intimating that they were all asked the same questions - I find that too hard to accept.

[Homer]

At one time airport security and customs had a sense of humor, as shown in this documentary clip:



It was many years after first watching Spinal Tap that I realized Nigel Tufnel's amp wasn't the only thing that went to eleven.

[fabman]

it was a holding room of such , they were asking people if they were travelling alone and from bangkok although there were a few couples as well, it was mainly single men in the room , there were about 6 tables in this room and lots of customs officers so i am not saying i was isolated from everyone else ! but they were clearly clamping down on people from this flight !

[redzonerocker]

Thats never happened to me, it sounds as though they could have been acting on specific information?

Quite likely.
If they are looking at photos etc, i would guess they are checking for anything to do with child/underage sex or trafficking, not specifically drugs.

I wish they were as stringent on other flights coming in

[Big Boy]

Or maybe just a training exercise.

[caller]

Sniffer dogs are common everywhere. They smell fish as well - I cursed my wife last time - but the dog handlers are used to it. We were waved through.

[Lung Per]

I arrived back in the uk on wednesdsay evening and almost every guy travelling alone on the thai air flight was pulled over by customs and taken into a holding room , i had all my personal stuff sorted through , all the pics on my camera looked at , i also had 4 cds with photos on, which they took away for about 40 mins and studdied.

i was then asked all sorts of nasty questions and given filthy looks by the middle aged english women officer ( did i meet my wife in a bar , am i a sex tourist and some worse questions which i wont repeat )
when they finally returned with my camera and cds with no incriminating evidence what so ever ( just happy photos of my thai wife and me and her family) there was no apology of course !
welcome back to good old england ( not )

i know they have to do these checks now and again but some of these falang women ( not all ) do seem to be very vindictive

thank god i am moving to hua hin in march . but airports ( particullary heathrow ) are a nightmare in every way now !

You should have called your lawyer right away and have him present at the inquest. That should teach the uniformed b*st*rds. Noone should submit himself to interrogation of that nature just because of a holiday in Thailand.

[Takiap]

Personally I don't believe they have the right to look through your photos, no matter what the hell they're looking for. If they're checking for evidence of child pornography or under age sex then surely that's a matter for the police to deal with, and supported by a warrant. They would have got a good ear bashing from me, and I would really have made that women officer's day by supplying very explicit and detailed answers to her rude questions. I could give a few examples, but I think they would be more suited to the night crawlers section....lol.