In March the US implemented an electronics ban for flights from select Middle Eastern countries to the US. Under this ban, passengers had to check electronic devices other than phones into the cargo holds of planes. This whole thing seemed pretty poorly thought out, both in terms of not considering the increased risk of a…
Continue reading: Experiencing Saudia’s Enhanced Security Screening Post-Electronics Ban
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
ben/lucky are you american or not? americans do not queue in line we stand in line, for a long time, lol, or we wait in line, also we do not fall in line...
thank you.
This is interesting, because what you describe is more or less identical to going through US-bound security at RUH last year, before all of the supposedly "enhanced" security initiatives went into place. There has been an additional security screening for US-bound flights at JED and RUH for quite a while now.
TBH... locals would be more relaxed as they know nothing would hit them, nor would an attack happen on their own people...
Terrorism isn't stopping me from my travels. They're not winning at all and no one should travel in fear!
Watch the US ban electronics from being carried on again after reading this review.
@Daniel, So we can just bypass the queue and make our own line when traveling out of the US?
I flew from Abu Dhabi a couple weeks ago. Only thing different than standard screening on domestic flights was laptops, when going through x-ray, had to have their lid opened. Otherwise identical from a passenger experience.
In Doha..hmmm the process was like this:
1) Go through initial check
2) Take out laptop and put in tamper seal bag. Then that gets explosive tested
3) Get pulled over ot the side
4) Walk through scanner with laptop separate, shoes separate, and then everything else
5) Get patted down after going through scanner and get checked yourself for explosives
6) Get on plane
"TBH… locals would be more relaxed as they know nothing would hit them, nor would an attack happen on their own people…"
TBH...what a stupid thing to say...
Reminds me of traveling into the US from the Caribbean. Security theater up the ass in the US, but you can fly right in after passing through an xray where all the workers are chatting looking the other way.
@ Lucky – was it not as involved as you were expecting because it wasn't actually being done properly?
When I've come through the main security area at Riyadh I don't think I've ever seen the guy at the x-ray machine look at the monitor – he's usually chatting or looking at his phone.
This has been the process ever since i started flying to the US. Crew also go through the same security check. Nothing major and if u didnt see just before u finish the process u will find a stack of boxes for all electronics (fyi, that was when the electronics band was still up). All US &Manchester flights have this check.
@bgriff they've been doing the same thing (sans swabbing) since at least 2010 (probably before)