We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Darren Cronian as the fourth guest blogger*.
Darren, living in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, writes and rants about the problems that consumers face with travel. He is asked regularly is why he started writing his blog. Is is because In 2005, he visited a high-street travel agency and was not impressed with their customer service and felt that the travel agent had no interest in helping him find a holiday. He arrived home, annoyed, and wanted to rant, so welcome to the Travel Rants blog.
He has learned a lot about the travel industry, and continues to learn. Considering he had no working experience of the industry has been quoted in a number of national newspapers and interviewed on BBC Radio. He was filmed as part of a consumer programme that was aired in December 2009. Read more about Travel Rants in the media His travels include Australia, Malaysia, Norway, and Czech Republic. His favorite travel moments are snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, and climbing over Sydney Harbour Bridge.
You can connect with Darren on any of the following social media platforms, in addition to his blog. Browse his favourite sites and blogs on StumbleUpon, keep up to date with his travels on Dopplr, chat with him on Twitter, add your travel photos to his Flickr Group, become a fan of Travel Rants on Facebook, and watch his videos on You Tube.
The number of international tourists to the United States totals over 56 million every year, so I suppose you can understand why US airport security is much stricter compared with other countries. The United States though is not seen as a welcoming country to tourists and this does put a lot of people off from visiting.
He has learned a lot about the travel industry, and continues to learn. Considering he had no working experience of the industry has been quoted in a number of national newspapers and interviewed on BBC Radio. He was filmed as part of a consumer programme that was aired in December 2009. Read more about Travel Rants in the media His travels include Australia, Malaysia, Norway, and Czech Republic. His favorite travel moments are snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, and climbing over Sydney Harbour Bridge.
You can connect with Darren on any of the following social media platforms, in addition to his blog. Browse his favourite sites and blogs on StumbleUpon, keep up to date with his travels on Dopplr, chat with him on Twitter, add your travel photos to his Flickr Group, become a fan of Travel Rants on Facebook, and watch his videos on You Tube.
The number of international tourists to the United States totals over 56 million every year, so I suppose you can understand why US airport security is much stricter compared with other countries. The United States though is not seen as a welcoming country to tourists and this does put a lot of people off from visiting.
Grumpy TSA staff
You are flying to the United States for a family holiday to the sunshine state of Florida; all of the family is excited about the prospect of two weeks of sunshine and theme parks but that excitement quickly disappears as soon as you land and make your way through airport security.
Yes, welcome to the USA, where the TSA staff are grumpy, unfriendly and not welcoming. It is a shame that these people are your first experience of this great country. It doesn’t take too much effort to smile and there’s really no reason to be rude when all you want to do is jump in your hire car and find the hotel.
The endless queues
You have flown for seven hours; the kids are bored and just want to start your family holiday. Rather than making the final leg of your journey as stressless as possible you then have to spend ages queuing to get through airport security. You are stressed, frustrated and you cannot see the end of the queue.
Quizzed like a criminal
You finally get to the end of the huge queue to be made to feel like a criminal by rude officials. In the UK we have a saying, that you’re not guilty until proven otherwise. In the United States, as you pass through the security your guilty until proven otherwise. You would have thought that airport profiling would have made security easier, but that’s not the case.
Can you imagine what it is going to be like when full body scanners come into force? I really do not think that this will improve airport security; it longer to get through. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is important that airports treat security seriously, but I do think that some common sense could be introduced.
Electronic System for Travel Authorisation form
The ESTA application takes up to 72 hours to be approved, gives flyers prior approval for entry to the US. This is now mandatory for international travellers who are passport holders in 35 countries with US "visa waiver" status, Britain being one of those countries. Prior to ESTA you had to complete the green I-94 card in-flight, so maybe, hopefully, this will improve the time it takes to get through US airports.
I am interested to read your experiences with US airport security.
*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.
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