Since downstairs has a story about arguing with custom at London, I would post our story - how we were being harassed at CDG (Charles de Gaulle at Paris) because we did not have a hotel bill to show how much we paid for our stay in Paris!
We just came home from a 15day London / Scotland / Paris trip last Thursday. The trip was a mixed bag (Scotland is so-so. Edinburgh is full of hype, Lake District is even worse. London and Paris are good as usual but London is outrageously expensive - so much so Paris becomes a bargain when comparing to London). Therefore we were actually feeling relieved that we were finally going home.
We arrived CDG almost 3 hours early because of its infamous slow security line and the horrible layout of CDG. Before anyone can go near the United check-in counter, one has to go thru a security point - they separate it into 2 groups/ 4 lines - 2 for IAD and 2 for ORD. A young black woman waved us over to her position when we walked to the IAD line. First thing she said she was employee of ICT, contracted by United to do the security work. She had a laptop in front of her, and she read her questions one by one from the laptop - the first few were the same questions that they asked 30 years ago, such as "Did you pack your luggages yourself?" "Were you with your luggages all the time?" "Did anyone give you anything to bring for him?" etc etc
Then she asked, "Who paid for your hotel bill?" We simultaneously said, "It was free, no charge." Oooops, this concept is too complicated for her to understand, or the laptop did not provide any clue on how to handle such answer! All alarms went off.
She repeated her question and demanded to see our hotel bill. Sheesh, we would not have any had I not bug the front desk this morning to print me one despite it was 0 charge. (I wanted one because we had some complication during our 5 day stay and we had to switch room once - I wanted a statement even it was 0 to make sure in case there were any errorenous charges show up later I had a statement to prove there should not be any charge.) OK, I dug out the statement. It is InterContinental Le Grand at L'Opera, 5 days stay, nothing shown on either the debit and the credit column. The only info is our names, room number, and the duration of our stay.
The woman did not know what to do with this. She took it with her and went to talk to a group of her colleagues - one of them, an indian woman, looked like a supervisor. They studied that statement at least 10 minutes. Then she came back demanded to see our airtickets. Sorry, no tickets - these are e-tickets, the only thing I had was an itinerary print out. They could easily walk 10 steps to the United check-in counter and asked the agent there to print out our tickets with the PNR. Idiots.
Another 15 minutes mini conference on the side - then she came back, said it was good for you not to have to pay for hotel, but for us, we still need a hotel bill for proof. I showed her the reservation - here, REWARD RESERVATION - it is on points, not $$$. I told her to read the reservation so next time she would know why one can stay in hotel for free! I am getting quite annoyed by now, and of course it showed.
Eventually, this woman put orange stickies all over our belongs, camera bag, handbag, carry-ons, shopping bag... And she put a "Selecte" tag in shocking pink on our carry-on that we said we would check due to the liquid ban. As a result, we received the dreaded SSSS boarding passes.
From there things really went downhill, big time. Upon arrive the gate, we found out the X'Ray machine and security check point was placed right in front of the gate at Satellite 1. It took average 10 to 15 minutes to process one person, as they almost handsearched everyone's bags. When it was our turn, they really jumped up because of the orange stickies. Some supervisor rushed over, and we were each not only being wanded on, but patted down thoroughly, in front of all other passengers. You know, arms straight on the side, legs apart, and they patted you from top to bottom and inside and out (the legs). My empty water bottle was confisticated and throwned to trash can despite my protest. That bottle survived trips from Hawaii to Portland to Vancouver to Miami to London to Liverpool to Paris, went thru all the security check points without problem, but was seized and thrown out by this stupid French woman who said I know it was empty, and still took it and threw it out. I was really upset but bit my tonque.
Once this was all done, we thought it was finally over. So when we sat down waiting for boarding, we tore those orange color stickies from our hand-carries and from our passparts. It turned out this created a HUGE issue later when we board.
Finally boarding time - 5 security agents (not United employees) stood in a horizonal line - each agent looked at people's passport and boarding pass - the 4th time since the first security checkpoint. The tiny guy saw my SSSS boarding pass and immediately worked up. Yet the tall black woman let my hubby passed. So here we were, they let hubby board, but denied me! I told him to board nonetheless and I would deal with these idiots.
OK, they took me aside, went thru some corridors (but I can still see the boarding area) and then a tall black guy asked me where I came from, how could I get there?! Huh?! I checked in downstairs at United check-in desk, went thru that snailing security line just outside gate, and eventually ready to board my plane home and you ask me where I came from? You must be out of your mind. During the confusion, the short guy who denied me boarding, started talking about that I was a Chinese, did they need an interpreter... My french was rustic, I could not speak, but I could still understand some of it. I told him NO, I dont need an interpretor. I hold U.S. passport. English is just fine, if you can speak it! Then they started to discuss where was my hu*****and - I told them he boarded as the tall woman let him board. Ah Uh! They then scrambled back to the gate area, questioned that tall womand why she let him board. Finally another supervisor took me to the small corridor just outside the gangway, where there were 3 tables set up and they did extensive hand search yet again. My backpack was taken away, after its guts were thrown on the table. They probably took the backpack for bomb swipe test. LOL. Of course nothing wrong could be found. Finally they let me board, but the supervisor followed me all the way to our seats and asked hubby to follow me outside. Hubby was quite anxious already as it has been over 20 minutes and I was still a no show. I told him just follow the supervisor and they may do yet another in-depth search and pat down. Hubby's hand-carries only consist a camcorder, and 2 pairs of slippers for use inflight. The supervisor asked where were the orange stickies? Hubby got mad and said, what did you expect? Are they Scarlet Letters that we have to carry around till our flight home? We tore them and threw them away becauswe we did not want the glue to stay on too long and causes damage to our stuff!
Our plane was delayed 45 minutes. The captain said we had to wait because some passengers were still going thru security. I dont know how these French idiots do their jobs. Totally inefficient, illogical, and downright stupid.
The most ironic thing is, the checked luggage was not even opened by any French security, despite the "Selecte" label. Someone scribbled on the luggage computer tape to clear it without even open it. TSA atIAD also signed it off without open it.
Who are these dumbed French thinking? Would any suicide bomber pack dirty clothes with a bomb? Besides, I dont see any Chinese would do anything as stupid as blowing up oneself for a mere few thousand bucks, right?
Before this incident, we were thinking about doing another Paris trip, just for the Louvre. After this, no thanks.
We just came home from a 15day London / Scotland / Paris trip last Thursday. The trip was a mixed bag (Scotland is so-so. Edinburgh is full of hype, Lake District is even worse. London and Paris are good as usual but London is outrageously expensive - so much so Paris becomes a bargain when comparing to London). Therefore we were actually feeling relieved that we were finally going home.
We arrived CDG almost 3 hours early because of its infamous slow security line and the horrible layout of CDG. Before anyone can go near the United check-in counter, one has to go thru a security point - they separate it into 2 groups/ 4 lines - 2 for IAD and 2 for ORD. A young black woman waved us over to her position when we walked to the IAD line. First thing she said she was employee of ICT, contracted by United to do the security work. She had a laptop in front of her, and she read her questions one by one from the laptop - the first few were the same questions that they asked 30 years ago, such as "Did you pack your luggages yourself?" "Were you with your luggages all the time?" "Did anyone give you anything to bring for him?" etc etc
Then she asked, "Who paid for your hotel bill?" We simultaneously said, "It was free, no charge." Oooops, this concept is too complicated for her to understand, or the laptop did not provide any clue on how to handle such answer! All alarms went off.
She repeated her question and demanded to see our hotel bill. Sheesh, we would not have any had I not bug the front desk this morning to print me one despite it was 0 charge. (I wanted one because we had some complication during our 5 day stay and we had to switch room once - I wanted a statement even it was 0 to make sure in case there were any errorenous charges show up later I had a statement to prove there should not be any charge.) OK, I dug out the statement. It is InterContinental Le Grand at L'Opera, 5 days stay, nothing shown on either the debit and the credit column. The only info is our names, room number, and the duration of our stay.
The woman did not know what to do with this. She took it with her and went to talk to a group of her colleagues - one of them, an indian woman, looked like a supervisor. They studied that statement at least 10 minutes. Then she came back demanded to see our airtickets. Sorry, no tickets - these are e-tickets, the only thing I had was an itinerary print out. They could easily walk 10 steps to the United check-in counter and asked the agent there to print out our tickets with the PNR. Idiots.
Another 15 minutes mini conference on the side - then she came back, said it was good for you not to have to pay for hotel, but for us, we still need a hotel bill for proof. I showed her the reservation - here, REWARD RESERVATION - it is on points, not $$$. I told her to read the reservation so next time she would know why one can stay in hotel for free! I am getting quite annoyed by now, and of course it showed.
Eventually, this woman put orange stickies all over our belongs, camera bag, handbag, carry-ons, shopping bag... And she put a "Selecte" tag in shocking pink on our carry-on that we said we would check due to the liquid ban. As a result, we received the dreaded SSSS boarding passes.
From there things really went downhill, big time. Upon arrive the gate, we found out the X'Ray machine and security check point was placed right in front of the gate at Satellite 1. It took average 10 to 15 minutes to process one person, as they almost handsearched everyone's bags. When it was our turn, they really jumped up because of the orange stickies. Some supervisor rushed over, and we were each not only being wanded on, but patted down thoroughly, in front of all other passengers. You know, arms straight on the side, legs apart, and they patted you from top to bottom and inside and out (the legs). My empty water bottle was confisticated and throwned to trash can despite my protest. That bottle survived trips from Hawaii to Portland to Vancouver to Miami to London to Liverpool to Paris, went thru all the security check points without problem, but was seized and thrown out by this stupid French woman who said I know it was empty, and still took it and threw it out. I was really upset but bit my tonque.
Once this was all done, we thought it was finally over. So when we sat down waiting for boarding, we tore those orange color stickies from our hand-carries and from our passparts. It turned out this created a HUGE issue later when we board.
Finally boarding time - 5 security agents (not United employees) stood in a horizonal line - each agent looked at people's passport and boarding pass - the 4th time since the first security checkpoint. The tiny guy saw my SSSS boarding pass and immediately worked up. Yet the tall black woman let my hubby passed. So here we were, they let hubby board, but denied me! I told him to board nonetheless and I would deal with these idiots.
OK, they took me aside, went thru some corridors (but I can still see the boarding area) and then a tall black guy asked me where I came from, how could I get there?! Huh?! I checked in downstairs at United check-in desk, went thru that snailing security line just outside gate, and eventually ready to board my plane home and you ask me where I came from? You must be out of your mind. During the confusion, the short guy who denied me boarding, started talking about that I was a Chinese, did they need an interpreter... My french was rustic, I could not speak, but I could still understand some of it. I told him NO, I dont need an interpretor. I hold U.S. passport. English is just fine, if you can speak it! Then they started to discuss where was my hu*****and - I told them he boarded as the tall woman let him board. Ah Uh! They then scrambled back to the gate area, questioned that tall womand why she let him board. Finally another supervisor took me to the small corridor just outside the gangway, where there were 3 tables set up and they did extensive hand search yet again. My backpack was taken away, after its guts were thrown on the table. They probably took the backpack for bomb swipe test. LOL. Of course nothing wrong could be found. Finally they let me board, but the supervisor followed me all the way to our seats and asked hubby to follow me outside. Hubby was quite anxious already as it has been over 20 minutes and I was still a no show. I told him just follow the supervisor and they may do yet another in-depth search and pat down. Hubby's hand-carries only consist a camcorder, and 2 pairs of slippers for use inflight. The supervisor asked where were the orange stickies? Hubby got mad and said, what did you expect? Are they Scarlet Letters that we have to carry around till our flight home? We tore them and threw them away becauswe we did not want the glue to stay on too long and causes damage to our stuff!
Our plane was delayed 45 minutes. The captain said we had to wait because some passengers were still going thru security. I dont know how these French idiots do their jobs. Totally inefficient, illogical, and downright stupid.
The most ironic thing is, the checked luggage was not even opened by any French security, despite the "Selecte" label. Someone scribbled on the luggage computer tape to clear it without even open it. TSA atIAD also signed it off without open it.
Who are these dumbed French thinking? Would any suicide bomber pack dirty clothes with a bomb? Besides, I dont see any Chinese would do anything as stupid as blowing up oneself for a mere few thousand bucks, right?
Before this incident, we were thinking about doing another Paris trip, just for the Louvre. After this, no thanks.
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