When you check in they always ask have you packed your own bags, and have they been left unattended. But when you go to Restaurants you are supposed to leave the cart which carries your bags outside, which is unattended. Is that not hypocritical? When we were in YYZ Tim Hortons let us but some Diner wouldn't and he was saying look at the card you can't bring them in and we told we aren't supposed to leave our bags unattended and he says " I didn't make that rule just the one on the card".

Where was the Tim Horton's at? Was it inside of the secured area or was it outside "sterile" areas?

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas,
XJR

When I was a gate agent, I noticed a pax had left a bag unattended in the seating area. When he returned, I politley reminded him that bags should not be left attended and that we will call the police if we see bags unattended. He gave me a dirty look and made a nasty comment. As I walked away, a gentleman in a suit approached the guy flashed a badge and had a talk with him. I found out later, he was an FAA agent waiting to do a check ride on the flight I was working. God I love vindication some times  

yes i noticed that, sometimes the restaraunts say leave carts outside but airlines say keep them with you at all times...


CanadianNorth

It really doesn't matter what the restaurant says. Never leave your bags unattended, whether inside or outside the "sterile" area. It is subject to confiscation and destruction.

i usually only eat at the foot court, and, THUS, lug mu bag and backpack! not fun.

and the bad part is from the food court at FLL, I can see my bag and the gate just fine if i left it there!

The Diner and Tim Hortons were both in the "sterile area" Tim Hortons being maybe 100 yards from the Diner. We did not go in the Diner, but I noticed lots of people leaving their bags outside though. When he was telling us the "special announcement" that comes on every 15 minutes telling you not to leave your bags unattended was playing too.

yes i noticed that, sometimes the restaraunts say leave carts outside but airlines say keep them with you at all times...

Then don't eat there.

You absolutely cannot leave your bags unattended. As a GSC, I had more than one unattended bag removed from the sterile area. I never met any of the passengers who's bag I had removed, but I did let the replacing GSC know what had happened.

The bags were removed from the sterile area to the Aviation Police office, where I assume they had a safe place to put them in case they had explosives.

In any event, it's kind of a spectacle to have the drug- and bomb-sniffing dog check out the bag before they remove it. I'm glad I could give our passengers at MCI a show!

When I was still working in Pax handling at TXL (Berlin, Germay) we had a funny case:
Some employee found an unattended bag in the terminal. He called the border police, who after nobody answered the call, called a bomb squad.
The armourer used an explosives detector, which showed signs of explosives, so they used a water gun (essentialy a piece of pipe on a tripod filled with an explosive charge and water aimed at the suspicious object, the high velocity water jet is supposed to take a bomb apart before it has time to explode). A few minutes after the explosion a Russian gentleman appeared and complained that they just blew up several thousand bucks worth of electronic test equipment while he was having a leak. Apparently some fumes from the gear gave a false positive explosives indication on the explosives detector.

Another reason for keeping close to your bags: There are plenty of thieves and pickpockets around in public places like airports.

Jan

Wow, I can't believe anyone would leave their bag unattended anywhere.

I know that if I was a thief, I would hang around this restaurant and just pick out the nicest bags. I mean really, who would ever know that it's not your bag you are taking.

Beefer,

I agree with you. Even before the FAA said you had to keep your bags with you I would have never left them out of my sight. I am not a paranoid person but in the confusion of an airport it seems it would be easy to be annonymous and steal bags.

God bless through Jesus,

Jeff

MD11Engineer:

Another reason for keeping close to your bags: There are plenty of thieves and pickpockets around in public places like airports.

Good point.

If you leave your bags sitting about, they will surely be either confiscated by the airport police (an possibly blown up) or they will be stolen.

It's always amazed me that people will just leave their luggage sitting in an airport all by its lonesome self.