The Poolie Bunker

Please ensure that your passport is ermmm...

I know this one

I was travelling through as a Transit Passenger a few years ago, it was totally bizarre. The Visa Waiver thing was still going, and you had to say if you had been involved in Nazi War Crimes, or my particular favourite, whether you had ever been convicted of an offence involving "Moral Turpitude". I had no idea what it meant, thought about putting a little star next to it and saying "I've got a bottle of Turpentine Substitute at home if that's what you mean" but decided that it would be too subtle for your average Immigration Officer at LAX....

Whole thing was bizarre in any case. I was flying to New Zealand, and the plane was stopping for a change of crew, refuelling etc - but as they didn't understand the concept of a Transit Passenger, everyone had to get off the plane.... trawl through immigration.... collect all luggage.... go through US Customs.... 20 yards the other side of customs check the bags in again.... go outside of the terminal... resist the temptation to flag down a Taxi and head for Downtown LA.... go in through a different door of the same terminal.... go through security.... go through passport control.... go and sit in lounge briefly.... get back onto same plane in same seat. Farce.

The complete opposite from Indira Gandhi airport where you're not allowed to leave the plane, so you have to wait inside for an hour before it takes off again. Hell, I WANTED to go through chew just to relieve the boredom.

I never have this problem at the Isle of Wight ...mind you, Pompey's a bit funny at times.