The security was indeed a bit tighter this time round. They checked that I'd filled in the electronic visa application form; the girl in fron of me in the check-in line (a 30-minute long line) hadn't and was told to go do it "downstairs" then rejoin the line at the back. I was asked to empty my pockets in the check-in line, and my Swisscard tool set came to light. One of its elements in particular was identified as being too dangerous to take on board the flight. I was told I had to put it in my bag and check my bag; I said that I wasn't going to check my bag, I only have hand luggage. I was advised that if I didn't, the card would be confiscated. I asked if the person asking me had authority to confiscate it. I was told she didn't, but that the security people did and would. I said I'd take my chances.
When it came to the X-day machine, my jacket was indeed pulled aside and the pockets emptied by a professional pockets-emptier. She found my Swisscard, which is unsurprising as the X-ray operator had told her that this is what had set off her alarm bells. The security woman identified a potentially dangerous component of the card — the very same one that the officious visa-checker had identified in the check-in line. She did, however, have discretionary powers to allow me to take in on board, and because she was actually a quite likeable and common-sense sort of person decicded to let me take it.
Here's a photo of my card, which I took just now (I'm in the air somewhere over the East Coast of the USA). See if you can identify the dangerous component:
It's the tweezers. Rather than risk having the knife taken off me, I left that at home. It seems that "Swisscards" are defined as being dangerous on some list, but not in terms of their components. It's just assumed that they have a knife in them. If they don't, then the next most sharp object must be the reason to reject them; this would be the tweezers. The officious uniformed woman in the check-in queue decided they were; the unofficious uniformed woman in the security section decided they weren't.
I thought I'd blog this now, rather than when I was in Atlanta laying over for a few hours, in case the US border agencies tended towards the tweezers-are-dangerous school of thought, and took them off me before I could show you them. They'd have to take the metal clip off my pen, too, because that's pretty much the same thing only sharper on its internal edge.
I wonder if, were I to shatter the glass on this laptop, I could get a nice, jagged blade out of it?