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Comment by ibejoeb | Hacker News Reader

Hmm, that's odd. A few years ago, Australia didn't even check ID.

There's no mention of ID, just boarding pass. I'm pretty sure similar checks in NZ would catch wrong plane boarding (there's usually someone checking boarding passes on the plane too), with no ID check anywhere.

I mean that I'm surprised that there was a fuss over boarding at the wrong gate.

If you had a ticket, regardless of the name on it, you could walk into the airport, go to the gate, and get on a flight. It's a different situation, but things were generally pretty casual, and I just don't recall there being anything dramatic about a simple gate mixup.

Interestingly I just watched a funny sketch video about the difference between Australian and US Airport security [1]. Definitely not a serious comparison, I doubt that Australian airports are nearly as lax as the video makes it seem.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyJ00uqp670

Accurate.

But when you get off the plane in Tassie there's the k-9 search...

Bring all the drugs you want, but don't you dare bring a banana.

I mean, the passing the bag through without scanning is facetious, but Australian (domestic) security is much lighter than the US. You don’t need ID, you don’t need a ticket, and until recently it was only metal detectors everywhere rather than full body scanners.

Also, it wouldn’t be uncommon to joke around (although there are some hard-asses); if they legitimately did recognise a YouTube, I could see them getting a selfie together.

They wouldn't notice if you buy a ticket to one city but get on a flight to a different city?

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