When you go through the screening process at airports, should you carry your travel documents - passport, boarding pass - with you or not?

I went through one airport in the US last year and put mine in the tray which went through the x-ray system. This was the end of the world! I wasn't allowed to go through the security arch until the person there had inspected these documents, so she had to get a colleague to wait until my tray had gone through the x-ray process then pass her my passport and boarding pass.

However, at Washington National earlier this month I was firmly instructed to put them in the tray to go through the x-ray system.

This kind of anomaly confuses and bothers passengers, and wastes time. Can we have one method, please?

On a recent long-haul flight, the pilot made his "Welcome aboard" announcement.

In the course of this, he said he wasn't allowed to tell us the route the aircraft would be taking but if we wanted to know, we could follow it on the moving map on the in-flight entertainment system.

I did wonder how much this enhanced my personal security.

I think that, if I wanted to re-configure Detroit or anywhere else by blowing up a plane over it, I'd use a more reliable way of knowing where I was than the in-flight entertainment map or the pilot's description. Long-haul flights are a bit unpredictable in their routing because of winds and congestion anyway, so just not telling passengers exactly where they are going seems to be of little value.

Or is there really a good reason for this?

On Tuesday 26 January 2010, the underground inter-terminal shuttle opened at Washington Dulles airport.

Apparently for capacity reasons it will not be able to handle all of the needs, so some of the famous mobile lounges will be retained. These still sometimes fulfil their original function - carrying passengers direct from plane to terminal, mainly for international arrivals - but more often just shuttle between the terminals.

The "Washington Post" got very excited about the new people mover, announcing that a passenger train was now in service at Dulles airport. I think most people would expect a passenger train to take them a little closer to downtown DC than this beast ever will!