Some people live in a scary world. I would think it's quite stupid to be worried about this when the worst that could happen is missing a flight, which would not happen anyway if you pay attention to your surroundings.

That's not the worst that can happen, not by a long way. You have very few rights in an airport, in practice if not in theory.

Have you looked up crime rates in airports or what gives you this idea that it's a dangerous place? Unless you're digging up dirt on Putin and flying through Russia or some outlier situation like this, nothing is going to happen.

It's not a crime when the authorities do it, sadly. I've seen plenty of anecdotes here and elsewhere of people being detained without access to legal representation and without even being informed of what they've supposedly done wrong. If you're denied entry to a country then you have no right of appeal or anything.

The danger factor needs to be weighted between probability of the event and severity of the event. The probability of the things you describe are near zero.

> There's an increase in potential negative consequences. More people with guns, more chance for "security" to pick on someone they don't like. If you go off on your own and you're right, you don't gain much - if everyone gets on the wrong plane or goes through the wrong gate or what have you, there's not much they can do. If you go off on your own and you're wrong, you might get beaten up, kicked off your flight, held without charge until you dehydrate, banned from the country...

Umm wut? You live in North Korea or something?

Here in Europe things are pretty mellow, there was a while after 9/11 when the security was pretty heavy-handed but luckily things are back to normal and we are now again innocent until proven guilty. We have things like rights here.

But beaten up because you walk around in the wrong public area of an airport?? That did not happen even then.

I'm European. Even pre-9/11 you'd get stopped and made to leave for saying the wrong thing. Post- we've got a guy getting jailed (famously the first person jailed for an act without criminal intent, because apparently airports get an exception from basic protections) because he went for a smoke and some people were scared of his luggage, and the person getting held without charge and without any water was also my country.

> But beaten up because you walk around in the wrong public area of an airport??

Sure, but if you take a wrong turn you're suddenly in the private area, and even if there weren't any signs, well, why did you wander off on your own, no-one else did.

I've personally avoided missing flights by breaking from the crowd in airports