Fredd

Maybe the new FT could sell insulated cups with the FT logo to wear, if you get my drift.

Very good points as I develop my own personal routine. ^ The list of "lines" might well deserve its own thread. ^

FriendlySkies

You owe me a new laptop!

pmocek

That's nice to hear. I moved to Seattle ten years ago, and I love it here, partly due to that "laid-back Northwest vibe." I'm not surprised to hear that it permeates even airport security.

patriciahenry

My sister who regularly flies had her first opt out today^, SAN, terminal 1 Alaska security approx 6pm. I have been educating her about the opt out process and she did well for herself. She has been able to successfully self opt out by picking the lines before but got the dreaded nod to the scanner as she approached the WTMD and said no way, I am not going through that thing. They probably picked her because she is female, pretty and traveling alone. She got put in the penalty box for a few minutes and couldn't see her things. (I later admonished her to make sure she raises a stink to have her stuff where she can see it.) She said the frisk was a half hearted joke and no touching of her parts and real security theater. The smurf asked her if she was a frequent flier and she said she was and the smurf replied that only the frequent fliers opt out. My sister noticed she was the only one who opted out during the time she was at the check point and all of the rest of the sheep went willingly through the scanner that were directed.

I am dreading my upcoming flight with my small kids but have to visit my 93 year old grandmother and no other way. If you see a flaming mad red head on the news at SNA in April, you will know it is me

RATM

i.e. Anyone who knows what's going on will have nothing to do with our bull&*#@

UALpremier

SNA doesn't have the NoS anywhere. I don't think they have room for it.

Fisher1949

MSNBC reports that Barbara Bachmann opts out for fear of her image showing up on the internet, which seems like a reasonable concern to me.

http://bltwy.msnbc.msn.com/politics/...n-9442.gallery

I'm surprised that celebrities haven't been more vocal about this since they are the most likely targets of a leaked image.

Of the few that have reported being groped, Regis Philbin, Brian Williams and Chloe Kardashian, only Kardashian cited privacy as the basis for the opt out. Philbin said he had a metal implant and Williams didn't elaborate on why he was groped. They may have the same concerns but are keeping it to themselves to avoid being ridiculed by some in the press.

Wollstonecraft

I was wondering who Barbara Bachmann was - some celebrity I don't know? It is actually Michele Bachmann, the off-the-wall Minnesota Rep. It is weird that her main concern is nude photos of her showing up on the internet (although, given how many people she ticks off, it is a valid concern.) I wonder why she doesn't join on the bipartisan group of Congresspeople trying to put an end to the scanners for the rest of us?

everdown

I opted out today for the first time. SOP was followed the entire time. They checked for explosives, and it came up positive. Based on some of the other experiences in this thread, I was prepared for the worst. In the end, I had to go through the enhanced pat down a second time so that the agent could test a new swab.

nachtnebel

so you didn't get a resolution patdown, just a repeat of the revised opt-out feel-down where they don't touch your private parts? if so, sounds like they wanted to avoid the reso....

everdown

Nope. It was just a slightly faster version of the first. When I got the positive results, the supervisor (I think) stopped by and said that that particular machine had been giving false positives...

Lara21

Alot of those machines are giving off false positives for some reason.

MDtR-Chicago

This is why I avoid being swabbed whenever possible.

Recently, there was a TSO standing next to the TDC when I walked up, "randomly" selecting people to swab. Did a nice positional opt-out of the whole affair.

After I made it thru and was collecting my belongings, another gentleman was being swabbed for some reason and it set off the machine. So he got a thorough pat-down and that did NOT set off the machine. One of the TSOs remarked that this was fairly normal for that machine, frequently alerting for no reason. Then they let him go.

What does that prove??? Half the time you set off the machine, so you're clean, because it doesn't work very well anyway?

The whole thing is farce.

FXWizard

It must be nice to have such a simplistic view of the world; speaking as an infrequent flyer I will be opting out if sent to the scanners.

smashr

I've been selected 5 times in 2011 so far for the Node-O-Scopes, after managing to avoid them for all of 2010 -- its partially a function of flying from smaller airports this year thus far.

I've opted out of all of them, and finally decided on my opt-out technique. Inevitiably, the TSA drone asks me, "So you WANT the PAT-DOWN?!" trying to make it seem as ominous as possible. I simply calmly reply, "Well, I don't want cancer, let's leave it at that."

Last week I got a TSA drone at SJC who wanted to argue with me that one recieved a lot of radiation on the airplane. I explained to him that the Nude-O-Scopes focused all of the radiation directly on the skin, so it was much more harmful. He didn't seem to care, but oh well, I was one of several people opting out at that particular moment, so hopefully our defiance was logged somewhere.