prestonv

Useless

HGB

TSA Pre check is only available to American citizens: now isn't that what you call discrimination? You do have terrorists with US passports or green cards and you even have much more non Americans that are not criminals or terrorists...

rjohnmurray

You know what it's like. Family with you instead of just a business trip. You think you have all the liquids in the little bags and out of the hand luggage as you go through. Well you find out there is one bag with liquids in that is stuck at the bottom of the bag.

WHY THE HELL CAN THE TSA NOT FIND THIS?

They are incompetent beyond belief. I had unidentified liquids getting on a plane at LAX.

Oh of course when you are not there a sleeve of golf balls at $18 a sleeve seems to go missing. They have the audacity to leave a TSA note in but dont secure the golf bag inside the case it was in either. Nor do the lazy layabouts push the zippers back into the locks so they are secure for the journey. Maybe it's a TSA thing that they keep them unlocked for their mates at other airports, I don't know!

In other countries they are just slow at getting you through and no need to take shoes off. In the US the TSA people are slow and have no comprehension of what they are there to do. They all think they are protecting and serving! Yeah right like any of them would pass the tests to become a real cop!

Rant over!

localady

TSA is a farce and the things done above are basically for show and bandaids.
I got stopped in Pre Check a couple of weeks ago so that they could go through my backpack looking for some type of threat - a tube of toothpaste (TSA approved size)...

Basically what they are is a drain on our economy now and will be as we pay their retirement into the future.

Agree... kind of like a clerk at the DMV...

What's scarey is that I feel so much safer flying out of Tel Aviv than I do any American city. People get stopped, people get searched, they ask a lot of questions, they are highly trained and I feel have real security. By this point in the US, we should have developed that same level of sophistication in security.

GeorgiaRebel

They are about as effective at stopping terrorists as tin foil hats are at stopping aliens from reading your mind.

AAbuzzard

The survey was touted as asking whether the TSA had made improvements. I think so. Lines are shorter, and the Pre Check and "elite" screening points do help. On my last few trips it took me less than 5 minutes to clear security, every time. Yes, it is all a pain in the butt, but the pain seemed to have been more acute in the past.

sethb

^ And for pretty much the same reason.

hookthem

I think, as everywhere, YMMV with TSA. As I have Global Entry, I always pass through the TSA Pre lane (I don't frequently travel anywhere that doesn't have this). Thus, my experience is probably better than a lot of those that have to go through the entire process. However, I do have a couple complaints:

1. There are so many (visible) inefficiencies with how the TSA lines are operated. It can be an extremely frustrating experience when you're running late for a flight, a single lane to be open, and you see 10 TSA agents gabbing away around the exit area.
2. Some TSA agents definitely have a superiority complex and treat people extremely rudely. These people need to find a different job. If I was rude to a client, I would be fired.

m44

edgewood49 -- this neither true nor called for -- unless you are talking about yourself -- such reasoning skills should make one unemployable.

spd476

Some people may say the TSA has been effective because there have been no terrorist attacks since they were formed. I think there have been no attacks because the terrorists aren't trying. They don't need to. All they have to do talk about something and the TSA overreacts.

I flew out of MCO last month. I don't fly a lot anymore so I'm not going to get Pre Check through the airlines and I'm not going to pay for it. I got directed to the Pre Check line because an Ipad pointed in that direction. It was a great experience and I was through security in under 5 minutes. They had one screener explaining the rules to the line in a normal voice and everyone followed his directions.

That experience at Pre Check should be how the majority of passengers should be screened. They can throw in some extra screening at random or if there is suspicion of a problem. They could ease the liquid restrictions and eliminate the ID checks and I think security would be just as effective.

Centurion

ID checking is a joke and is only for the airlines revenue management benifit. Checking people for dangerous devices or equipment could be done better.

m44

Do you want listing number of ways French or EU companies or governments discriminate against people from USA. Let me start with with Autoroute de France -- they do not accept any USA based credit cards. And why French business' generally do not accept American Express. I remember -- the trend may have been started by de Gaulle and IBM ...

You want the reason: EU people are not verifiable due to EU privacy laws. About USA based people TSA can find and obtain nearly any relevant information. EU privacy laws serve best criminals and paranoid people who cannot stand their neighbors knowing who is the owner of the property next door.

MaxBuck

This survey is absurd. It asks questions regarding "effectiveness" from a cohort (the flying public) who is completely ignorant of the security threat posed by terrorists, criminals and persons with poor self-control. In response, people complain -- and what else would you expect people to do who are forced to undergo unpleasant rituals for which they neither understand nor believe the purpose?

The survey would be better framed as to how the flying public believes security objectives could be achieved with less disruption and unpleasantness. Unfortunately no one in the process is either asking or answering that question.

I am not a security expert, but I've learned enough about layers of protection analysis (LOPA) through training seminars and conversations with security professionals to know that the screening we go through is both important and useful as a component of overall aviation security strategy.

Harlem

Get rid of the TSA - it is a complete waste of money and more importantly time. Now that the cockpit door is locked the days of flying planes into buildings is over.

I get on a bus without TSA overreach. I get on the subway without TSA overreach. I get on Amtrak and Metro North and the LIRR without TSA overreach.

Should a terrorist want to do damage today, he could easily bring bombs onto the 4 train and detonate them when the train is under the East River. Planes are no longer the target.

ITravelThereforeIam

This survey was pretty useless from my perspective. I wonder how much money they are going to waste on THIS. PLanes not falling out of the sky have nothing to do with TSA. I wear medical devices 24/7 that the manufacturer recommends NOT go thru the NudeOscope. I travel for work 15 - 20 times a year...therefore, I get assaulted on my way to work every single time. I have developed ways of coping with the groping, but I still feel the urge to break down in tears and take a hot shower every time

Like Chollie, I don't "move in privileged circles, so I don't expect Cadillac treatment. TSA is the only organization, however, that regularly takes a hostile attitude towards me because of my physical limitation." This type of treatment is basically against the ADA everywhere else in the country.

BUT....I gotta go to work, so I suck it up, and take my pleasure when I can. Last winter, I went through security at a smaller airport w/o the NudeOscope...(ah that alone keeps me flying out of Tucson), but in this other city, they saw "something" and ran my bag through the xray again...nope nothing there, move along. I bought a sandwich and a drink and sat down...I reached into my bag to take out my book and Lo and Behold was my almost full Dr. Pepper bottle....mwahhahahahaaaaa!