gingersnaps

Is TSA recording EVERY CONVERSATION. Or does someone who hires a contractor say "Here are the parameters to operate within." Now the person who hired the contractor may do occasional visits for quality control; but you cannot expect that 100% of the time misleading information will not be provided by the private contractor who is motivated by profit.

chollie

If TSA can't find an acceptable contractor, TSA can perform the function themselves. If they chose a shady contractor based on corrupt ties instead of actual reliability, it's still their responsibility.

CBP rolled out GE/Sentri/NEXUS without relying on private contractors. The difference is, GE delivers what was promised and paid for.

TSA could have followed GE's example - they are both under DHS. TSA decided to go a different route, to create private contracts to line someone's pockets and to lie about a service that will be inconsistently offered.

Boggie Dog

TSA has screwed up the Pre Check concept from day one. Why did TSA want the airlines involved? That alone has limited the program.

What TSA should have done was issued a Pre Check ID that was good at every checkpoint instead of relying on having a logo printed on a boarding pass.

As is so normal when TSA is the subject, TSA fouled it up again.

chollie

It's a mystery to me.

TSA and CBP are both under DHS. CBP successfully implemented GE. You enrol and you get what you pay for - an expedited experience virtually all the time.

TSA could have (should have) worked with CBP to develop Pre - and should have paid attention to why GE is successful. Hint: when pax arrive from an international destination and are standing in line, they see a dedicated, open GE lane moving quickly - either to the kiosks, or, if there's a problem, straight to the front of the regular line. It's obvious just from observing that GE pax regularly get the complete service they paid for.

Instead, TSA came up with this weird ponzi-scheme where they are signing people up without telling them that the full experience can't/won't be reliably available until enough people have signed up.

Another AskTSA lie I have seen in the past: that Pre lanes always move more quickly than regular lanes. A true Pre lane will move quickly; a Pre-lite lane that requires belts off, laptops and LGAs and mandatory bag searches will not.

petaluma1

They would still have to have separate lines in order to truly call it "expedited screening." Further, by involving the airlines, TSA can then blame the airlines when things go south.

The answer is to scrap PreCheck and screen all pax to 9/10/01 levels.

gingersnaps

I take based on her twitter pics she is in a wheelchair and went through precheck in a wheelchair. Which likely means she was brought through a side gate.

If she was in a wheelchair, and didnt undergo any screening (metal detector or AIT), what type of screening did she expect? One of her tweets is "I pay & I dont have too"

Sounds like a terrible misunderstanding of precheck.

chollie

Yes, such a terrible misunderstanding.

Customer listens to the sales pitch from a government agency, customer foolishly believes sales pitch, customer buys product, customer finds out sales person lied. Just a little $85 misunderstanding, brought to you courtesy of TSA.

She expected the same treatment she has gotten every time she's flown with Pre-check.* She lives in CO, so I suspect she flies out of DEN pretty often.

Unfortunately, now she has been told that what she was promised when she signed up and what she has experienced at DEN and other airports since signing up was wrong. Every single TSO handled it wrong, even at DEN, until this time. The DEN STSO said so.

* She was not told that this was 'random'. She was told that despite all her prior experiences, they were all wrong. She should have been getting a full grope every single time, regardless of Pre.

HawaiiTrvlr

Amy Van Dyken is an Olympic Gold Medalist (swimmer) that suffered a traumatic injury in an ATV incident a few years ago and has been in a wheelchair every since then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Van_Dyken

BSBD

deleted

Boggie Dog

Are wheelchair bound people not eligible or accorded TSA Pre Check benefits?

chollie

Of course they do. It looks like Van Dyken was allowed to keep her shoes on.

Here's something for you to think about - and watch for, if you get the chance. Try not to squirm.

Paralyzed pax is in wheelchair. TSO is screening pax buttocks and privates.

Does the TSO put his hands palm-down or palm-up when sliding them between the pax's rear end and the seat?

Watch how often they slide their hands under the pax, palms up, fingers stiff and pointing forward. Have someone do this to you at home, quickly and forcefully. Pax who are confined to a wheelchair and not able to stand are not entitled to have their privates and buttocks groped with the back of the hand.

petaluma1

I recall commenting on this years ago, that screeners were using the front of their hands on wheelchair-bound travelers and was told it was impossible for a screener to use the back of the hand in these situations. So people with disabilities/confined to chairs are double-whammied: they get a pat down and it's a "resolution" type pat down.

chollie

Yeah, and think about where those stiffened probing fingers end up. Not comfortable - and entirely unnecessary.

Instead of saying "these are American citizens. Some of them got this way defending this country. We owe every American citizen a dignified and professional screening", TSA says 'if you make it hard for us by daring to show up with physical limitations, we will double down and make it twice as hard on you."

petaluma1

Latest update:

https://twitter.com/AskTSA/status/727227267810729986

I advised her not to count her chickens before hatching, citing Armato & Sawyer.

chollie

What a shock! Head of DEN TSA 'apologized'? According to the STSO, everything was done correctly - including, apparently, his rudeness.

Will the STSO get retrained? Or just told not to screw with a paraplegic ex-Olympian hero? Ordinary people are still fair game.


It's going to take a while. I don't know how many TSOs work at DEN, but they can only send 200 at a time to the 'academy' for re-training.

Gee, you'd think they never saw a paralyzed athlete go through the checkpoint before - not even one who is a former Olympic athlete who lives in CO and flies once or twice a week year round.

TSA HQ may be happy for the minor diversion. Sooner or later, someone in the media might want to follow up on last Friday's news, the MSP red team failures.

Closed checkpoints, 90 minute - 3 hour waits in line, lines stopped for up to 20 minutes to accommodate a backlog of bag checks, Pre pax being required to remove laptops/LGAs at some airports, and even to remove laptops from TSA-approved bags - all of that, and the test scores haven't really improved.

How much more is Neffenger going to slow things down? 'Slower' does not mean 'better' if the problem is an unprofessional work force accustomed to making up its own rules instead of following its training.