Full Body Scanners at DCA
Jul 21, 2010, 1:53 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Stuck Between the Moon and CLD or SAN, Your local Taco Bell
Programs: AA EXP/LT PLT, DL PM, UA Silver, SPG Plat, Marriott Plat, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,510
Full Body Scanners at DCA
Full Body scanners seem to have shown up at DCA in the last week. I had the "good fortune" to use the premium lane at the DL pier today. It's the only line where they use them. Apparently bad people will focus themselves on one line. 
Seems to be a ruse to invent new rules (remove your belt even if it doesn't alarm, put your wallet through the bins, etc). I declined. This yielded an agent hissy fit, a 10 minute wait, and then a guy to come over and grope me. Except he admitted he hadn't been trained on how to do this procedure at all. As one might suspect, I hadn't removed my wallet - Im not letting it out of my sight. The Agent confiscated it and removed it from my immediate area and view for "additional screening".
This episode of "security theater" lasted about 20 minutes... involved me being separated from my wallet, and groped by an agent in the crotch.
What options do we have to avoid this? Any tips on how to avoid my wallet being inevitably pilfered?
Seems to be a ruse to invent new rules (remove your belt even if it doesn't alarm, put your wallet through the bins, etc). I declined. This yielded an agent hissy fit, a 10 minute wait, and then a guy to come over and grope me. Except he admitted he hadn't been trained on how to do this procedure at all. As one might suspect, I hadn't removed my wallet - Im not letting it out of my sight. The Agent confiscated it and removed it from my immediate area and view for "additional screening".
This episode of "security theater" lasted about 20 minutes... involved me being separated from my wallet, and groped by an agent in the crotch.
What options do we have to avoid this? Any tips on how to avoid my wallet being inevitably pilfered?
Jul 21, 2010, 2:10 pm
#2
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: DCA / WAS
Programs: DL 2+ million/PM, YX, Marriott Plt, *wood gold, HHonors, CO Plt, UA, AA EXP, WN, AGR
Posts: 9,388
File a complaint for them separating you from your wallet. ANd carefully check your wallet afterward, in their presence, if they do take it away.
You can request private screening. That should keep your possessions with you. If you question them on the wallet you may find them hand inspecting it - I've seen screeners at DCA remove every item from a wallet, inspect each item, read each piece of paper and question the victim (true: saw it more than once in the old NW/YX section of the terminal).
You can request private screening. That should keep your possessions with you. If you question them on the wallet you may find them hand inspecting it - I've seen screeners at DCA remove every item from a wallet, inspect each item, read each piece of paper and question the victim (true: saw it more than once in the old NW/YX section of the terminal).
Jul 21, 2010, 2:32 pm
#3
Suspended
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 4,953
And, please, file a complaint about this incident.
Jul 21, 2010, 4:01 pm
#5
Suspended
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 4,953
You could start here; Pissy's new effort:
https://contact.tsa.dhs.gov/talktotsa/talktotsa.aspx
Not that the above is going to get you any place. I'd hit everyone I could think of:
Screening Manager
FSD
Your airline
Your Congresspeople
Airport authority
Local media
The point is that the more people hear about incidents like these, the better.
https://contact.tsa.dhs.gov/talktotsa/talktotsa.aspx
Not that the above is going to get you any place. I'd hit everyone I could think of:
Screening Manager
FSD
Your airline
Your Congresspeople
Airport authority
Local media
The point is that the more people hear about incidents like these, the better.
Jul 21, 2010, 4:03 pm
#6
Moderator: Coupon Connection & S.P.A.M
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Louisville, KY
Programs: Destination Unknown, TSA Disparager Diamond (LTDD)
Posts: 57,953
Jul 21, 2010, 5:21 pm
#7
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Arizona
Programs: Star Alliance - chairman, HH - Diamond, Marriott - Platinum, TSA - Dog Dung.
Posts: 140
Jul 21, 2010, 7:18 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Northeast Kansas | Colorado Native
Programs: Amex Gold/Plat, UA *G, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Gold, NEXUS, TSA Disparager Unobtanium
Posts: 21,606
Jul 21, 2010, 9:13 pm
#9
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Between EWR & PHL
Programs: UA MileagePlus dirt (former hard-way Silver); AS Mileage Plan MVP; Hilton Honors Silver
Posts: 1,586
Son of a...
I'd been flying CO from EWR to DCA because (the last few trips, anyway) flying has been cheaper than taking Amtrak. But since CO & DL share a pier (and a premium lane) at DCA, I might have to rethink this.
To the OP: Was the DCA NoS the MMW type or the Backscatter Walls of Cancerous Cancer model?
I'd been flying CO from EWR to DCA because (the last few trips, anyway) flying has been cheaper than taking Amtrak. But since CO & DL share a pier (and a premium lane) at DCA, I might have to rethink this.
To the OP: Was the DCA NoS the MMW type or the Backscatter Walls of Cancerous Cancer model?
Jul 21, 2010, 9:23 pm
#10
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: PDX
Programs: TSA Refusenik charter member
Posts: 15,978
Why? Opting out of the WBI, even if adding 10 mintues to your trip, is still faster than Amtrak.
Jul 21, 2010, 11:53 pm
#11
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Between EWR & PHL
Programs: UA MileagePlus dirt (former hard-way Silver); AS Mileage Plan MVP; Hilton Honors Silver
Posts: 1,586
Jul 22, 2010, 12:23 am
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Newport Beach, California, USA
Posts: 36,062
Jul 22, 2010, 1:06 pm
#13
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: PDX
Programs: TSA Refusenik charter member
Posts: 15,978
Jul 22, 2010, 1:11 pm
#14
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: IAD
Programs: *wood Gold
Posts: 1,781
The biggest reason I could think of would be to stop giving business to the airlines. If airlines were to notice a sizable decrease in business at every airport where the AITs were installed, don't you think that some Board members and high level executives would be on the phone with their Congressmen asking just what their bribe, err, slush, err, retirement, err, campaign "contribution" is buying them?
Jul 22, 2010, 1:46 pm
#15
Moderator: Coupon Connection & S.P.A.M
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Louisville, KY
Programs: Destination Unknown, TSA Disparager Diamond (LTDD)
Posts: 57,953
The biggest reason I could think of would be to stop giving business to the airlines. If airlines were to notice a sizable decrease in business at every airport where the AITs were installed, don't you think that some Board members and high level executives would be on the phone with their Congressmen asking just what their bribe, err, slush, err, retirement, err, campaign "contribution" is buying them?
If I could take Amtrak, I would. Instead, I've been enjoying driving more and giving the airlines less.