My experience today at Port Columbus (Ohio) airport was less traumatic than I'd expected. The TSA agents were courteous and polite, with one exception. One in particular was extremely helpful, and another expressed to me her own frustration and confusion over the current uproar among passengers when "we just want you to be safe!"
I encountered some pressure to go thru the AIT, beginning with the airport guy who pushed my wheelchair (I have a broken leg and am on crutches....wheelchair for those long hallways). I told him not to take me to the backscatter scanners (if there was an option) because I was going to opt out. He thought about this for a minute, then tried to talk me into it because: "It only takes 7 or 8 seconds. If you opt out you'll have to wait much longer."
I figured this meant *he'd* have to wait much longer for me to go thru, since he was charged with getting me all the way to my gate. I assured him I didn't mind the wait, and had plenty of time to make my flight.
We were there in the middle of the day and the security checkpoint was deserted except for about a dozen TSA employees. I was busy taking off the shoe on the non- broken leg and didn't see exactly where he was parking me. When I looked up, I saw I was in the middle between the backscatter machine and the regular old metal detector.
Before I could hurl myself at the WTMD, the backscatter guy approached me and demanded to know if I could stand. I replied that I could stand for a few seconds, but needed my crutches to stand for anything longer than that. Then I added that I was opting out of the xray machine scan. His tone suddenly turned harsh. "I didn't ASK you if you were opting out," said he, "I asked you if you could stand."
Once again, I politely repeated my answer about needing my crutches.
At this point, the female TSA agent at the nearby metal detector said sharply to her colleague, "She opted out." The other guy seemed irritated. "I wasn't selecting her," he said, "I was just asking her a question." The two of them glared at one another.
I quickly interjected, "May I go thru that machine?" indicating the WTMD. "You'll have to ask her," the backscatter guy said rather sulkily, and the helpful lady behind the WTMD smiled and invited me to proceed through.
When I cleared the WTMD uneventfully, she gave me an arm to lean on, returned my crutches to me, moved my backpack to where I could see it, and assisted me in reseating myself in the wheelchair. I've read the horror stories some people have experienced with nasty TSA agents, but this woman gets high marks, as well as my thanks for her helpfulness and professionalism.
It DID occur to me there might have been a good cop/bad cop thing going on, but....hey....I can be very cynical at times.
They then passed me on to another screener, presumably because I had opted out. She, too, was warm and friendly, and we chatted about the general situation as she wheeled my chair over to those 2 ominous footprints on the floor. I asked if it had been hard to deal with the recent uproar in the press. She seemed genuinely upset by the whole thing, declaring that they were just doing their jobs and trying to make travel safe for everyone. I agreed that this was important, but insisted that no one wants to be groped by strangers, particularly when they've done nothing whatsoever to violate the law.
The only thing she groped was my wheelchair, which wasn't even mine (it was an airport wheelchair; at home I just use the crutches). The chair got the full frisk, but I was not patted down at all. Moments later, I was released into the "sterile area" with best wishes for a good flight.
My husband, meanwhile, had vanished somewhere behind me. Turns out that when he opted out of tie AIT, they made him wait. And wait. And wait.... even though there were TSA agents milling around and scarcely any passengers at the checkpoint, the call for a "male opt out" went unanswered. After several minutes of twiddling his thumbs, worried about what had happened to me and also about some valuable items in his now-inaccessible hand luggage, he got sick of the delay and opted back in.
So they got one of us, in the end.
All in all, it was by no means the awful experience I'd been dreading. If the TSA folks are pleasant, polite and non-threatening, I'm betting they'll get the vast majority of travelers to accept the AIT machines. The pressure to do so is already there, and they're treating it as if it's routine -- funneling people through without much notice or comment. No intimidation....just coax and delay...that's how they're going to win this thing, lulling the public into complacency.