Originally Posted by
mahohmei
From a summer 2011 experience changing flights at PHL, I know that, once airside, you can get to any other gate at PHL without having to re-clear "security".
The last time I flew into or out of PHL was summer 2010. There were no NoS in operation at the time, so I went to the terminal checkpoint corresponding to my departing gate.
Here's my question:
The NoS sticky and tsastatus.net tells me that terminals B, D, and E are safe, but C is not. If my flight departing PHL is from a C gate and I approach terminal B or D with my BP and ID, will the TSO deny me access because it's the "wrong" terminal?
Thanks!
TSA expressly changed its policy on this. So long as you have a BP which gets you through any checkpoint at a given station, you may enter all checkpoints. That is true whether the sterile areas are connected as at PHL or when they are not as at DCA.
You may find that a TSO flags this for you, but that is because the most likely reason that pax are entering a checkpoint other than the closest one to their gate is that the pax has made a mistake.
You don't need to make up a story, buy a refundable ticket on another carrier or engage in other silly tactics. You just thank the TSO and tell him/her that you do intend to use the checkpoint.