Originally Posted by
BearX220
Sure, but weigh the unknown number of on-strike flyers against the number of survey respondents who talk a good game on the phone to an NPR pollster, but cave (lose the courage of their convictions) when they're running late for a flight or find themselves in the wrong line, and the study is pretty much meaningless. An awful lot of loud anti-scanner types can't be trusted to walk the walk.
bolding mine.
since the numbers are unknown, I could regard this as a zero (0) as well as anything significant, correct? I'm not willing to throw away the survey quoted by OP on the basis of your hypothesis backed up by no numbers at all, or ones that you admit are not known in any way, shape or form.
My family goes to extra expense (fare + time) to travel by train on a regular basis, including college kids traveling. We're done with air travel. I myself would be up in Seattle by air in 10 days in a heartbeat for an occasion I'd like to attend. But I will not travel by air now. My airport now has MMW and I just don't want to put up with that nonsense. If I can't go by train (less likely due to time constraints) I'll just not go. I've seen the number of cars on the AmTrak trains increase and the AmTrak fares increase a LOT over this past year, accelerating in the past 7 months. so people are opting out of travelling altogether or are traveling by train or other means.
I believe TSA has scr*wed the pooch, and the numbers (total pax, various satisfaction surveys such as that posted by OP) will continue slide, showing the negative impact of TSA scope and grope routine since October 2010. Just look at the airline industry numbers over the past quarter. Margins are getting hammered.