2millionquest

Had a somewhat annoying experience at LAX yesterday. All the lines were long, even the elite line. I went directly to precheck, which was, as others have reported, roped off. I called out to the screener and asked if it was closed. He said that the regular elite line *was* the precheck line. I pointed at the separate roped off line and said I thought that was the precheck line. He said, "No, we have no way of knowing if you're eligible or not until we scan your BP, so you have to get in this line and wait with everyone else to have your boarding pass scanned. Then we'll know if you're eligible and then you may be selected for that screening." I said that I knew I was precheck qualified, but he just shook his head and pointed at the line.

I knew this was completely bass-ackwards but also that it's pretty futile to argue with a TSA agent. So I got in the long elite line (about 40-50 people) and waited my turn. I saw two or three others go through the same routine at the roped-off entrance as I did and dejectedly join the longer line after being turned away.

I admit, I was a bit steamed about the whole thing. Earlier in the day at ORD, the same screener who had scanned my BP two weeks ago and told me I was his first LLL recognized me and said hello. He and I chatted briefly about the program and he said that if you get LLL once, you'll ALWAYS get LLL. The wild card is whether or not you'll get to go through the faster screening or be randomly selected for the traditional screening, NOT whether you'll get LLL.

So I knew this LAX guy was misinformed, but what could I do?

Of course when I finally got to the head of the line, the LAX guy was all "Oooooh, you're LLL. Do you know what this? Do you know what to do? Have you ever been through it before?" I was like, "Yes, yes, yes. May I go now?"
But he needed to drone on, telling me I could keep my shoes on, keep my jacket on (which I actually was carrying folded over my arm as it was a warm day), didn't need to take liquids or computer out of my bag, yadda, yadda, yadda. He wasted a good two minutes of everybody's time instructing me all about the "new" screening.

So I FINALLY got to go to the completely empty precheck screening area, where I actually got yelled at when I put my jacket in a bin with my purse. I was told to pick my jacket up and carry it through the metal detector with me!

I guess the most amusing part of the whole thing was that while I was waiting in line, there was a fellow with two very large, very heavy-looking bags (carryon size, but only just). Breathless and rushed, he explained to people that his flight was leaving in 20 minutes, could he cut in line? We let him. He had gone through the BP scanning about five or six people ahead of me. There was a big clot of people doing the usual half-strip at the nearer conveyor as I walked over to the empty one for precheck. The late guy was kind of in the middle of that pack, partially through unloading all his stuff. He started asking loud questions about what the other line was for and how could he get in it because he was going to miss his flight at the rate he was going. I don't know what happened because it took me approximately .5 seconds to clear security, and I wanted to make a call before boarding the plane, so walked away quickly; but he was not a happy character!

Definitely looks like LA needs some more training on how to handle the line and the BP process. The way they're doing it now isn't working well at all!