Originally Posted by chollie

No, I never use the words 'opt out', which in TSO-speak means 'bring it on, jerk!'

Quite some time ago, two of our resident TSOs suggested what you do. Maybe it's just the airports I fly through, but I'm always one of the lucky ones. I explain my physical limitations and get one of a limited variety of responses: "then you are an 'opt-out'", "you are opting out, you know that you will get an thorough body pat, you may have to wait a while because no one is available now", and (rarely) "show me how much you can raise your arm".

First two times I explained it, I got the above. Third time, I printed out the PM from our resident TSO and asked for a supervisor. Let me tell you, that got scary. Nothing in my manner, trust me - nobody is more obsequious and cringing than me at the checkpoint. I ended up with a suit lecturing me that I didn't know who the poster was, could be a t***orist testing the system, took my copy of the PM and made copies of my BP and ID and told me he'd have to make a report about it.

I posted elsewhere about a particularly hostile and aggressive 'traffic director' at PHX (T2? - UA terminal) a while back. She kept saying "then you're opting out" and I kept saying "no, I am not able to raise and hold my arms above my head" and she'd repeat "then you are telling me you are 'opting out'". She had me demonstrate how far I couldn't move my arm, then called for my groper.

(That was the episode where I turned around after my grope and a TSO was returning my BP/ID to an outside unlocked pocket on my bag. They had gotten them out and taken copies while I had my back turned being groped. Interesting thing was, the main compartment was locked and they never did a bag search, just opened the outside pocket that only had my ID/BP in it).