Originally Posted by
gsoltso
You grossly overestimate my ability to create change within TSA.
I have explained this to you several times, the green bar means it is ok, the red bar means no-go - out of literally hundreds of online interactions with people (some of them my own family), not a single other person has had a challenge understanding that. Being angry at TSOs/management not following the SOP, I understand 100%. Being confused by green bar =go, red bar = no go, I do not understand.
(bolding mine)
I didn't encounter a color-blind TSO. I encountered a TSO, backed by LTSOs, STSOs and a suit, who all agreed on the interpretation of the SSI rules about banned substances. You are the only one who has suggested that, hypothetically, you might not have confiscated the pills. You do not even know that everyone at GSO would interpret the rules the same way.
@AskTSA re-iterated the single most important non-SSI rule: any item can be confiscated at any time at a screener's discretion.
@AskTSA did not suggest that if you think the screener is way out of line, you should ask for a second opinion. @AskTSA makes it pretty clear that screener discretion trumps all rules, those available to the public and the secret SSI rules.
Originally Posted by
gsoltso
* I added this for some of the folks I have seen asking about the FSD or telling others to ask for the FSD - you can ask, but it would be a highly improbable thing for an actual FSD to show up at a checkpoint to resolve a passenger complaint.
Yes, asking for an FSD or a TSM is unrealistic - those people have no interest in individual pax or their issues. IIRC, neither the FSD, a-FSD or TSM were available the day Rand Paul was detained by TSA.
Hardly surprising there are failures at the checkpoint - those failures are directly related to all those AWOL upper ranks who are off golfing or at conferences while the checkpoints run themselves.
It is important not to post nonsense that some folks will take seriously. Posting that nitro pills are always allowed when in fact the website does not support this does a big disservice to folks who come here in search of the information that TSA
should provide but does not.
It's also important to post the limits of information. You can speak about your personal checkpoint experiences - all TSOs and pax can. You can not say with assurance what will happen at other checkpoints or what happens at your own when you are not personally working. You can not, for example, say with certainty that no one at GSO would interpret the nitro rules the way multiple people did at another airport. You speak for yourself and I think it's important for lurkers and infrequent fliers to realize that.
I originally came to this forum to lurk for the same reason as many other travellers: I was looking for reliable information and informational experiences. I already knew that, in common with other shady operators, TSA's website had nothing to do with the reality.
I hope your participation in TSA social media out-reach doesn't include associating yourself with the travesty called @AskTSA.
I don't know how it came up on their radar, but my very rarely-flying, very conservative co-workers are in an uproar about it - the waste of taxpayers money plus the deliberately hostile and insulting replies. It's like you (TSA HQ) have distilled years of bile and lies from the blog into a more compact format. Do you really think replying to a tweet with a photo complaining about a two-hour wait in line should be answered with a reminder that it's spring break? Particularly when it's clear from the photo that there are no 'spring break' kids in the Pre line?
Does someone at HQ really
want TSA to be the most-hated, least-respected, worst-morale federal agency?