Originally Posted by
studentff
I wouldn't think of it this way.
You made a screener look bad in front of management and made management look bad in front of the public; both are wins. Management threw screener a bone by letting him do a retaliatory search, but that just makes them more petty. I hope more people saw it. And you're here to write about it.
You may have saved some future traveler from having a permitted item confiscated. Maybe a more valuable item. Maybe someone who needed the tools for their trip and would not be able to drive by a Home Depot and get replacements because of remote location, time constraints, etc.
Fools and even non-fools working for TSA have very little real power, and most of their real power is the ability to force passengers to miss a flight. Frequent travelers can often mitigate that power by either allowing extra time or just managing the missed flight, which may not be bad for an experienced traveler who isn't on a tight schedule.
+1000
Pax have zero input into the TSA process. They make the rules of the game. I see nothing wrong with playing the game according to the rules, if you have the time and the patience.
The TSA game says we can ask for a second opinion on the screener's 'final say'. The game also says that in the unlikely but possible event that the second opinion does the unthinkable and rules in favor of the pax, the screener will be placated by being allowed to retaliate against the pax to cause maximum inconvenience: there's the possibility of making the pax miss his flight and the added possibility of either an extended genital rubbing session or the the opportunity to find something else, anything else, to confiscate - even a granola bar..