Originally Posted by Decomposing Screener
Once again guys tactics like that are going to hurt your fellow passengers and the airlines more than it will hurt us. We have to stay at the checkpoint for the full shift regardless of the presence of protestors or not. If a bunch of people intentionally request privates for no reason then the line will have to stop since the secondary area will be full and two screeeners are needed for private screenings. Therefore the screeners at the MAG and x-ray will have to stop things since everyone else is busy doing privates and secondaries and there is no place to put any more bags or passengers. So when the couple of hundred people behind you start missing their flights because you want to make a statement please feel free to explain that to them.
It's so easy to say stop all the needless secondary stuff but for the 1,000,000'th it's not up to the people you see at the checkpoints. Procedure changes like the pat-downs get handed down from above by the big guys.
Good points above but I have a slightly different take on the suggestion of increased private pat-downs.
One advantage of many people requesting private pat-downs thus slowing the lines and causing mucho people to miss their flights would be a quick and overwhelming reaction by the airlines directed toward Homeland Security.
I don't see any way that the airlines are going to idly stand by and accept 1000's of pax missing flights.
The airlines can get the ear of the TSA bigwigs much faster than the average pax. Slow down the process, create a spate of missed or delayed flights and I predict the airlines will quickly step in and carry the ball on this.