I know this topic has been beaten to death here, but I just had to write about a new low. Please skip the rest of this post .

I had just flown in to OAK, was on my way to a meeting, and was planning on flying out that same evening on another airline. I went to the second airline's customer service desk, airside and was issued a boarding pass with, you guessed it, SSSS. This is dumb. The agent escorted me to the closest TSA checkpoint where they wanted to screen me then and there. Since I had a meeting to go to, I asked if we could do the screening on my return to the airport and they agreed. This is idotic. I promptly walked out of the secure area and disposed of all of my prohibited articles (just kidding).

On the way back, I again had a lovely SSSS on my boarding pass indicating that I had pissed off the computer at airline #2. While I was waiting to go through the WTMD, the guy in front of me objected to removing his metal-free shoes. When told he would have additional screening if he refused, he did remove them and send them through the X-Ray. "Since you questioned the system, you will have additional screening" said the screener (direct quote). Usually the retaliatory screening is at least a little subtle. The guy was, understandably pretty steamed. I encouraged him to fill out a complaint form and he did, but the supervisor (lead screener, whatever) didn't seem to be sympathetic and the guy wasn't too confident that anyone would read his complaint. Another clear case of abuse of authority and total waste of taxpayer resources. Welcome to flying circa 2005.

Michael