Originally Posted by
georgepds
I pass through Heathrow once a year, and I find the agents very human. They smile, engage in a word or two if you speak to them ,and still get the job done.
The current TSA agents are nothing compared to the Yahoos who manned the gates just after 9/11. I had to travel the week after the 9/11 through Logan, you could not gather a worse group of agents if you tried: think young men who had taken too many steroids and had the bad complexion and attitude to prove it.
At Heathrow a week ago, I encountered some barking. Not quite as bad as I've seen in busy US airports (EWR, ATL), but not what I was used to at LHR. Granted, it is usually much more tame than the US airports (except at the FCC).
I'll agree that the majority of TSA folks I encounter are considerate, friendly people. The smaller, less frenzied airports tend to be much better (for obvious reasons), but as a whole, there aren't THAT many bad apples. But there are some.
My point to add here is that in mainland Europe (and India), I have never encountered anything but polite and competent screeners.