Extra Long Security Lines at OAK
 

If you are flying out of Oakland, particularly on a late afternoon or early evening flight, beware. For unknown reasons the historically thin TSA staffing has become even thinner in Terminal One these past few weeks. Lately they have had just one person checking IDs for all lines (regular, Pre-check, "families with babies", etc.). The lines are LONG. With multiple TSA staff members just standing around watching, it almost seems like a deliberate work slow-down. The problem is especially bad on days Norwegian operates at about the same time as AS to PDX or SEA. The dedicated Pre-Check screening line is shut down so no relief once your ID is checked (other than that you go through a metal detector instead of a full body scanning machine). I have Pre-check and from now on I'm going to Terminal Two.

I fly out of OAK weekly and it's not just the understaffing. On Wednesday the 27th they had multiple ID checkers, one imager and two x-rays going. Nevertheless, they still had Pre-Check shut down and there were numerous blue shirts just sort of milling around. If you were pre-check, they just parked you to the side but this is not unusual. Normally, an agent would come over and escort you to a non-PC x-ray and except for taking your laptop out, it was the standard PC process. This time, after 5 minutes with no escort, everyone who was parked gave up and went through the non-PC process.

Lately I've been using the Terminal 2 checkpoint... seems like they have more lines open on average and it's less choppy without the international flights

There'll be 1-2 Norwegian flights every night starting with London flights May 12. Hopefully that means real precheck open in T1. Otherwise, it never takes me more than 5 min to get through precheck in T2

Thanks for the heads-up.

I wouldn't hold my breath. Norwegian doesn't participate in PreCheck.

The walk from T2 to T1 isn't bad, IMO.

on top of the construction, T1 is a big mess right now

Midday it's ok, so I get there early and work from the Chili's, or go through T2, though that can also be a sea of WN kettles