tanja

I did not write that she did Not speak french to me. She did and I told her I did not speak french. She continued in french. Again I told her I did not understand what she was saying. Now she was really angry and grabbed the laptop and cell from the man who was a head of him. Understand !

exbayern

(Ok, the US is a 'special' case)

But frankly, if I don't speak the language native to that country, I see it as a shortcoming on my part, not on the part of the screener.

Oh, I believe that I understand...

Apologies if I missed it, but how was your optout experience with TSA on your recent trip?

WillCAD

In Maryland, we say "HUH?!" With emphasis on the "HUH?!"

tanja

I have not mentioned anything so far about my opt out. I flew from LAX, Los Angeles.
It went really good. I told a young male screnner that I was opting out for various reasons. He told me "sure" just tell that TSA when you come closer to the machine. I told the TSA (male) he said no problem at all. He called diectly for a female TSA. She came within 2 minutes. they stopped everybody so my carry on could go through with me. TSA female was about my age and very fast and not invasive. No touching in the pants or chest. No touching on my bare arms or legs or bare feets. Took maybe 2 minutes and I was done.

cynicAAl

opted out at LBB yesterday, as the WTMD was roped off and they don't have PreCheck. TSO called for a male assist; nobody moved or responded, and I pointed that there are 3 men standing right there (other side of the MMW) doing nothing (OK, 1 was a female, but in my defense, she was kinda man-ish). My groper gave the usual speech about what to expect, all was friendly. Then for some reason he told me that they hadn't had a raise in 5 years. I should have just smiled and nodded, but responded with "maybe that's because most of the traveling public view you as a bloated federal bureaucracy that contributes little to aviation safety, other than to grope and molest your fellow citizens". We then had a Texas-style stare down for about 8 seconds before I was given the most physically comprehensive pat down ever. I guess I had that coming.

KDS

Flew UA today for first time in years. Went to Checkpoint C-2. Got past doc checker and went to far left lane. When I got to the front, and all things were in X-ray, I said I was opting out. TSO called for "male assist" and we waited.

TSO came in about one minute and told me to walk through the MMW; I said no. He said he wouldn't turn the machine on; my answer was "yeah, and the government is here to help us; no". After a few silent moments, the TSO says that I'll have to go to another lane, leaving my stuff at this one -- BECAUSE 1) they have no gate to the secure area (he was leaning on it, so yes they did), and 2) it was not possible for me to walk through the WTMD when I asked (although crewmembers and others could walk through it without losing life or limb). I scoffed and refused to leave my stuff, and again refused to walk through the MMW.

LTSO comes over and tries to get me to walk through the MMW; again I refused. He thought silently for 10 seconds, then told the TSO to grab some of my items and he grabbed the others -- and they walked through the "impassable" WTMD with my things to escort me to another lane. I commented to the LTSO that "huh, I guess the WTMD works only one way."

We all three went to another lane, where my items (which had already been X-rayed and which I had not touched since) had to go through the X-ray machine again. Here, the gate worked!

Patdown proceeded from this point per normal idiocy, though it was one of the more passive ones I've had.

It's defintely a correct statement -- TRUTH is stranger than FICTION. One could NOT make this stuff up.

RadioGirl

While a retaliation pat down is Not Cool, I reckon you won that encounter. Well done.

cynicAAl

during the stare-down, I could almost see him thinking "boy, what in THE hell is the matter with you ?" and then he had to touch my genitals, which I'm guessing he did not enjoy. I win.

SeriouslyLost

If you do a just-quiet-enough little quivering inhale of breath just as they get to the groin it's usually quite interesting how they react. @:-) I'm 8/10 for them just stopping right there and telling me to go.

Exec_Plat

Two stories:

I always opt out (unless I can time it to get a WTMD pass if the scanner is down)...probably 100-150 passages in the last calendar year.

This was CLT. Agent doing the pat down sprayed his bare hands with alcohol, and rubbed them together, then put on gloves- fastidiously, each finger JUST right. Then he sprayed his gloved hands with alcohol again, and proceeded to put on A SECOND PAIR OF GLOVES!!!

As this exercise was taking a while, I was annoyed. When he finally turned to me, I said "No medical devices, no implants, no sensitive areas, and public is fine"... Usually I get a smile. He then gave me a lecture that he was under video surveillance from a camera behind me and had to do the entire speech. I said "OK, but at least you have your answers". He then began the questions again. After asking if I had medical devices, I said "no I dont, and since there is no camera that can see my lips, AND he already had my responses, I dont need to repeat myself". Now he was agitated... He began once again from the beginning. I said "I've already responded to that first question, I will not respond again". He lost it.

Supervisor came over, VERY concerned...he said "THATS IT!, Ive had it- I'm tapping out" She glanced at me, gave me the "hold tight a sec" look, and told him "Thats fine, let me get someone else", calmed him down and escorted him away. Then I told her what happened.... I closed with "you should not have someone who has borderline OCD issues with touching people doing patdowns". She apologized a few times, and the next agent was done in 30 seconds.

Odd. Never seen double gloves.


Second story:

Flew SMF-LAX; opt out, no issues
Flew LAX-SMF less than 24 hours layer, no issues
Go home, toss out dirty clothes, add freshly laundered clothes, back to SMF less than 24 hours later. (yeah, I fly A LOT)
Opt out.

Pat down fine, swipe hands. (note: He did not change gloves and did handle the bins prior to pat down.) Analyzer alarms ("Explosives Detected")

At this point I am annoyed. Some of these guys know me, but I assume this is some oddity. We dance a bit about the private room, my choices, etc. but needed to be in AUS so whatever.

Go to private room for enhanced pat down. Door stays open, again one of the guys I know.

Supervisor does the enhanced. Different batch of gloves, different swab batch, different analyzer... another alarm.

So now they are buzzing. Lots of questions, another supervisor, some guys with a snazzy black sport shirt and "bomb" something on it, a behavioral guy. They reswipe the bag and it alarms. The take everything apart, find nothing.


Same questions again... no nitroglycerine tablets, no golf, no fertilizer, not a farmer, no hand lotions, no change in habits, dont handle gunpowder, didnt shoot a gun....nothing. I point out this same bag was passed 24 and 48 hours before.

ultimately they have a round table conversation just outside the room and 4 of them are asked "is he OK to fly?" unanimous response "yeah, hes fine", etc, etc. "OK we'll let him go". Off I went.

Odd times 10.

I fly again on Tuesday...we'll see.

oh, and they were quick about it, I hit TSA about 30 minutes prior to take off and still made the flight.

felipegarcia

I've heard that rubber on rubber is bad, therefore, doubling up the condoms is a bad idea. I wonder if nitrile shows the same behavior. I guess I'll have to apply the scientific method and see what happens.

Ysitincoach

At BTR, they had no barker clerk, so X-Ray op assumed I was opting out, suddenly one of my bags was pulled from X-Ray for secondary. I explained to the a different clerk coming to do the pat down that I only needed a medical walk through and not an opt out. Suddenly the X-Ray clerk didn't need any more scrutiny of the bag. No opt-out so suddenly no more retaliation?

Ysitincoach

Departing this morning there was a former TSA clerk that worked at this station. She was jovial and happy to see her friends and former co-workers. As she went through the NoS, she joked with the TSA barker and NoS operator that she should have wore something that would trigger a pat down, had she known her friend was working.

The TSA representative at the exit of the NoS said, "I can make it alarm."

tkey75

She must have known who gives the best massage, but even TSA people just can't count on the TSA for anything!

FliesWay2Much

Opted out at Dulles last month. They had the metal detectors blocked except for families with young kids. I told the moat dragon (young guy about 22) that I wasn't going to go through the Cancer Box. (OK -- I know they got rid of the Cancer Boxes, but I said this to extend the conversation.)

Clerk: No, no...we removed all of those.
Me: I would be very concerned about cancer if I were you... having to stand near those things for 8 hours a day.
Clerk: I only started working here a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't here when we had the other things.

The groper approaches and I have to end this conversation. It was interesting to me that he was aware of the cancer issue. he was either smart enough to figure it out on his own or he was good at regurgitating what he was told to say.

I discretely saw the groper put on gloves. The first thing I tell him is to change his gloves. He said, "I just did." I responded, "I didn't see you. I want you to change your gloves out of the box and test them before you touch me." He laid on a fake scowl but complied. Interestingly, another clerk carried my 5 or 6 bins over to the groping area. If the groper had done this after changing his gloves, I was prepared to make him change his gloves again.

The groper goes through his canned speech, including the "resistance" part. I decided not to play the "resistance" game this time. He asks if I want a private screening. I say, "Why in the world would I consent to go into a private room with you?" He has no reaction and then asks me if I have any sensitive areas or medical devices. For the medical devices, I tell him, "None that I am going to tell you." For the "sensitive areas" question, I give my standard answer: "Yes. I have some oozing genital warts caused by years of unprotected sex." It didn't matter because he wasn't listening.

To make a long story short, his definition of "meeting resistance" was my kneecaps. He told me "I was free to go." and I told him "I was proud to be an American."

Just think, none of these clerks has been forloughed....