makfan

The lines were pretty long for non-status pax both this weekend and last.

I saw him show her the posture and she nodded. I didn't see her actually pass through.

Wimpie

This might make you want to opt out of the backscatter (I opt out of both kinds)
I call BS on quote #3

http://www.thewesternstar.com/News/L...Lake-airport/1

Fisher1949

"Larocque added this technology is different from scanners being used in airports in the United States, where they use a type of scanner that is not permitted under federal regulations in Canada."

I'd like to know why the Canadians banned the BKSX and the US allows them. Health concerns? Might make a basis for a good lawsuit if Canada has evidence that TSA is ignoring.

mywanderlust

I flew out of San Juan two days ago and got chosen to go through the NoS by a female TSA agent directing traffic by the metal detector. I vehemently said "NOOOOO", so the woman told me to wait there and shouted "female" to some random other TSA person (I don't know whom, it might have been another person in charge of pat-downs). She then gave me the option to go off to a spot behind an x-ray machine or a private room. I chose to do it at the checkpoint, because by that time I was already waiting for this supposed extra screener to come pat me down.

After another short while, that same screener told me to walk over to that corner and stand on a mat and patted me down. No backup came. They wouldn't let me touch my bags, even though my camera and wallet were exposed and I was concerned about losing them. An older male TSA screener took my belongings off the x-ray belt and put them on a table behind me.

The actual pat down was not the sexual assault a lot of people claimed it to be. She talked me through where she was going to touch, and didn't press down anywhere except the pockets of my cargo pants (where she asked if I had anything in there). She quickly ran the back of her hand over my butt and never touched my nipples or crotch. Her hand went lightly over my cleavage, but I was wearing a tube top-like bra so I could have smuggled something in there and she wouldn't have caught it.

Also, I never went through a metal detector after being chosen and opting out of the NoS. The TSA lady claimed I was chosen at random, but I'm a female in my early 20s and sort of held up the line while I was trying to unzip my laptop case and push the bins of my shoes/wallet/jacket down to the x-ray machine at the same time.

The worst part of the whole ordeal was how they made me wait for the pat down when it was the person that directed me to the body scanner that did it in the first place. If the passenger doesn't care about being patted down in public, they should have done it right there and then send them down the x-ray line. The public pat downs shouldn't have to be in a separate corner. When I got patted down at LHR a couple years ago after setting off a metal detector, a screener was right there immediately after the machine beeped, and they felt more thoroughly while avoiding my private areas. (It felt like a massage.)

PS- I'm new here, although I've lurked a few times in the past.

Chellian

I think for future flight, I'm just driving to Canada and flying out of YVR. One of my friends noted that though she got this choice, they were polite, professional, and speedy in doing the pat-down, and besides, I have a NEXUS card so I get through super easy. Nice to see a country I don't live in still trusts me...

nachtnebel

The canadian federals seem more responsive and sensitive to propriety, just from my itinerate awareness in the western part of it, and from what posters have said about their new screening procedures (which I haven't experienced).

Our federals, wrt the TSA part, have simply become vicious.

bdschobel

That's all you needed to say. The preponderance of pretty young women "randomly" selected for the nude-o-scopes tells us that something sexual is going on. We may not know exactly what it is, but we know it's happening. Maybe the guys in the "secret room" are getting some cheap thrills at the expense of innocent passengers (or "fares," as the TSA goons have taken to calling us -- another effort at dehumanization).

Bruce

mywanderlust

That's sort of what I suspected when they directed me to the scanner, although the TSA person that told me to go through was a 30s-40s-ish female.

And my bags were behind me. In the roped-off area next to an x-ray machine, but behind me.

RATM

Then you were probably perceived as likely to be compliant since you are a YFTA( Young Female Travelling Alone ). Good girls do what they're told, right? I'm glad you were willing to demonstrate that not all young women are so naive.

bdschobel

The person in the "secret room" viewing your naked image is not necessarily (and probably is not) the same gender as you are. That person is probably a man, simply because most TSA employees are men (and they need their limited supply of women out front doing the actual pat-downs). The woman directing you to go through the scanner is merely the viewer's accomplice, in effect.

Bruce

Caradoc

It makes me wonder just what kind of twisted self-loathing gets a woman to drag another woman through that sort of thing.

jackonferry

Despite 30+ segments since AIT started, today was the first day I could not self-opt out. Right before I walked through the WMTD I was told by a TSO to remove my belt. I said it doesn't alarm so there's no need. He said you can't wear it in the WBI. I said I'm not going through that; he called it an opt out.

The reason I think I was SPOTted: when I got to the TDC she asked me what was wrong. I had been looking at the board to see if my flight to ORD was affected by weather. She kept giving me odd looks throughout her very detailed examination of my BP and passport card. I did buy the ticket at the last minute (to beat the weather) but unless there's something encoded in the barcode, I don't know how they'd know that. In any event, the WBI was roped off and did not seem to be in use at the time I approached it (adjacent to the WMTD) so I suspect, but have no proof, that she relayed something about my demeanor that led them to pick me.

The patdown itself was relatively inoffensive. They ensured I could keep an eye on my stuff (unlike when you're in the AIT -- can't see the conveyor belt). I asked the guy to change his gloves and he did it without complaint (said he put on new ones when he saw me standing in the opt out spot, but changed them again). Reached inside the waist of my pants to feel the waistband, but no touching of skin. He did not touch my genitals and lightly brushed my butt. I asked for a comment card at the end. The 3 striper gave me a tear sheet with the mailing address, but no actual form or questionnaire.

This was at PIT a few minutes ago, the first class line.

Fredd

I posted an account of my recent groping experience in another thread but it's probably worth consolidating here.

Yesterday we hit the SEA North check point about 4:30 a.m local time. Mrs. Fredd was allowed to use the magnetometer while I, just behind her, was directed to the X-Ray scanners.

I immediately told the young female TSA employee that I was opting out. She explained to me the details of the search I would undergo, and asked hopefully (I thought) if I still wanted to opt out.

Absolutely, I replied, and she whispered into her mike "male opt out." SEA generally has a nice laid-back Northwest vibe.

Two adjacent screeners started to discuss which of them would screen me, and I loudly asked, "Don't fight over me, Guys." Mrs. Fredd, who had started to proclaim her annoyance in my support, said everybody looked at me.

I then had an epiphany. I've decided I'm going to become the Milton Berle of the check points (I saw him once in LAS when I was young). From then on it was a laugh a second, at least in my own mind.

When the screener asked me if I had any "sensitive places" I pointed at my groin and exclaimed "Don't you?" He had the sensitivity to wince.

I also told him truthfully that I'm very ticklish and uncontrollably giggle and scream loudly. The search itself wasn't quite as intrusive as my previous experience (or at least he touched different spots) and I announced to everybody at the end that he'd been "ever so gentle."

I'm going to polish this routine. Mrs. Fredd was so annoyed yesterday on my behalf that she's ready to give up flying but right now we're sitting in the Rome Cavalieri Imperial Club and I'm not ready to give them that control over us.

I think my best defense is humor and ridicule. YMMV.

Safe and happy travels,
Fredd

FriendlySkies

Sounds better than the pat-down when you and the Mrs. had the insulated cup!

I do have a problem with the clerks trying to get us to second-guess our decision

sbagdon

Nah. The best defense is to insure the other party is empathic of your displeasure, whether they want to be empathic or not. You've chosen humor as your tool and technique, which is the most passive-aggresive, yet the least likely to cause you any long-term legal issues. Kinda hard to arrest someone for trying to bring humor to an uncomfortable situation... right?

The list is endless... here just for the patdown... why date, just buy a plane ticket... have fun with the humor, eh!