TsaAbuseWatch

As part of my passive-aggressive approach to Blue Shirts, I will sometimes intentionally ignore the instructions and do the opposite. I.e. Putting my shoes in the bin, or not putting them in the bin. I suspect that I'm hardly the only person on Earth who does this.

Anything I can do to make ruin the day of Blue Shirt is worthwhile. Hopefully I can encourage more turnover.

I really got under the skin of one the other day by calling his grope partner a "fluffer". I'm still laughing at his anger.

It's also fun to ask them to give me a good scratch because I'm itching when you have your hand on my buttocks as well.

If these tiny measures mean a Blue Shirt is assigned to yelling, instead of touching genitals, then so be it.

Bart

Whatever spins your propellers, cupcake.

fishferbrains

I honestly say it's time to try it again. People have learned the basic procedure. Simplify the rules and fewer still will need to be re-screened today than ever.

A one who does 200K+ BIS miles annually, I have to say it *is* the shouting that puts the TSA experience at the bottom of my list. Routing and re-screening through ORD, DFW, JFK, etc are positively jaw clenching experiences after a long fight when the first thing you're faced with is the barker.

Experiences in Europe and particularly Asia (where gate crowds can be huge) are markedly different is that it's quiet, respectful and orderly. That doesn't it's less firm if their directions or any less efficient; but it really does start with a calm beginning.

I'll be doing 33K miles in the next 5 weeks. Perhaps a series of videos from each of my checkpoints would help make it clearer. I'll see what I can do.

madcow1007

For harvard business school, this guy's not too sharp. Most of his suggestions are just plain bad. Then there is the fact that he can't even spot a business...pretty poor for a business school student. TSA is not a business; it's a dictatorship.

chollie

+1 I've posted the same thing elsewhere. I don't know why it works elsewhere outside the US, but I honestly can't think of a single non-US airport that I have visited where the security folks stand around barking. Depending on the airport (and acoustics), there might be more or less general noise, but not the insane, pointless barking.

I've seen TDCs stationed less than 5 feet apart (right after TDC#1 checks BP/ID, TDC#2 re-checks it). I routinely see TSOs assigned to stand and 'guard' a closed WTMD. However, one of the most effective uses of spare TSOs that I have seen was at SEA for a while.

At a bend in the queue, a table was set up with a TSO and a handful of 'example' LGAs (too large). The TSO at the table asked pax passing through, in a quiet voice, if they had LGAs, knew about size, etc. The checkpoints were noticeably quieter (everything else still gets barked).

Conscious, but ill-advised decisions on TSA's part. I think they wanted pax to approach the checkpoint like recruits approaching a drill sergeant for the first time or cons walking into jail for the first time. Pax is surrounded by loud LOUD LEO-types projecting impatience and barking everything as though military/prisoner-obedience is expected or else.

Entirely unnecessary for good security.

Boggie Dog

Many people are not familar with the screening checkpoint and with all the noise, hollering by TSA, and trying to move through the checkpoint are likely to have problems knowing what to do and when.

You view the checkpoint from the eyes of experience but those who don't travel often do not have the same viewpoint and TSA is doing very little to assist these people on navigating a very uncomfortable activity.

I see your back to using terms like Cup Cake and such later in this thread. You do know just how condescending such terms are don'you?

Why lower yourself in that way?

InkUnderNails

I fly 25+ RT's a year and I have a hard time. My home airport is pretty easy as most things are in the same place every time. It is the return that gives me problems. The procedures are all over the place.

As I am hearing impaired, I appreciate loud instructions. However, one can be loud without being condescending, arrogant, mean, abusive, hateful, and tyrannically authoritarian. The training should include this. Some people can not project in noisy environments without falling into the list above. They should be reassigned.

If there was one TSA employee or contractor at the WTMD/scanner and X-ray tunnel line with a big button that says "Need Help? Ask Me!" that would in a kind manner assist people with their stuff and getting ready for the screening to come. Sort of like a WalMart greeter. They WOULD NOT be assigned screening duties and would not be looking for contraband. They would only be there to help people prepare for the screening. It would be nice if they were contractors with different uniforms and not even TSA. "Let me help you with that" with no risk of retaliation would go a long way.

I almost forgot, they need to be able to smile a sincere smile. Too many TSA folks can only sneer and not smile.

Boggie Dog

I have trouble seperating one sound from another. So if you are talking to me in a loud enviorment I may not be able to understand what you're saying even if you get loud. I find TSA checkpoints to be a problem for me. The noise level is already fairly high and then you have multiple conversations, TSA people making various statements and so forth.

The signage at the checkpoints are a problem to. Most are placed to low and by the time you can see them its already to late in the process to act on them.

I don't know who designed the TSA checkpoints but I don't think the job was done well.

exbayern

Neither have I.

My suggestion to 'fix' TSA is to copy the rest of the world.

I flew from one of those 'evil' , supposedly scary and dangerous countries a few days ago. I don't speak more than about 5 words of the local language and those very badly (although everyone is polite enough to tell me otherwise). The majority of passengers were local, with some Germans (most of whom I suspect don't speak the local language either), and for some reason a lot of Americans (some sort of tour group) who most definitely did not speak the local language from what I overheard through my interactions that day.

This airport is one of those which also requires a primary security check to enter the terminal, not just the regular security check.

There was one person in line ahead of me. It look me no time at all to pass through (even though the Americans around insisted taking off their shoes - argh), and the screeners were professional and polite even though we probably had a very small shared joint vocabulary.

exbayern

Over the past year I have seen a few completely clueless passengers at the checkpoint in MUC and TXL. Most were older, infrequent flyers.

The difference was remarkable in how they were treated. The screeners took the time to explain the rules, offer alternatives, walk them through the pamphlet, and help them back to check their items.

Of course, with the 5 minute or less lines that is possible; doing that when there is a wait of 30-45 minutes to reenter just isn't going to happen for most people.

Last week at MUC the screener said it would be a shame to dispose of the nice toiletries and really encouraged the woman to check them. She then walked her through the brochure, showed her where to purchase a bag from the automat, and even tried to find her a used bag so that she didn't have to get the bag from the machine. I was behind the woman and even offered up my worn out baggie for her to use but she cheerfully went back to check her too large items and to get her own new bag from the machine.

Being polite, not screaming, and not viewing everyone as evil makes a difference.

cottonmather0

Because TSA is a nascent American version of the Khmer Rouge or Sans-culottes (and yes, I know that TSA doesn't murder anyone, it's the organizational theory I am talking about..).

They're recruited from the uneducated underclass specifically because they don't care - and are ignorant, really - about whether what they're doing is right or wrong. What they care about is that they have a secure government job that is marginally better paying than the local fast food joint and for the first time in their miserable lives they can lord themselves over someone in a higher class of society. It's all about class (and often, race, too).

TSO's who bark at passengers or are condescending aren't aberrations, they act that way by design. Anyone with any semblance of an education or self-respect would last about 2 hours in that job and then recognize that that the whole thing is a farce and that picking on grannies in wheelchairs and on young kids isn't making anyone safer; rather, it's inconsistent with the Constitution and morally wrong and just empowers the federal government in Washington.

I know I personally couldn't live with myself if I was required to bully my "customers" and treat every single one like a potential criminal when I knew objectively that they obviously weren't. You need someone who is ignorant and stupid to be willing to that consistently.

We make jokes about Wal-Mart and McDonalds but the truth is that only people who are underqualified enough for those kinds of jobs are reliable enough to treat American citizens as disrespectfully as TSA is required to do, so they're all recruited from the same talent pool.

chollie

Signage and recordings are also an issue. They contribute little, are ill-thought out and generally contribute to visual and aural clutter.

Like so much else, the signage, videos and recordings seem reactionary - something happens, slap a new sign up. Doesn't matter if the sign or the placement make sense - for anyone.

The signs for the NoS were thoughtlessly (or deliberately) small, missing or misplaced at many airports. At my former home airport, you are bombarded by loud recordings - introducing pax to the port commissioner, reminding pax smoking isn't allowed in the terminal, reminding pax to 'see something, say something', reminding pax about unattended baggage, reminding pax that airport police are there to help at 911. Completely unnecessary. (In fact, you can be at a remote terminal, after a train ride, at the gate, and still hear bellowing recordings about LGA size at the checkpoint!)

There's a sign at the entrance to the checkpoint I used to use regularly at SEA that says something about the new technology meaning coats can stay on - this is a bad sign 'marketing' the NoS. The sign was paid for by tax dollars, authorized probably by someone in the TSA heirarchy (TSO logo is on it), and it was never ever true (coats and outerwear have to be off for WTMD or NoS and it's been that way for a long time).

Clearly no one ever goes to the checkpoint at a slow time and actually looks at signage, listens to recordings or watches videos to see if the information is still accurate, relevant and best displayed at the checkpoint.

On top of all this, there are the local FSD peculiarities. If SAT has a special requirement to require all netbooks be taken out, above and beyond the stated requirement on the website and not common practice at many other airports, then SAT (or whoever) should display clear signage indicating that there is a special rule for SAT. That saves screeners having to explain that everyone else at every other airport and the website is wrong and that any FSD can add restrictions at will. Meanwhile, the frequent traveller has probably gotten to the belt unprepared.

Further, with all due respect, what kind of jerk runs a checkpoint with special rules above and beyond what is on the website, special rules that are not posted at the checkpoint - what kind of jerk TSO barks at a pax in that situation for not knowing the special rules that apply only at the whim of a particular FSD?

And if TSA is running a 'trial' at selected airports, why not add current signage explaining that?

There are random displays and video monitors also scattered in places where they make no sense. Why put a huge elaborate display of non-allowed items way after the checkpoint?

eyecue once posted that TSOs have to yell because the signs and recordings and videos aren't working. Um...if yelling is so great, why are there still problems? All the barking, and yet folks still get to the belt and realize there's some new airport/TSO/checkpoint specific twist that they haven't encountered before. And occasionally (gasp!) folks just plain forget (even a TSO, Alvin Crabtree, forgot something once. It happens).

The 'designed inconsistency' plus the free-for-all about rules (website, FSD, individual screener) means folks are going to continue to arrive at the checkpoint unprepared for the latest twists.

barbell

Agreed.

About a year ago, as an American, I departed a similar airport to return to the States. There was a check to enter the ticketing queue, which included an x-ray of my bags and a WTMD, followed by an official security checkpoint to enter the terminal, and a third one to enter the gate, reminiscent of MCI. Luckily most people in this country speak English. They were never rude, offensive, or intrusive. This from a country where there a strict rules against outward displays of affection and openly speaking against the government, where some innocuous websites I attempted to access while there (I think eBay might have been one?) were blocked by censors.

I felt safe. I felt respected. And from entering the terminal to boarding the plane, which included checking in, issuing a boarding pass, and making the 1/2 mile walk from the security checkpoint to sitting in my seat on the plane, took no more than 20 minutes, tops.

Why TSA can't implement this type of screening is beyond me.

And that pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Combat Medic

I just thought of something. Maybe the passengers should start barking at the TSOs since they have problems following the rules too.

"Global Entry is an accepted form of ID"
"No stealing passenger property"
"No fingers inside of passenger underwear"


Do you think this would go over well?

chollie

A raised passenger voice can be considered 'interfering with the screening process' or 'threatening and intimidating screeners' or 'disturbing the peace'.

If you respond back at the same decibel level, you need to be prepared for the almost inevitable consequences.

If anything, generally TSOs seem better at escalation than de-escalation.