dranz

Yes, TSA at DTW is very aware of FT. I removed my FT luggage tag after
one of them commented about it on the shuttle bus.

RatherBeOnATrain

Awesome!

I wonder what TSA's training programs teach about Saturday Night Live...

InkUnderNails

Therein lies a difference between you and me. I read comments here about TSA and FlyerTalk tags, so I PM'ed a moderator and got some to proudly adorn both my carry on bags.

cordelli

A couple years ago I was told "You don't look like one of those" and did not have a clue what they were referring to. He pointed to the tag and said "one of those troublemakers" or something close to that.

Can't say it ever happened again, but that's probably more because I tuck the tag into the bag when I approach security now and go through undercover.

Wilbur

You are a frequent-flying photographer - the epitome of villainy. TSA has their eye on you.

boatseller

"Truth is hate speech to the guilty."

-Someone probably said this before, if not, it's mine, all mine!

Ari

What was the comment? Was the whole airport warned?

mikeef

In countries such as Israel, chatting with the passengers is one very, very small part of a very, very large program. They are not people who got a week of in-class and a week of on the job training. They know exactly who you are before you get to the airport. They knew that my wife speaks Hebrew. They knew that I only spoke what I had learned in Hebrew school. And they knew that I prefer brunettes.

Not surprisingly, I got to keep both my shoes and my water.



I had to pay for mine. Well, the first one, anyway. A mod gave me my second at a Do. Oh, and I've never had a TSO comment on one.

Mike

raehl311

I get questioned about my business when traveling all the time - in fact, every time I step over an international border.

Either way, I support effective security measures, even if inconvenient (balanced against effectiveness). So, no liquids is silly. But brief questioning of travelers and analyzing behavior has proven quite effective. And it's not like you have to give detailed answers about sensitive information. "Which state do you live in?" and "Do you have your driver's license on you?" is hardly anything I'd worry about divulging.

I mean, we could just eliminate all security entirely and have planes work like trains, but then we'd have a lot more planes crashing into things. So clearly NO security isn't the answer. So if it's going to take me some time to clear security, it might as well be time spent clearing the most effective security possible relative to the time and intrusiveness, and a couple fairly innocuous questions is far more effective than an actual or virtual undressing/groping.

InkUnderNails

International travel I understand. I am asking to be a guest in their country and they have a duty and a responsibility to their citizens to make sure that the guests that they allow in are going to behave.

To answer questions of a personal nature as a requirement for domestic travel is repugnant. If they want to talk trivial matters to judge my reaction, well, I'll play that silly game. If they want to know where I am going (other than destination airport), where I will be working and where I will be staying, they have crossed into an area where they have neither the moral nor legal authority to go, unless it is done with my permission. Using the threat of non-travel to coerce my submission and release of private information to a government actor is against any number of reasonable restrictions upon their authority.

WChou

Given the TSA's history of ineffective initiatives, I see the chat downs as more "make work" for an out of control bureaucratic monster. The same people that cannot pass their own audits based on GAO reports are now asked to do the work of highly trained professionals. To compare the security officers Israel uses to a TSO is like comparing apples to pickup trucks. I am fairly certain Israel does not hire off of pizza boxes and gas pumps. Their officers are recruited among the best and smartest and often from those that served with military intelligence. Rather than come up with new window dressing, the TSA needs to fix what is broken first.

GUWonder

The TSA can't even effectively prevent all contraband weapons, explosives and incendiary devices from getting airside, so those TSA actors really ought not to pretend that the voodoo "security" of interrogating passengers is an effective use of resources in the US.

With waste like this, no wonder the government can't even break even on its financials.

Were "they" (the TSA) warned about the US Congress too?

GUWonder

I got my FT tags a decade ago and have never had a comment about them from any TSA screeners in the course of flying well over a million miles. I expect that to change but not because of any kind of effective security screening approach.

It's really been proven to be quite effective? The TSA wanted-and-approved interrogators failed to prevent the attempted shoe bomber clown from boarding the AA flight where he smoked his shoes. The TSA wanted-and-approved interrogators failed to prevent the attempted underwear bomber clown from boarding the DL flight where he singed his thing. And those are just the psychopathic sociopaths who pulled something off on US airlines in the past ten years despite being questioned by "professionals". Then there are the sociopaths who were questioned by "professionals" and traveled repeatedly into and out of the US and then ended up arrested for attempted crimes after completing travel.

It seems very ineffective because it is.

Let the TSA actually perform far more reliably with WEI interdiction and then I'll reconsider allowing the TSA to engage in these clownish questioning games at US airports.

CDKing

So they get kicked out of BOS and move BDO to DTW? I got crap for using my Passport as my ID in September. Its sad that I had easier time getting back into the US after a MR with a 6 hour stop in LHR then to get through the BDO's questions

BTW I had my MP tag on instead. I did receive comments on my crew tag though

GUWonder

When I see the TSA BDOs trying to do their thing, I make sure to get on my phone (or at least the connected earpiece) connect to an office voicemail number and just say uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh or something like that. If they then were to try to interrupt me, I would probably say that their effort to distract me is not appreciated.