TSA wants to test your drink -- at the gate
Jul 7, 2012, 8:03 am
#137
Join Date: May 2010
Location: TPA
Programs: All The Programs
Posts: 2,207
Hmmm...we're going to need to hire more TSOs....
Jul 7, 2012, 10:14 am
#138
Join Date: Oct 2011
Programs: Ham Sandwich Medallion
Posts: 889
Another option: stay close to where you purchased the beverage from. If the TSA walks over and wants to test it, go back to the merchant and demand a refund, as they clearly sold you an unsafe drink. Making that little scene of it at a McDonald's or a Burger King would cause an even greater headache for the franchisee.
If enough people do that, whether they get the refund or not, you can bet the HMS Hosts and Paradies of the world will come down on the airports to get the Thousands Standing Around to quit wasting their shop employees' time.
If enough people do that, whether they get the refund or not, you can bet the HMS Hosts and Paradies of the world will come down on the airports to get the Thousands Standing Around to quit wasting their shop employees' time.
Jul 7, 2012, 10:30 am
#140
Join Date: May 2010
Location: TPA
Programs: All The Programs
Posts: 2,207
Another option: stay close to where you purchased the beverage from. If the TSA walks over and wants to test it, go back to the merchant and demand a refund, as they clearly sold you an unsafe drink. Making that little scene of it at a McDonald's or a Burger King would cause an even greater headache for the franchisee.
If enough people do that, whether they get the refund or not, you can bet the HMS Hosts and Paradies of the world will come down on the airports to get the Thousands Standing Around to quit wasting their shop employees' time.
If enough people do that, whether they get the refund or not, you can bet the HMS Hosts and Paradies of the world will come down on the airports to get the Thousands Standing Around to quit wasting their shop employees' time.
Jul 7, 2012, 1:06 pm
#141
Join Date: May 2003
Location: At This Point, Only G*d Knows!
Posts: 3,467
I was approached at SEA and asked if they could test my Diet Coke, I simply finished it before giving an answer and just handed over the empty bottle and walked off.
The TSA employee was bewildered and just stood there (deer in headlights) looking at me before throwing the bottle away and walking off.
Dan
The TSA employee was bewildered and just stood there (deer in headlights) looking at me before throwing the bottle away and walking off.
Dan
Jul 7, 2012, 1:53 pm
#143
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: IAH mostly.
Programs: I still call it Onepass every now and then. Platinum.
Posts: 500
I was approached at SEA and asked if they could test my Diet Coke, I simply finished it before giving an answer and just handed over the empty bottle and walked off.
The TSA employee was bewildered and just stood there (deer in headlights) looking at me before throwing the bottle away and walking off.
Dan
The TSA employee was bewildered and just stood there (deer in headlights) looking at me before throwing the bottle away and walking off.
Dan
Jul 7, 2012, 2:26 pm
#144
Join Date: Oct 2011
Programs: Ham Sandwich Medallion
Posts: 889
Jul 7, 2012, 3:42 pm
#145
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Laguna Niguel, CA
Programs: AA PLT, 1.8mm
Posts: 6,988
not a beverage check, but when I boarded my flight at LAX this morning, I had my BP scanned, and entered the jetbridge, where there were 4 TSA standing on the sides of the jetbridge. One of them asked for my ID. I responded "I'd love to play security theater with you today, but I've already provided your agency with my ID 3 times this morning, and I need to catch my flight now". I kept walking onto the plane. None of them followed me. Probably stunned at my insubordination.
Jul 7, 2012, 5:55 pm
#146
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: FKB
Programs: Skymiles - FO
Posts: 207
As I used the word "volatile", I meant it's ability to evaporate, to transform from the liquid to the gas phase. For anything to be detected by these strips, it must be able to evaporate from its container at a sufficient rate at a given temperature to reach whatever threshold concentration is sufficient to produce a signal on a test strip. This does not necessarily correlate with a substances tendency to detonate.
Jul 7, 2012, 6:23 pm
#147
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,145
I have never been approached about this -- I don't think I've ever taken a beverage to the boarding gate. But this should work for all but the biggest of gulps:
"Can I test your beverage?"
"Absolutely."
Chug what's left, hand it over, say "thanks" and go back to whatever you were previously doing.
No scene, no loss of investment, your drink has been thoroughly vetted AND...someone else swaggers it off to the garbage can for you.
"Can I test your beverage?"
"Absolutely."
Chug what's left, hand it over, say "thanks" and go back to whatever you were previously doing.
No scene, no loss of investment, your drink has been thoroughly vetted AND...someone else swaggers it off to the garbage can for you.
Jul 7, 2012, 6:32 pm
#148
Join Date: May 2003
Location: At This Point, Only G*d Knows!
Posts: 3,467
In hindsight, I am surprised that the bewildered agent did not follow me or punish me in some way for handing over the empty bottle and walking away, but she just stared at me and threw the bottle away.
My last gate screening, I was selected and I said out loud (the out loud part was actually an accident at the time, though I am happy about it now), what, did you miss something at the checkpoint and hope the would be bad person is on this flight? My comment got a chuckle from the GA and a few of the pax, but the TSA employee was less than amused and said, sir, it is just an extra layer of security.
Dan
My last gate screening, I was selected and I said out loud (the out loud part was actually an accident at the time, though I am happy about it now), what, did you miss something at the checkpoint and hope the would be bad person is on this flight? My comment got a chuckle from the GA and a few of the pax, but the TSA employee was less than amused and said, sir, it is just an extra layer of security.
Dan
Jul 7, 2012, 6:46 pm
#149
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 516
That "extra layer of security" stuff is amusing. The entire reason to have layered security is because one layer compensates for weaknesses in a different layer. Because the TSA does not do anything different in gate checks than what they did earlier, they are not adding a security layer. They are merely reperforming work within the same layer.