Is TSA asking for this as a 'perk' for TSOs (like FAA employees once enjoyed pre-9/11)? So they can joyride around the country for free?

Or can I now expect that I get ID/BP'd/Pre'd at the entry to the elite lane, ID/BP'd again at the TDC, groped because I can't assume and hold the NoS position, swabbed, SPOT'd in the bathroom, drinks tested in the boarding area, ID/BP/bag searched at the gate/on the jetway - and now, once I finally think I can breathe a sigh of relief as the doors close, we cruise down the runway, wheels up...

But NO!

Here comes the cockpit TSA, demanding to see BPs, IDs, drinks testing, bag searches, probing questions, frisks and gropes in the aisle, swabbing, resolution gropes in the bathroom or the galley....:mad::mad::mad:

Is there no escape?

I'm all for giving TSA clerks wheel well privileges. Just lower the landing gear over an uninhabited area and let the blue ice cube roll out. Could be a useful technique for RIFs.

Of course there is. No one is forcing you to fly anywhere. :rolleyes:

You mean United Express?

Speaking of that, anybody notice the TSA doing bag searches at gates lately? I was going through BOI and there was a TSA agent doing a "flying while brown" check on anybody who wasn't lily white. She was walking around the gate pointing at people's luggage and saying "I need to search your bag." That was a little beyond orwellian for me, especially since the profiling was so naked and brazen.

This quote here made me think. I could easily imagine the TSA having trouble hiring--I sure wouldn't work for them, even if I was back in college and happy to make $7/hr. Currently, an unofficial perk is that you get to steal from passengers, but you obviously run the risk of being fired as a scapegoat for that.

Perhaps they're trying to offer an official perk to TSA employees: you get to fly anywhere you want, any time you want, for free. Maybe they're having _that hard_ a time hiring.

They did at PSP two weeks ago. They checked my bag and I'm white, but then again, I did hassle them at the checkpoint, so that's probably bad data.

Excellent... 3 pages in and still no verification to the claim, which was originally stated as a rumor to begin with. How about this;

I think I heard someone who looked like they flew recently say that they heard that the smurfs were all getting dragonskin and sidearms. I am outraged by this claim.


FT, for when trolls want an easy meal.