Interesting. I was wondering about that when, out of the blue, this generic line about KTNs was added to tsa.gov:

"Travelers that are eligible for TSA Pre✓™ include:
. . .
-U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents with a Known Traveler Number (KTN), sometimes referred to as a trusted traveler number."

Quick question: Why do I (and my fellow passengers) get screamed at while in line? We're not criminals.

We get screamed at because having a professional work force isn't a TSA priority.

TSA sends privileged folks overseas on cushy little junkets to advise other countries how to conduct airport screening.

Why don't they ever take a look at what those countries are doing? How, for instance, they manage to run security checkpoints with half the manpower and no barking?

There seem to be some improvements at some airports. I used to go out of JFK T3 and they didn't scream. Now I always go out of T4 and don't have a full view because I use the Übermensch lane. But I do see a little, and they are putting more people into that lane and explaining things quietly without screaming. Because the clerks use their indoor voices, people listen and understand, and everybody knows the drill before they get to the X-ray machine. Later this year I will go out of T1, which has no Übermensch lane, and will see how that is.

I am aware that there are still some airports that are as bad as they ever were. I wonder if a lot of it doesn't have to do with who the supervisory clerk is. I did the Nexus game at T2 in 2011 and 2012 with spectacular results, and each time the supervisory clerk involved was stupid an obnoxious, having no notion that maybe it would be a good idea to look up whether the NEXUS card was a valid ID or not. At other checkpoints (including T4) I've had clerks who didn't know what it was and who either looked it up in a book or asked somebody.

It's not impossible to find clerks who are willing to follow the rules, but what I'd like Ross to tell us is what does the TSA do not just to teach the rules to the clerks and their supervisors, but to instill in them a desire to follow the rules.

I've often said that behind/above every bottom rank TSO guilty of misconduct is a hierarchy of lazy/AWOL/complicit upper level TSOs/managers who enable the behavior and are just as responsible as the offender facing the pax.

If a manager made it clear that s/he would get off her/his lazy butt and wander through at random times, disciplining anyone barking and also disciplining any LTSO/STSOs present who didn't address the misconduct, there wouldn't be any more barking.

If a manager occasionally chose to review checkpoint tapes, perhaps s/he would start identifying and addressing the issue of TSOs standing around jacking their jaws and playing on their cellphones instead of performing a useful duty. They might observe (and address) pax experiencing long wait times for a grope when there are plenty of TSOs standing nearby doing nothing.

It's like yelling at the dog pooing on your driveway. The one who really deserves a boot is the owner at the other end of the leash allowing it to happen.

This. x1000

Other than LHR, every other international airport I've visited over the past 7 years has a more professional security workforce than our pathetic TSA.

My suggestion was a fourth sub-forum (TT, Practical, Checkpoint Debate, Ross) that would only be questions for Ross. Each question could be a thread. Repeat questions could be merged into the original and questions in the other sub-forums that have already been answered could be redirected to the Ross sub-forum. Those of us who have been around the WTMD a few times could help the newbies. That way, the three current forums could serve as discussion forum and the Ross sub-forum would be Q&A as well as a handy reference guide.

I am aware that this idea puts a lot of stress on the mods and Ross, but if it worked, it would be a fantastic source to get official answers quickly. And once people learned the system, I believe it would actually create less work for these two groups.

Mike

I like your idea too as it gives people a safe place to ask basic questions and would maximize the use of Ross's time on answering questions. I would prefer to see his questions and answers in a clean place without all the debate and opinions about the TSA -- I'd likely read a lot of that too, but I really want a place to look up answers quick/clean without the debates/commentaries. I think that would benefit everyone.

Ross, can you tell us about "expedited screening" offered to passengers with Pre-check using checkpoints that don't have Pre-check? It seems to entail a Pre-check style screening for your person (WTMD, shoes on) but standard screening for your bags (laptop & liquids out).

See this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trust...ne-closed.html

Is this becoming a standard offering? Will it be offered at any non-Pre checkpoint? Or only at certain airports and/or checkpoints and/or hours?

I just went through this at KOA where there is no dedicated Pre lane. I was handed a yellow card to show the WTMD attendant, and kept my shoes on, but the laptop had to come out (liquids stayed in, but they always did even before Pre).

Contrast this with my experience at OGG - same setup without a dedicated Pre lane, but the innovative staff there have a different routine. Once you 3-beep, the ID checker yells out "pre-check!!" and a screener comes over and escorts you to the front of the line (shooing away any busybody onlookers), places your items on the belt with a colored bowl in front of, then behind your items, and then calls to the x-ray attendant that pre-check bags are coming through between the bowls with electronics and liquids inside - and you go through the WTMD with shoes on.

Not ideal for those looking to keep a low profile or avoid death stares from Kettles, but definitely effective and more useful than the yellow card routine and partial-Pre.

According to a TSA source, how to deal with PreCheck pax in non PreCheck lanes is up to each FSD, within a set of parameters.

That is the most common approach for these kind of situations, but there is some diversity/inconsistency in play too.

Freeze Drills - required to play along?
 

Joe Sharkey, in the NY Times, some time ago wrote that passengers in the secure area of the airport are actually not required to "freeze" during these drills.

Freeze

A poster in the Practical Travel forum seems to have been caught up in such a drill [URL="http://http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23118137-post1.html"]Exit secure area[/URL ]and we have heard of others being told to "freeze" when in the secure area but not in the checkpoint.

TSA seems to want passengers to believe they must stay in place and not move one step during these events if told to to do when not in the checkpoint area.

Are passengers not in the checkpoint required to stay in place during a freeze drill?

Following up on this question:

1. What is the point of the "freeze" drills? Is it to train the clerks? The passengers? If passengers, what happens if they pass the drill? Do they get a bonus check? A gold star? If they fail the drill, what happens? Does it go down on their permanent record?

2. Are passengers required to freeze even if the clerk giving the order has not said "Simon says"?