Profit driven security practices?
 

Us frequent travelers know everything about the BS that we see at airports, but I was wondering today, how much do we know about the industry influence in the decisions that have led to those security checks?

For example, there was a thread earlier about water being disallowed on US bound flights even though it has been purchased within the secure area, and this did not make sense to the OP.

I was wondering, what might be the influence of the water supplier on the airline in the decision to not allow water that's purchased at the airport? Is this move really security related, or is it profit related?

Similarly, DFW terminal E doesn't have TSA pre. Thing is I used TSA pre in Terminal E earlier this year, and so why did it disappear? Well, it just so happens that Terminal E does have CLEAR terminals, and CLEAR has been sending me emails to sign up quite a lot.

So I was wondering ... was TSA pre removed from Terminal E because CLEAR struck a deal with them?

How much of our security screening procedures are actually influenced by shareholder profit and industry lobby groups, and what part of the security screening process actually deals with security?

Just wondering.

Moving this to a more appropriate forum.

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United MileagePlus Forum

Doubtful that CLEAR directly has an influence on losing Pre check at the same terminals. It's likely just a matter of demand - perhaps CLEAR gained enough customers that Pre demand just dwindled.

CLEAR and Precheck co-exist, by the way, at DEN and SFO, I believe.

CLEAR and PreCheck are literally side by side at SAT.

Can TSA do it?
 

Given TSA's record, I doubt they could actually execute such a strategy.

Airport water vendors do not seem big enough to affect policy significantly. So I think the water nonsense is mostly honest stupidity.

CLEAR might be able to bribe a few local stations.

I would attribute this to honest stupidity.

Your post does bring up a good point about CLEAR. If I encounter such a situation, I may write my congressman.

If you want to look at the profit look at the bill of goods sold to the TSA like the puffers, BD program, the WBI, etc. We the public are paying for that crap.

As for the water, that rule was from someone who could not pour piss out of their carry on bag if the instructions were written on the bottom.

Agreed. No one is going to break a sweat on trying to sell two more liters of Dasani to an airline for each flight. The real money is in the security equipment parking enforcement and the like.

No, there's no water industry conspiracy to try to force you to buy water on airplanes. I travel all over and am yet to have an airplane ever complain or take away the water I pretty much always bring on board even though I'm flying up front.

The airlines also don't set TSA policy though obviously they have people's ear.

The whole Clear thing was a mess and it largely used to screw over elite flyers. Places like MCO have no elite lineup but they have Clear.

I'm not a CLEAR customer but do happen to live in one of the eight or nine cities where CLEAR is available. Lately between my wife and I it seems one of us is at the airport almost every week. What I find interesting is that somebody, and I assume it's TSA, reorganizes the security checkpoint on a weekly basis. The one constant seems to be CLEAR and because of their kiosks they pretty much stay in the same location. What seems to be forever changing, particularly in Terminal B (aka Terminal 2), and indeed the Premier/Elite line seems to appear, disappear, and then reappear. To make it more fun the PreCheck line moves, sometimes on the extreme left, sometimes in the middle, and sometimes on the right. To help or maybe add to the confusion sometimes TSA stations an agent at the security entrance to sort people into the appropriate line. Funny thing last Sunday it was actually the CLEAR personnel who were helping sort people as there was no TSA agent out front so people would go to the CLEAR podium for directions. Admittedly it seems in the last couple of weeks, with the arrival of the pretty good sized PreCheck "flag signs", the setup has stayed pretty much the same.

1. The water thing is a bit silly. At the end of the day, some vendor is selling the same amount of water. Whether that is to a consumer at the terminal or to a carrier for onboard service. It is also a miniscule piece of the revenue pie and hardly worth the massive antitrust investigation this would lead to if true.

2. Organization of checkpoints will continue to morph. TSA has a stated goal of migrating 85% of passengers to pre-check or at least pre-check type screening by the end of 2015. This means an ever-changing checkpoint arrangement. People on FT kvetched that too many people were in the single pre-check line, now complain that the number of lines expands and contracts.

As an example, at DEN, the CLEAR and Pre-check queues both feed to the same screening points. It's a tossup as to which one is faster and likely designed to show that the $85 for pre-check is a good deal.