Aug 25, 2015, 7:43 pm
Last edit by: jspira
This post is for the 2015 "How Effective is the TSA?" Poll, conducted by Flyertalk and Frequent Business Traveler magazine.
Please start by taking the short poll here.
Once you have taken the poll, please add your thoughts to the discussion in this thread.
Please start by taking the short poll here.
Once you have taken the poll, please add your thoughts to the discussion in this thread.
2015 Survey: How Effective is the Transportation Security Administration?
Sep 16, 2015, 8:17 am
#46
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: MSP
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TSA is totally ineffective! Israel does not need to virtually strip search you to maintain security. The first thing they need to do is hire intelligent personnel instead of the high school dropouts, criminals, and thieves they now employ. They are nothing but security theater PERIOD! Bend over slaves while we do you.
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 1
Welcome to FT.
Side note: This thread is really bringing them out of the woodwork!
Sep 16, 2015, 10:59 am
#47
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
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The difference is, I'm not making anybody pay billions of dollars a year for me to snap my fingers.
Sep 16, 2015, 11:27 am
#48
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,129
Edit to add...
While we wait for a list of TSA originating prosecutions.
Last edited by Boggie Dog; Sep 16, 2015 at 8:42 pm
Sep 16, 2015, 12:37 pm
#49
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 2
There is no system that will work since we have had our lives "controlled" by potential terrorists. They are dictating the rules we must follow. My wife was subjected to an illegal search and her body "invaded" by an incompetent female agent who accused her of smuggling drugs in her leg brace. A medical message was provided and ignored. I personally know a person whose job included testing the current systems in place. She brought a bayonet, work, a 45, and a long knife through inspections in the mid-west. All were reprimanded and "retrained" using the same incomnpetent methods that let them work without knowing what they were doing. We appear to use methods to catch the past, but fail to use methods that anticipate the present or the future. I also know someone who had a high level security clearance who was stopped regularly because of his name. I took three years to remove his name from the list of dangerous people. Because of the level of theft as you are being "inspected", I always watch what is going on very carefully because a $3,000 computer is a very tempting target for them to take because I carry it on with me anytime I travel. We need to have a real screening process in place before these individuals are hired, "trained" and released to misuse power and mistreat people!
Sep 17, 2015, 7:34 am
#50
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: MSP
Programs: Delta SkyMiles, AmEx, NorthWest WorldPerks, Jelly of the Month. S&H Green Stamps, Subway sub club
Posts: 1,754
There is no system that will work since we have had our lives "controlled" by potential terrorists. They are dictating the rules we must follow. My wife was subjected to an illegal search and her body "invaded" by an incompetent female agent who accused her of smuggling drugs in her leg brace. A medical message was provided and ignored. I personally know a person whose job included testing the current systems in place. She brought a bayonet, work, a 45, and a long knife through inspections in the mid-west. All were reprimanded and "retrained" using the same incomnpetent methods that let them work without knowing what they were doing. We appear to use methods to catch the past, but fail to use methods that anticipate the present or the future. I also know someone who had a high level security clearance who was stopped regularly because of his name. I took three years to remove his name from the list of dangerous people. Because of the level of theft as you are being "inspected", I always watch what is going on very carefully because a $3,000 computer is a very tempting target for them to take because I carry it on with me anytime I travel. We need to have a real screening process in place before these individuals are hired, "trained" and released to misuse power and mistreat people!
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 2
Thanks for posting. Maybe don't wait another decade before your next one.
Sep 17, 2015, 11:52 am
#52
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Sep 17, 2015, 1:29 pm
#53
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2
15SEP15 EWR Terminal A Gate 24 PreCheck Lane
I need medicines that need to be kept cool so I travel with an insulated bag with a freezer pack and the medicines.
A. I think it is funny that the two 'gel' freezer packs are not questioned. I won't get into how ridiculous that is.
B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside. No matter what I said he insisted I could not have it. [and it's like $130 a shot medicine that I am sure Hudson News does not sell] I kept asking for a supervisor and he kept saying no. I restated it is medicine and the other two agents agreed I could keep it. He finally asked the first one and then did call the supervisor who told him to swab it and pass it.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
A. I think it is funny that the two 'gel' freezer packs are not questioned. I won't get into how ridiculous that is.
B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside. No matter what I said he insisted I could not have it. [and it's like $130 a shot medicine that I am sure Hudson News does not sell] I kept asking for a supervisor and he kept saying no. I restated it is medicine and the other two agents agreed I could keep it. He finally asked the first one and then did call the supervisor who told him to swab it and pass it.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
Sep 17, 2015, 2:21 pm
#54
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: DFW
Posts: 28,129
I need medicines that need to be kept cool so I travel with an insulated bag with a freezer pack and the medicines.
A. I think it is funny that the two 'gel' freezer packs are not questioned. I won't get into how ridiculous that is.
B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside. No matter what I said he insisted I could not have it. [and it's like $130 a shot medicine that I am sure Hudson News does not sell] I kept asking for a supervisor and he kept saying no. I restated it is medicine and the other two agents agreed I could keep it. He finally asked the first one and then did call the supervisor who told him to swab it and pass it.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
A. I think it is funny that the two 'gel' freezer packs are not questioned. I won't get into how ridiculous that is.
B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside. No matter what I said he insisted I could not have it. [and it's like $130 a shot medicine that I am sure Hudson News does not sell] I kept asking for a supervisor and he kept saying no. I restated it is medicine and the other two agents agreed I could keep it. He finally asked the first one and then did call the supervisor who told him to swab it and pass it.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
The bigger issue in my mind is that passengers have no one to turn to while at the checkpoint if things are going wrong or seems out of order. TSA employees usually stick together or as in your case would not summon a manager.
Travelers need some means to contact someone in a senior TSA position outside of the airport chain of command and make a complaint, then and there while at the checkpoint and the TSA screeners need to be held accountable for their actions right at that moment.
Some form of a Hotline available to travelers that reaches into TSA HQ might be the start of correcting the abuse of power and authority at outlying TSA checkpoints.
Sep 17, 2015, 2:27 pm
#55
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: MSP
Programs: Delta SkyMiles, AmEx, NorthWest WorldPerks, Jelly of the Month. S&H Green Stamps, Subway sub club
Posts: 1,754
I need medicines that need to be kept cool so I travel with an insulated bag with a freezer pack and the medicines.
A. I think it is funny that the two 'gel' freezer packs are not questioned. I won't get into how ridiculous that is.
B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside. No matter what I said he insisted I could not have it. [and it's like $130 a shot medicine that I am sure Hudson News does not sell] I kept asking for a supervisor and he kept saying no. I restated it is medicine and the other two agents agreed I could keep it. He finally asked the first one and then did call the supervisor who told him to swab it and pass it.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
A. I think it is funny that the two 'gel' freezer packs are not questioned. I won't get into how ridiculous that is.
B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside. No matter what I said he insisted I could not have it. [and it's like $130 a shot medicine that I am sure Hudson News does not sell] I kept asking for a supervisor and he kept saying no. I restated it is medicine and the other two agents agreed I could keep it. He finally asked the first one and then did call the supervisor who told him to swab it and pass it.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2
Welcome back. But I'm not sure I can agree with you on the full body scan machines for every passenger.
Sep 17, 2015, 6:14 pm
#56
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: MSP
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B. Usually I say to the first agent scanning you that I need the water bottle for medicinal purposes as it contains not only the 15 ounces of water but one of the medicines. Normally they swab it to test for explosives and all is okay. Today was different, the first agent I told was no problem, the xray tech-pointing to her-will target it. She asked me and I told her, no problem the next agent will swab it. This agent, who could barely speak English, swabbed the bag and said I had to throw out the bottle, in fact holding it away from me and saying I could buy another inside.
It's never gotten quite that far.
C. We sat down in the Red Carpet Club and my wife found a bottle of water in her pocketbook that she forgot about.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
So no, I do not think it is effective, nor will it ever be until they allow profiling and the full body scan machines be set back to the original full settings and used for every passenger.
Sep 17, 2015, 7:37 pm
#57
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 104
While that may be true, the real problem with the GermanWings incident is that the cockpit door was hardened and the Captain of the flight could not get back in to overcome the renegade, suicidal copilot. That was a post-9/11 security measure.
Last edited by motorguy; Sep 17, 2015 at 7:42 pm
Sep 18, 2015, 11:54 am
#58
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: WAS
Programs: enjoyed being warm spit for a few years on CO/UA but now nothing :(
Posts: 2,507
Hardening of cockpit doors was discussed long, long before 9/11 but business managers chose not to implement doing so earlier because of cost. Another example of what we know to be true - that businesses will do what is in their customers' or society's best interest and not the business' own short term interest.