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This used to be normal. At some airports if you had an electronic BP they would give you a little piece of laminated paper to hold instead.

It was incredibly dumb.

I was on my phone typing out emails. while accompanying a little relative to a flight, and got stuck in a line after the TDC had checked my phone boarding pass and ID. Some TSA screener then asked me where I'm going. Without taking a break, I mentioned the connection airport. He asked if that was home, and I said no. He waited and wanted to ask me more questions but it was obvious that I wasn't going to take a break from my online communications and my dealings with the little relative. Eventually he got the point and moved on.

If he had asked for my ID and boarding pass, he would have been directed to go ask the other screener or told to wait as I'm obviously busy between my phone and escorting a little relative who definitely does not trust your typical airport screeners anymore than the little relative trusts those characters who had been running around parts of NYC in Sesame Street and Disney costumes while trying to squeeze out money from whomever.

If they want to record my info after I've cleared the TDC, then they can wait for me if they want to add me to some kind of blacklist without providing me a Privacy Act notice before demanding to record my personal details.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chollie (Post 25736824)

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When was it the norm?

Everyone I've ever seen in the NoS has been told to pose with empty open palms. When I get my gropes, I am told to keep my palms open and empty.

Was TSA making exceptions and allowing all those folks to get scanned or groped while holding their phones or their BPs? Or did the TSOs take the BPs/phones and hold them until the scan/grope was over?

It was the norm for a while at BWI, right around the time the NoS was first being deployed, say around 2009-2011 or so. The TDC, at that time, was closer to the beginning of the queue, with more unsecure roped-off area between the TDC and the actual beginning of the c/p, so it actually made a tiny bit of sense in TSA-land - there was a large swath of unsecure queue after the TDC where people could, in busy and crowded times, sneak into the queue without going past the TDC. So they started requiring travelers to show either the BP or ID at the NoS (I forget which, but it was only one).

After a while someone finally wised up and we got the current setup, where the TDC is at the beginning of the secure (relatively) part of the c/p and the long queue is prior to the TDC. Even so, for a couple of years after the change, I kept my ID and BP in my hands when going through the NoS. I have finally started putting them into my carry-on after the TDC does the magic squiggle.