WSB-TV: TSA wait times reach more than an hour at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL)
 

A video report about Monday morning security delays at Atlanta:
WSB-TV: Security wait times reach more than an hour at Hartsfield-Jackson (Published on 12:19 PM)

The situation at DEN is terrible now, but was never that good to start with thanks to their terrible idea of a consolidated checkpoint for all terminals.

New Tweet at AskTSA:

Here's TSA's new marketing ploy:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiBwxjcWkAAJJ1s.jpg:large

What exactly is TSA marketing? Closed Pre Check lines and 2 hour waits for TSA screening? Sounds like TSA's marketing people got their degrees at Montgomery Wards.

And in Miami, at the D/E checkpoint, those who pay for "Clearme.com" go ahead of pre-check....

Mrs. BearX220 and I joined that same line at T1 Sunday around 500pm... a little later than you. PreCheck took 20 minutes or so, general looked like about an hour. The wait at Pre was made somewhat longer by queue-jumpers claiming emergencies. People were in tears. And the underground concourse between B and C gates was striped with pax sprinting -- full-on running -- toward distant gates, untied shoelaces flapping. Terrible situation.

TSA has always been incompetent re: staffing levels. Now it looks like management has just given up. They look at these nationwide meltdowns like we look at bad weather. Hmm, too bad about that.

Saw that at SEA last week (Friday afternoon). Short line, but getting through still took 30 minutes. A lot of blueshirts laughing and joking at the checkpoint, doing nothing while pax stood and waited.

Don't know about that, but in places this is just like UA's summer from hell, back in the day -- work-to-rule or even sabotage action that puts customers in the crossfire in order to extract more power / control / benefits from management (in this case Congress).

For anybody attempting to pass through at SEA, it may be useful to remember that all gates at SEA are accessible from any checkpoint. Depending on what information or experience is available with respect to the other checkpoints, it may be worthwhile to stroll down to one of them. In your situation, I would have just stayed where I was, though.

A few years ago I was in a line of 7 passengers at JFK; it took 20 minutes to get through. Not all of what's going on now is deliberate sabotage; the TSA has always been slovenly. None of it has to do with inadequate staffing. There is plenty of staff; the staff is just lazy and slovenly, and busy playing junior detective.

The test results show that the TSA misses 95% of weapons. The reason for this is that they spend all their time worrying about water bottles. The reaction to the test results has been to focus even harder on water bottles. If there's really a terrorist threat to aviation, somebody is going to storm an airport and shoot up the checkpoint line. The way to prevent something like this is to take away the TSA's toys and make the screeners screen, rather than waste time enforcing deference to their authority (which most of them see as their main job).

It's PreCheck lines that should always be open and being used for most passengers, while the non-PreCheck screening should be for a random minority if anybody. Then all these ridiculous slowdowns at airport screening checkpoints in the US would be subject to being fixed even further. PreCheck type screening at airports should be the norm not the exception, and yet TSA markets it as an exception and this closes down these lines however the TSA employees in charge of the site want it.

New York, New Jersey Airports Threaten to Ditch TSA, Hire Own Security Screeners

https://consumerist.com/2016/05/10/n...ity-screeners/

All talk and no action.

Meanwhile, Congress gave Neffy $$$ and absolutely nothing has changed.

I take that back. Money that could have been spent on hiring screeners has instead been spent on untested new technology that must be installed right now, in the middle of huge manufactured slowdowns - and at the world's busiest airport.

Once it is installed, it will be the only fully-staffed checkpoint not operating under deliberate slowdowns. This will be used to 'prove' that the expensive new technology is the answer to all our problems, meaning full-speed ahead installing the new technology in all airports.

Does Neffy have a personal stake in the company that manufactures and installs this expensive 'new technology'? Is he using his remaining months in office to feather his retirement nest while pax are put at risk?

If TSA had any confidence in it's BDO program that is exactly how screening operations would be conducted.

I'm beginning to see PreCheck not as a method of giving expedited screening to certain people but rather as a method of having as many air passengers "fully vetted" as possible.

TSA just couldn't state: You must let us do a background check on you before you can board a plane" - they knew that wouldn't fly (pun intended).

So they came up with PreCheck "perks" of allowing passengers to keep their shoes and clothes on in exchange for their fingerprints and background checks.

PreCheck isn't about "expedited screening", it's about having as much info as possible on as many passengers as possible.

PreCheck and other DHS "trusted traveler" programs are indeed about gathering more biometric information on as many passengers as possible. The reasons they want biometric capture isn't all innocent, and it never has been.

The PANYNJ is a government creature, so the PANYNJ's talk doesn't really excite me. I'd be more excited if the public at large -- including the US airlines -- told the TSA to go pound sand and got Congress to mandate PreCheck LLL type screening be the default form of screening for passengers in the main.

Tuesday at ATL:The rest of the story: AJC - Long security lines at Atlanta airport continue (May 10, 2016)

I'm waiting for a real revolt in a checkpoint line.