Maybe TSA just likes to fondle crotches.

Congress only authorized 800+ new screeners. Even when fully trained that will do little to resolve the problem. It's procedures not people causing the problems.

The process and technology "upgrades" are what need to be fixed. More TSA staff won't fix the overall problems with TSA productivity and passenger wait times at the screening checkpoints.

The TSA and the government employee union backing the TSA is engaged in trying to shakedown Congress and the American taxpayers for a lot more money.

Amen!

I tell everybody I can that TSA has deliberately created the lines and it is not the fault of the airlines or airports.

AskTSA says they are vetting passengers at the time of ticket purchase.

That makes since to me. I believe that TSA has enough information on most travelers to make a security judgement at OLCI.

I've always been curious how something like that would be handled. If a single passengers shoves his way through the TSA checkpoint, he'll be arrested and there will be a flight recall, terminal dump, terminal search, and 100% re-screening.

What if there's a mass revolt? What if thousands of people in line for the TSA shoved their way through and made their way to their gates? While all the TSA clerks on duty at any given time would be physically powerless to stop this, I'd imagine the TSA would do the same thing they'd do if *one* passenger shoved his way through:

- All flights not yet taken off returned to the gate.
- Ground stop until the entire "sterile" area is 100% evacuated and searched.

A mass revolt at one airport could cascade to other airports thanks to the Internet, and every airport with a revolt would be under ground stop until it was satisfied to the TSA's liking.

Theoretically, the FAA, airlines, and airports could decide to ignore the TSA and just start running aviation like adults without the petulant middle-school bullies getting in the way.

My fantasy is to replace TSA checkpoints with absolutely nothing: no WTMD, NoS, bag X-ray... nothing. This would be exactly as effective as the TSA is now, and the fact that incidents simply don't happen is proof that the entire thing is worthless, whether done by the TSA, a private company, or even the pre-9/11 WTMD/X-ray.

Sadly, I feel like many people are getting exactly what they asked for. A huge number of people, despite the facts, truly believe the TSA is the only thing preventing airplanes from falling out of the sky on a daily basis.

All the non-US persons on my ticketed PNRs keep ending up with PreCheck whenever I do as of the past several months, even as there is no KTN entry provided in the PNRs except for my KTN.

Some of these people then go on to get PreCheck even when they are flying on their own ticketed PNRs, even as none of the passengers have a KTN in the PNR.

I'm not going to fill in the gaps, but you can make your own conclusion about what this means.

There were hints of a passenger revolt at EWR a few weeks ago, but that's all I ever heard.

Holy Poly Oly. It took that guy two full minutes just to walk the line. Judging by the speed at which people were moving in the opposite direction, I'd guess that it was about a 30-45 minute wait just to get to the TDC.

I've never been to MDW - how much queue is there between the TDC and the carry-on scanners?

Managed Inclusion II or MI-II (not to be confused with Mission: Impossible II, which sucked) was a terrific program; it was essentially what FT has been pining after for several years - a return to near pre-9/11 screening, but with the addition of ETD swabs, backed up by canines. It was fast and efficient, non-invasive, and I believe every bit as effective as the scope-and-grope debacle we've been enduring for the last six years. I yearn for its return.

I have lost count of the number of people who have trumped my every argument about effectiveness, efficiency, personal liberty, and civil rights with some variation on the phrase, "I'd rather [insert insane random security procedure here] than explode in mid-air!"

You simply cannot argue with people who say things like that. They are absolutely, completely, and in all other ways convinced that this is a binary proposition - either give TSA carte blanche to abuse us in any and every way imaginable, or every plane in the sky will spontaneously explode halfway to its destination. There is no reasoning with people who have arrived at their conclusions through emotion.

these bozos are trying to get more money. They had a bill in congress to jack up their take on passenger screening over 100%. Its blackmail.

Revolt seems inevitable. All over both the local and national news.

Well, there's revolt and then there's revolt.

There will be no mass disobedience at the nations airports. It simply won't happen. Heck, National Opt-Out Day was too much.

The best that might happen is if enough of the traveling public makes enough of a stink with their elected officials, then Neffenger might get fired and replaced by someone else.

The "someone else", with a mandate to make the lines shorter, will do things like...

• Bring back Managed Inclusion II under a different name (temporarily)
• Put an expensive new program of "accelerated training" into place to get new TSOs on the line more quickly than the academy
• Change the rules for the academy so that only higher-ranking TSOs and training officers go there (and supposedly take the academy training home)
• Shuffle FSDs around the country like a set of cups and balls on a New York street corner in an attempt to fool the public into thinking that FSDs are being fired and new guys are coming in

Then, in a year or two, GAO will release test scores showing that TSA is still missing 75-95% of all threat items, and the cycle will repeat itself, with another "someone else" being brought in to raise the test scores, which he'll do by rehashing the same slowdown stuff that Nef has done.

Neither "someone else" will make any substantive changes like eliminating the war on water, taking even a single item off the prohibited list, or holding a single TSO accountable for blatantly breaking SOP or harassing a traveler.

There is a way to please both types: per-flight security check, with checkpoints at the gates.

Airlines could choose to operate flights as secure or non-secure. Passengers could purchase tickets for secure or non-secure flights, their choice. For example, an airline with hourly LAX-SFO could operate alternate flight as secure or non-secure. mahohmei would be happy, WillCAD's acquaintances too. Everyone is happy.

Naturally, non-secure flights would not be subject to the $5.60 9/11 Security Fee. So they would be $5.60 cheaper. It would take no time for the "I'd rather [insert insane random security procedure here] than explode in mid-air!" to change their minds.

Question. The volume of passenger's going through major american airports vs other global airport's around the world.

Why do you see these sort's of long waits and lines when other busy airports around the world don't have this problem and are able to allow for a good flow of passengers through both immigration AND security checks without these mega long and crazy waits to go through security screening?

Is it because the officer at each check point has a longer procedure to go through in order to vet a passenger is clear to pass or....???

Something is very wrong with the TSA system from my observation of the video's of the volume of passenger's has built up like that.

That and the inadequate number of security screening points for a greater number of passengers with sufficient staff to man the check points during peak hours.

Isn't the airport management also to blame?

Neffenger is a short-termer but a placeholder could be given the position to mollify some people.

Canine teams are being shuffled around so why not FSDs?

I still want to know how dogs speed up the screening process.