techie

USA Today reporting that TSA lanes are getting longer: https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...nes/873940001/

GUWonder

The solution: sending a lot more passengers through as PreCheck type passengers. At ORD today again, they used dogs to make sure that those flying out of T3 could keep their shoes on and not remove anything to be sceeened even for those without Precheck boarding passes.

Boggie Dog

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...reening-179643

Quote:

With TSA on the ropes, holiday travel may be a bear

​​​​​​​Seems like new procedures and continuing TSA screening failures might account for some of the slowdowns people are experiencing.

TWA884

Already being discussed here:
The linked article is about longer lines in the PreCheck lanes.

Please continue the discussion of longer lines in the PreCheck lanes in the above linked thread.

Thank you,

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

GUWonder

At ORD T3 today what I saw was passengers in non-Precheck lanes being given Precheck type screening after the dog use. The PC lane seemed nearly empty but the non-PC lane anything but even as it moved faster because of the dog use allowing for more to end up being screened the PC way. Overall, the regular lanes get shorter/move faster when there’s is dog use to increase the proportion of passengers who get PC type screening — that’s what Chicago’s mayor claimed and it seems to be correct for ORD T3. Elsewhere could be a different story.

DCP2016

Was at MCO yesterday, went through security on both airsides. The second time it was late enough where there wasn't much people in the airport anyway so was through Precheck in about 5 minutes. First time I'm glad I had Precheck, took about 10 minutes. Hired third party checkers were checking non-Precheck lanes before ID check and if you weren't flying out in 2 hours or less, you got the boot. No one over in the Precheck entrance (thank goodness) but if you got up to the ID check and found you didn't have Precheck, the ID agent kicked you out and sent you all the way back to the non-Precheck entrance. Was happy to see that.

RandomNobody

LAX TBIT Wednesday night had everyone go through the WTMD only, with the NOS machines off. Carry-ons were unmolested, nothing out, and shoes stayed on. Not even the Kippie bags had to be removed, as I realized after the checkpoint I had forgotten to take mine out due to ingrained PreCheck habit.

Boggie Dog

Seems long TSA lines has risen its ugly head again. On the Flyertalk homepage is a link for the following article.

Long TSA Lines Account for More Missed Flights

I believe that TSA makes the airport experience more dangerous for everyone. Stacking up a bunch of people anxious to make their flight can bring out all kinds of bad behavior. Then there is the well known lack of civility demonstrated by TSA employees to deal with and to top it all off if a terrorist(s) wanted to disrupt the transportation system see what happens if an attack on one or more security checkpoints was carried out at one or more airports across the country. With most folks having a cell phone it would be extremely easy to coordinate a massive attack on security lines across the country.

If the inconvenience of missing flights isn't bad enough look at the cost implications of 14% of missed flights. Those missed flights impacts the individual, the airline, the airport, and even things like business appointments, or other scheduled events.

TSA continues to make screening more difficult for passengers even deciding, with no public input, that powders have suddenly become an explosive threat item. Where is the evidence to support such claims?

For $8,000,000,000.00 (8 BILLION) tax dollars each year we get this TSA, and agency that makes the Three Stooges look like brain surgeons!

KDS

I came through LAX Terminal 3 on this past Sunday in early afternoon. Lines were over 45 minutes long; one line split into two lines and then recombined to one line, then split into three lines (I know, made no sense to me either). And there was a dangerous, 50-gallon container of liquid "bombs" sitting alongside the lines, 90% full of bottles that had been "voluntarily surrendered", and the TSA had no concern for the safety of the pax being threatened by that "bomb" material.

On June 11 in mid-morning, LAX TBIT had lines that were 15 - 20 minutes -- one very long line that snaked around for a dog to smell the pax THREE TIMES, then we still had to go through MMW.

Adding to that is the almost omnipresent warm temperatures in the checkpoints (even during winter) -- the equipment? -- that can fray nerves when confronted with TSA "efficiency" and "politeness" and "customer service" qualities. TSA is the worst part of traveling by air, by far.

TWA884

Recent posts discussing whether PreCheck is worth having were moved to the following thread:
TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

petaluma1

Were the dogs working the checkpoints? If not, isn't it interesting what TSA can do if they want to?

chollie

Were non-Pre pax pulling all food, electronics larger than a cellphone and powders and putting them in separate bins?

I can see the potential for big slowdowns as the powder restrictions are implemented, because I suspect the 'rules' will be a complete free-for-all. At least with liquids, you knew that generally you could take as much as you could fit in a Kippie bag, as long as it was in <3.1 ounce containers. It's not clear how TSOs are going to calculate the total volume of powders if you have, for example, multiple small packets of supplement powders as well as personal product powders instead of one clearly labelled container <350ml.

Will a screener confiscate my powders (all of them) if he thinks they look bigger than a soda can when they are piled together, even if the actual amounts total to less than the limit? I doubt that many are willing or able to stand there and add up the various amounts printed on individual packets and containers.

One example: a friend travels with individual prescription packets of a medical powder. The packets (sealed and sterile, obviously) are 4 grams each. How is TSA going to handle this?

RandomNobody

Nope. There were no dogs out during the inspection. This was back on Nov 22, 2017.

chollie

Tsk, tsk.

Are you folks really going to believe the word of random disgruntled pax or TSA's own spokesperson, Mike England?

Re: wait times. Far be it from me to cast doubt on the pronouncements of our fine folks at TSA, but I'd like to see the facts behind the repeated TSA statements that average wait times are no more than 20 minutes. I suspect they offset 45+ minute waits at large airports with minimal waits at small airports that service only RJs and/or run very few flights per day. At the very least, the stats should be broken down according to the relative size of the airport and the traffic it handles, but those stats might more closely resemble pax reports.

I do not ever recall reading about 2-hour waits at a small airport like PSC, for example.

Boggie Dog

Where does the time measurement begin and how often does TSA measure wait times? Does TSA measure during slack times? TSA can manipulate the reported wait times to be any number wanted.