I wonder if the TSA will send out "secret shoppers" (at our considerable expense) to check to see if they are actually asking questions?

If a person puts a gun to your head and says give me your wallet or I will shoot and you do, was that an agreement on your part?

Yes. But I wouldn’t say they are so secret. It’s another way to provide TSA employees with international travel at taxpayer expense and to provide some kind of “career path” and employee morale boosting opportunities. Not new in the least.

It's one of those things one is forced to "agree" to whether :rolleyes:ne wants to or not.

To avoid playing semantics and parsing, and in the letter and spirit of the message which you quoted, it would be the victim agreeing and endorsing to being mugged. No opinion about that. :D

It's simply extortion - do as we tell you or you don't get to fly to the US.

None of these questions as I've read them are going to trip up an accomplished liar - just a dumb one.

I'm curious to know how this will play out with carriers OTHER than American Airlines.

We already know that American is way out of line ("Who's watching your kids?" Is the kind of question that would make want to call the police. Stranger danger in the worst way.)

But the other US carriers have typically been much more sane. The three or four questions are pointless, but they aren't intrusive or cause for concern. It's just a dumb show.

When they used to ask the questions on domestic flights, aviation lobbyist Mary Schiavo said, "Why would answering some questions to a skycap improve safety?"

I think I'm willing to tolerate a few eye-rolling questions to please the US government. The American Airlines craziness just gets worse every day. I find it insulting to the behavioral sciences that American believes that $10/hour Swissport check-in agents can take a class for a few hours and have the ability and authority to conduct behavioral analysis.

I have posed this question (in more polite terms) to the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security. I sent the email yesterday; I expect a pointless response that fails to answer the question.

One easy but imperfect way to improve this: look for a Known Traveler Number. If I have PreCheck, don't ask me how far I live from the airport or the names of my pets. I've already been vetted by CBPs systems, interviewed, fingerprinted, eyeprinted ("eye" have Nexus") so I think that carries a lot more weight than the name of my dog asked by a Swissport agent.

But that would be logical and a use of resources. This is about a show.

It’s indeed a show. While there may be some marginal deterrence aspect to the questions, it’s mainly about making it seem like something more is/was done and to have that as sort of a PR game to be exploited in one way or another.

It’s pretty easy to load someone else’s KTN into another passenger’s PNR; so just having a KTN entered in doesn’t really inspire much confidence. Also, while it’s possible for airlines to send over KTNs and see what it kickbacks at check-in, that’s not something available to all airlines flying to the US.

Looking forward to my flight tomorrow. :cool:

https://professional-troublemaker.co...ional-flights/

--Jon

I've experienced questioning several years ago on flights from India to LHR (VS) and to EWR (UA). I recall the VS questioning being a bit aggressive.

My favorite was LHR-IAD on UA. The ICTS agent asked what I do for work and I replied "radiation oncology," she was taken aback and goes "radiation?!" Think for a second she thought she caught someone (I'm also brown-skinned).

In contrast, the questioning from recent LIS-YYZ on AC was just about bags while the rest of my family on AA got the full interrogation. Think they even tried to ask my niece questions. She is 2...

IATA’s CEO referred to these US-demanded measures applicable to US-bound flights as “unilateral measures implemented without any prior consultation… That is something that is very concerning and disturbing....”? Doesn’t sound like much of an international agreement and endorsement of these measures applicable to a lot more US-bound flights today than say a month ago.

How is this going to go down on same day/ immediate turn where no passport control is required? say Singapore.

Passport control has n:eek:thing to do with it. They'll ask you at the gate as you go through security or as you attempt to board.

And if the traveler only speaks a language that none of the available airline personnel know? (I know a couple of elderly ladies - U.S. citizens - who speak only Navajo. Not likely they'll be traveling overseas, but the principle remains.)

If it can't happen, then the theater is pointless. If this exercise is to catch bad guys, there have to be some answers that bad guys would give that would ban them from the flight.