Why do TSA agents at the podium care so much that you have your ID and BP in hand?
Oct 22, 2018, 2:18 am
#1
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Why do TSA agents at the podium care so much that you have your ID and BP in hand?
Please note I am not asking why do you, the passenger, care so much. You would like a fast moving line. But the TSA agent is paid hourly and if anything a slow line means more hours on the clock!
At airports where TSA agents take ID/BP readiness as a Very Serious Issue, waiting in line is a noisy experience. Every minute you are bombarded with aggravated barks of "have your boarding pass and ID ready!" This is needless stress, both for the agent and for us passengers. It's also futile: the passengers who need to hear the announcement are not listening!
At airports where TSA agents take ID/BP readiness as a Very Serious Issue, waiting in line is a noisy experience. Every minute you are bombarded with aggravated barks of "have your boarding pass and ID ready!" This is needless stress, both for the agent and for us passengers. It's also futile: the passengers who need to hear the announcement are not listening!
Oct 22, 2018, 3:52 am
#2
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IMHO - it is a game of blame.
When the line is moving slowly, you won't blame the persons in front of you stalling the lines. Instead, you blame the persons stationing at the checkpoint for working slow.
So TSA blames you back by yelling for IDs and BPs.
When the line is moving slowly, you won't blame the persons in front of you stalling the lines. Instead, you blame the persons stationing at the checkpoint for working slow.
So TSA blames you back by yelling for IDs and BPs.
Oct 22, 2018, 8:21 am
#4
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The agents may be paid hourly but they're not working extra hours if the line is moving slowly, they're likely working until the end of their shift and another person takes over for them regardless of how fast or slow the line had been moving.
Oct 26, 2018, 7:37 am
#6
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One of the few metrics that TSA does collect, and base managers' compensation on, is throughput. They are under pressure to make the line go faster.
Also if they don't process people at least as fast as they come in, then you get an ever increasing line, which means missed flights, which means nasty calls to execs & very bad TV coverage. They're quite sensitive about both of those.
Also if they don't process people at least as fast as they come in, then you get an ever increasing line, which means missed flights, which means nasty calls to execs & very bad TV coverage. They're quite sensitive about both of those.
Oct 26, 2018, 4:46 pm
#7
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One of the few metrics that TSA does collect, and base managers' compensation on, is throughput. They are under pressure to make the line go faster.
Also if they don't process people at least as fast as they come in, then you get an ever increasing line, which means missed flights, which means nasty calls to execs & very bad TV coverage. They're quite sensitive about both of those.
Also if they don't process people at least as fast as they come in, then you get an ever increasing line, which means missed flights, which means nasty calls to execs & very bad TV coverage. They're quite sensitive about both of those.
Oct 26, 2018, 9:39 pm
#8
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The agents were barely looking at people's IDs and boarding passes. One rapid swipe of the barcode -- beep -- "Next!" -- one passenger after another.
Oct 27, 2018, 5:32 am
#9
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This is worrisome from a security standpoint. I once entered a TSA PreCheck line that was moving at breakneck speed. When I got to the podium I found out why.
The agents were barely looking at people's IDs and boarding passes. One rapid swipe of the barcode -- beep -- "Next!" -- one passenger after another.
The agents were barely looking at people's IDs and boarding passes. One rapid swipe of the barcode -- beep -- "Next!" -- one passenger after another.
Oct 27, 2018, 10:06 am
#10
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This is worrisome from a security standpoint. I once entered a TSA PreCheck line that was moving at breakneck speed. When I got to the podium I found out why.
The agents were barely looking at people's IDs and boarding passes. One rapid swipe of the barcode -- beep -- "Next!" -- one passenger after another.
The agents were barely looking at people's IDs and boarding passes. One rapid swipe of the barcode -- beep -- "Next!" -- one passenger after another.
If airport security has done their job, I have no problem sitting next to the biggest bad guy on the planet on my plane.
To the best of my knowledge, no one has threatened the safety of a plane or a pax by carrying fake ID.
Nov 2, 2018, 7:21 am
#11
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TSA doesn't want dad handing them six boarding passes and vaguely pointing at five other family members and then they have to figure out who goes with what boarding pass and who is a member of this family of six and who is not.
Nov 2, 2018, 11:05 am
#12
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I wish that it were not the case, but it isn't. I don't need to be told how to make my way through a checkpoint in an efficient manner, but others do. If they are ahead of me, that slows me down. If someone makes it to the podium and starts unpacking their luggage to find their wallet, that is a delay for me.
As TSA new system in which is simply cans the ID and no longer needs to see a BP expands, this step will become even quicker.
As TSA new system in which is simply cans the ID and no longer needs to see a BP expands, this step will become even quicker.
Last edited by Often1; Nov 2, 2018 at 1:44 pm
Nov 2, 2018, 11:09 am
#13
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I would think that it's pretty obvious. There are plenty of people to be processed, the airport needs to throughput many travellers. Idiots fumbling with their documents at the desk just waste everyone's time. Not rocket science.
Nov 3, 2018, 1:15 pm
#14
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Maybe if the whole process of dealing with airports was less stressful, there would be fewer people "fumbling with their documents at the desk". Of course, TSA is a major source of that stress.
Nov 7, 2018, 7:57 am
#15
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The problem is that different airports and different countries have different procedures. I went through security at some airport recently (don't remember where) where they scanned my BP twice within 20 seconds, once on entering the security line and a second time on reaching the security check proper. There wasn't any line that day, which was why it was all of 20 seconds, the time to walk up and down a couple of zigzags. Other airports it's one single scan.