Something NEEDS to be done regarding TSA at EWR Terminal B
 

I travel on aircraft for a living. It takes a lot to phase me and I'm fairly laid back BUT it's to the point where traveling through TSA at all terminals at EWR is so bad that I have told my company that I need at least 2 hours to get thru security, and since my travel is all last minute/day of, I will be using JFK. I think United upper management needs to get involved. It is not TSA worker's fault as I assume they are following guidelines but can anyone tell my WHY when an item is flagged by the X-ray machine, they immediately run it through a second time? This jams up the lines terribly and PreCheck is just as long. Also, twice this week, a small box got caught in the machines, having to shut down the lane and get a very long pool stick to force the small box through, both times destroying the box. One of which was a part for a rocket that was going to space and could not be checked. What should have been a 10 minute precheck security experience took 90 minutes, many people missed their flights. To me EWR is the worst in the WORLD and I travel all over the world on multiple airlines through every airport in the world. Since United has no presence at JFK, and I just can't do EWR anymore, and I can't be alone. They need to reevaluate operations there and United needs to get involved IMO

Are you doing PreCheck?

Yes, of course, it doesn't help. It's HOURS long lately

I flew out of EWR Terminal C on Friday evening. The line with TSA Pre-Check took 10 minutes. I don't like EWR but I've never seen the TSA pre-check line take hours.

When I exited EWR in the evening of 12/30, I saw the line for general security check stretching well onto the second level of Terminal C. Not terribly surprising, IMO, with tons of people traveling. Now, if the Precheck side lanes (CLEAR and non-CLEAR) had similar delays, that would be a real issue.

I suspect that a lot of any recent issues have to do with extremely high levels of holiday travel, and I would expect that things should normalize this week. I'll ask my wife (who travels first among us this year, on Wednesday) how things are looking.

https://www.newarkairport.com/

(Live data).

Terminal CGates All GatesGeneral Line 39 minTSA Pre✓ Line 2 min


Are you doing tsapre with biometric face or tsapre

I don't think we have historical data for TSA, only historical data for customs

While EWR TSA is one of the worst (e.g., my belt would set off alarm when it doesn't anywhere else, no one is staffed at the secondary check, etc.), I have not encountered hours of waiting in line in the PreCheck line. I guess this might be possible if you were flying out of Terminal B, where the PreCheck line shuts down after 5 or 6pm, and then it becomes a nightmare.

Perhaps OP should invest in CLEAR to alleviate the issue. Also, with the fragile box, OP might want to use the lanes where there is a bin requirement.

Haven't been through EWR yet this year that comes Friday (Since Jan 1: CLE-IAD-RIC-IAD-CLE-IAD-RIC) but I'm rather familiar with all three of those and all airports feel like they're at about 70% of 'normal' and maybe 50-60% of what I was seeing in December, with the leisure/business mix still tilting more leisure than most of the year which I imagine will flip Monday as the holiday stragglers are likely flying today.

To the OPs comment about rerunning alarmed items I think if there are enough of those that are causing a meaningful impact on checkpoint performance, any process for clearing them will likely have a similar impact.
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Dec 29 and Jan 1. Both out of Terminal B, both evening flights to the west coast. And yes both times I entered precheck line between 4:30 and 5

I have only second-hand knowledge, but understand that the software for TSA scans includes randomly placed false positive images to keep the screeners from becoming complacent. [I do know the fellow who consulted for the TSA to determine the most efficient false positive rate, but he would not disclose it to me, nor the true positive rate. General learning theory suggests vigilance is highest with an error rate of about 20%, providing a first-order guess.] From a TSA staffer's perspective who has the knowledge that there are false positives inserted, I can imagine it is easier to re-screen an item rather than to search the bag when there is a positive finding, even though from the perspective of passenger throughput, it may be less efficient to do so.

Fairly peak leisure travel days -- best to aviod

Why Term B for UA flights?

If an item looks 'suspicious' or is not easily identifiable, AFAIK, they will run it through at a different angle, upside-down, or on a different side in order to get a better/different look at the curious object.


Many years ago, I used to travel with specialty tools, and this problem is not new to me. A simple solution is to pack a small item in multiple packages in order to increase its size.

those were just my last 2 flights..for an example that went out at the the the OR mentioned . the other 6 flights out of EWR on united out of EWR in December were also terrible. I fly almost daily, mostly internationally, but my flights out of EWR are by far the most stressful bc of TSA, and I am changing my travel as a result which will directly impact my spend on United.

UA does not manage the facilities in Terminal B. You might want to file the complaint through link provided earlier.