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As an update to this week's trip, I passed through ORD Terminal 3 on Thursday. I use the checkpoint by the AA international check-in, since it is rarely crowded. Unfortunately, only one WTMD was in operation, so it was quite slow. There was no barking whatsoever - it was the quietest checkpoint I can remember in ORD. However, despite the presence of several TSO's doing nothing, when a pax tripped the WTMD alarm, they stopped all other passengers while they resolved the alarm through wanding and groping. No barking, but horrendous inefficiency.
Now, on to DTW, North Terminal. I checked in at 1:30, and the place was mostly empty (kudos to the new terminal!). Despite the low pax density, there was some mid-level barking about showing the BP. It's amazing that a brand-new checkpoint of this size would be designed without a dedicated haraSSSSment line. Anyway, I went to the gate, where the flight was forecast with a 30 minute delay, where I saw about 7 of the crispy blue shirts sitting in the boarding area. Yup, they were there for gate gropes. :td: When the very late boarding process finally started, we were advised that we would have to show ID again to board (as if that improves safety). The gropists were assembled inside the jetway, giving some pax the full treatment, and blocking and delaying the boarding process. I was excused and did not have to show ID. But with 7 of them in there, a lot of people were being snagged, resulting in a further-delayed flight - it took about 40 minutes to complete boarding on a 737. |
Originally Posted by SJCFlyerLG
(Post 10579519)
However, despite the presence of several TSO's doing nothing, when a pax tripped the WTMD alarm, they stopped all other passengers while they resolved the alarm through wanding and groping. No barking, but horrendous inefficiency.
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In the past quarter, I've seen TSA in AUS, BDL, BOS, CVG, DFW, IAH, ORD, and RIC. The 5:00AM crew at BDL was the best I've ever seen, one even complimented me on how well and cleanly I packed my bag (a first). IAH were definitely the grumpiest, but the overall tone seems to have relaxed over the past few quarters.
Cheers, -Andrew |
I am very sorry to report a very positive story. :p
I am a very frequent traveller - both TA and US domestic - and I have never gotten the apparently dreaded SSSS. But for some reason myself and my entire family got it last Friday at MCO. And I must say that they were very nice and courteous about it. My two kids (8 and 10) got high-fives and were never touched until we had had a chance to explain the situation to them. They were mystified by the aluminium case in my son's case (poker chips) but only laughed when we pointed the truth about the contents out to them after no less than 5 runs through the scanner. I fully agree that the procedures themselves are moronic to say the least but these guys actually performed a decent job. And at a busy MCO even. And of course we were at the airport in good time so the 15 minutes or so extra didn't matter. And, after 17 days in Orlando, having other grown-ups take charge of your kids can actually be a blessing :cool: cheers idi |
My recent experience?
Sullen and rude 10/18 at IAD, bearable at LIH on 10/24. All of you who are seeing improvement are just imagining things. TSA is still a useless bureaucracy that is always looking for ways to make itself relevant. |
BOS Terminal A - Monday afternoon 20 October:
Very light traffic at the security checkpoints. I cleared the ID checker and lined up for the WTMD. There were (3) ID checkers working three different short lines. There were (2) additional TSA-er's (SPOT I assume, but I'm no professional). Both were standing post ID checker, pre-WTMD and looking out over the shoulders of the ID checkers towards the corrals. Two gentlemen of Asian descent were snaking through the long but empty corrals, decided to take a short cut, bypassed the ID checker, and got in line at the WTMD behind me. None of the (5) blue shirts pre-WTMD caught this, even the two for whom that was likely their main assignment. They were looking at their shoes. I mentioned to the two passengers that they were required to have their IDs checked. No problem; they went back under the corral webbing to get their IDs checked. None of the blue shirts caught this either, or so it would appear from my untrained eye. No barking at this checkpoint. |
Flew out of BOS terminal B on Wednesday. Barker was in full force. Some woman with a voice like a fog horn. Guy in front of my set off the WTMD. She yelled him that he should take off his belt "like I told you to do 5 times already". Of course it was actually the forgotten cell phone in his pocket that was the problem.
So much for the disappearance of barkers in BOS. |
LAX and ORD were still barking like mad this week. I encountered a new one in ORD, however. It's usually the Moat Dragon that handles the barking. This time it was the TDC. She was howling the usual drivel about liquids and other useless crap. Amazingly, the Moat Dragon didn't give a damn about boarding passes - I could have been SSSS'ed and wouldn't have mattered.
Of course I felt much safer after they sent a guy out begging to the other PAX in line to find a bag for his cologne. Once that cologne was in a plastic baggie, it was totally safe and non destructive to the people in the airport. Lame. Kip is a Jackhole. TSA'ers in general are Jackholes. |
Originally Posted by PhlyingRPh
here you are...
1) Multiple TSO's barking at pax at the checkpoint. Sounds like Spitalfields at 5 AM. I am preparing trays to pass through the x-ray when one of them starts barking at me, mimicing everything I'm doing. "Now take out your laptop", "Don't forget to remove your shoes", "Make sure you have your boarding pass". I'm getting a bit peeved so I blurt out "Are you a tosser in real life or just in the workplace?". It went downhill from there and things ended in me reusing a secondary, declaring that I would not be traveling, exiting the checkpoint, reprinting my BP and entering another checkpoint. 2) TSO's not following policy re/ diabetic supplements in multiple locations. I withdrew from one checkpoint. At another, the supervisor was using delay tactics to intimidate me, the terminal manager got involved and decided to practice medicine without a licence, declaring the particular supplement ineffective. I grabbed it and left, expecting the LEO who was standing in the corner watching the whole sorry affair to arrest me but he just took off in the other direction on his bike. 3) Three bottles of water accidentally left in bag. I apologized when they caught it but the TSO decided to make a big deal out of it and threatened to call the police, to which I replied "Please do call the police. I'd love to see their reaction when you tell them why you have wasted their time". End result: half arsed secondary and let go with a stern warning. 4) TSO leafing through all pages of my passport. She gets irritated when I ask her if I can help her find the ID page (the one I presented her with - wide open in the first place). She calls for a secondary. I call for a supervisor to state I have been selected for a retaliatory secondary and explain what happened. The pax behind me (another FT'er as it happens) chimes in to defend me and we both get full scale secondaries. 5) I am selected for a secondary and am led out of sight of my belongings. I tell the TSO that I'd like to remove my three trays and two carryon's from the conveyor so that my stuff does not hold up the line and inconvenience anyone. "It's too late - once you walk into ""the secondary zone"" you cannot leave." I tell him I'd like to at least face my belongings and am reminded of this mythical "secondary zone". I tell him I am going to get my belongings whether he likes it or not and that when I get back to have his supervisor and the terminal manager waiting for me. He shouts something that I ignore completely. The supervisor is not happy with him for not following proper procedure to perform a secondary and 20 minutes later I am on my way. 2...Your meds are your meds. The end.......Arrest you? That would have been a really good thing for you in the long run. 3...You tell them you need them for your medical issue. The end. 4...If you are sure it will happen then you give them as much grief as possible. Nothing to lose. 5...Good job for not leaving your stuff.^ This is to all and not just the quoted: I have never had what I would call a negative issue with the TSA. I simply make sure I know what they know and have all guidelines in my pocket for perusal in case they need to be reminded. I have not seen a noticed decrease, nor increase in goofballness by them toward others in the past few. |
Wirelessly posted (Apple iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)
I'm guessing none of you have been at LGA recently. Plenty of barkers there still. |
Originally Posted by SJCFlyerLG
(Post 10531452)
I have always found the SNA TSA to be among the most reasonable.
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