Government Shutdown & MSP security checkpoint closures
 

I looked on mspairport for wait times today and lo and behold, the little web bugs that show the wait times at T1 are missing. T2 is yellow, at 25 mins right now.

I chatted with a MAC rep via the sites IM capability to report the bug outage, and she said she had not heard of a 'sick-out' which I find maybe a tad suspect as a claim, but maybe she's not a news junkie. She didn't mention that the skyway was shut. She did say to show up 2.5 hours before MSP domestics, and 3.5 hours before Int'l flights. I'll stick with my recent trend of 1:45 to 2 hours, but even that is frustrating compared to when I used to aim for 75 minutes. Skyway was open on Dec 28 and it was a breeze.

Yes, yes I should have Pre. I keep meaning to get in the application for Global Entry, but that's shut for the moment anyway.

Edit: Flew out of DEN on Jan 5, and while wait times weren't too bad, it looked like about 1/4 fewer lanes were open that what I usually see. It could have been measured against known departure volume, since waits were acceptable. But it's my most frequent airport after MSP and it seemed a little scantly staffed.

Flew out this AM and went through Clear at North checkpoint. It was about the same as any other Monday, although they did have one additional belt open for security. Took about the same as any other time I have been through.

If you go to the North Checkpoint, there are only 2 Clear terminals so the south is likely your better bet if your flight departs from F/G. I was leaving from C so this made the most sense to me.

I sure hope that passengers aren't rude to these people who are currently working for free.
I don't blame single person for calling in when they've got bills to pay, such an avoidable mess, but it is what it is.

Agree. I've been making a point to thank all the TSOs I see individually for coming in.

The shutdown has actually put my new job (private sector) on hold until a relevant agency is back up and fully running, so I'm stuck past my original start date playing hurry up and wait myself. The impacts are becoming more and more reaching by the day. Hopefully this mess is all over soon enough.

In the meantime, be patient and kind to TSOs and CBP officers, I would hate to come to work without pay, possibly unable to make ends meet at the moment.

Yesterday (Sunday afternoon) South checkpoint was a gong show about noon for at least pre-check line as well as Clear. Pre-check was about 40 deep, and Clear line into pre-check had about 20? North checkpoint was a breeze, per usual. Sky priority line had at least 60 in it when I was checking in.

I’m not convinced there’s been that much of an impact at MSP yet, sans the checkpoints mentioned above being shutdown. More time is probably needed to know for sure, but I’ll have two more data points this week (when I normally use super secret checkpoint.)

And every single person going through those lines today paid $5.60 in their ticket price to get screened. Crazy that the government can withhold the direct service revenue from these workers.

Wonder if I handed a $5 bill to every TSA person at the checkpoint as an advance for their pay, what might happen? I can't find a definitive link discussing tipping TSA agents. Imagine that?

I do understand people have financial hardships in this situation. But, let's keep this factual. The TSA workers have not missed a paycheck yet. They might, if the shutdown continues through this Friday. Also, no one is working for free. They will eventually be paid for their time even if they miss a paycheck.

At the MAC meeting today, the head of TSA at MSP said he'd seen no increase in sick calls or other reductions in staff related to the shutdown. Not sure I believe it, but that was his contention at least.