littlesheep

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PWM 22

The Portland Jetport (Portland Maine- PWM) is about 2.5 hours north and does not have scanners yet.
You can take a Concord Coachlines bus directly from BOS to the Concord/Amtrak station in Portland, Maine and then a taxi to the jetport is well under $15. (Taxi's always right out front of station)

MHT- Manchester, New Hampshire is also nearby but I have no experience with their security systems and getting to them from BOS.

Best of Luck!

PVD (TF Green in Providence, Rhode Island) HAS scanners- not a viable alternative to BOS

littlesheep

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BearX220

Best thing is for you to cancel your ticket out of Logan now and rebook with a PWM departure. (MHT is closer and very easy to reach from Boston but I don't know what the scanner deployment situation is like there right now.) It would be expensive and disruptive for you to go to BOS, go through the opt-out / no-patdown / TSA standoff / escorted-from-the-airport drama, then buy a new ticket from PWM on the spot.

Have you seen the rundown of scanner-status reports from US airports in the sticky at the top of this forum? If you're flying United out of Boston the list suggests that there is one checkpoint in Terminal C without the new scanners; all other terminals have them.

As for whether you'll be put on some no-fly list for refusing to be raped in public... there is some evidence, yes, that the Obama administration considers refuseniks "domestic extremists" and may be compiling a list. People who've opted out of the scanners report TSAs taking down their personal information, asking for their Social Security numbers (which you don't have to supply), writing down their flight data, etc. Hard to say if this is just small-bore bullies trying to intimidate you or a more concerted effort to identify and track opponents of the scanners.

nhcowboy

(1) Try negotiating with the airline. Wait and see if you have a problem at Logan . . . maybe you'll get lucky! If not, go to a ticketing agent at the airport immediately, explain to them why you weren't able to take your scheduled flight, and see if they would be willing to transfer your departure to another airport. Neither Manchester, NH nor Portland, Maine has scanners yet, as far as I know. (But you should check the thread that specifically addresses this question.) If you get to the airport on time, and are unable to make your flight due solely to security, the airline may be willing to help you out.

(2) You say "the company" paid for your flight. I can't tell from this whether you're an employee or an independent contractor. If you're an employee, it would not be unreasonable to request that your employer accommodate you by transferring your departure to an airport without scanners.

Be aware, though, that the absence of scanners does not mean that you are necessarily safe from the enhanced patdown procedure. There have been plenty of reports on this forum of enhanced patdowns being initiated for a variety of reasons other than scanner opt-outs. If you alarm the WTMD, you are certainly at risk. But variables such as clothing style can also trigger enhanced patdowns. So you could end up traveling all the way to Maine - just to find yourself targeted for an enhanced patdown when you get there!

gojirasan

You could also take a bus from South Station to Montreal and fly out of YUL. I think it takes 6-8 hrs IIRC. There are many buses per day. Check the Greyhound schedule. I've done it many times and it's not unpleasant. It was also pretty cheap last time I checked. Montreal is a lovely city. I lived there for a while. The hotels are not too expensive depending on what you think of as expensive. I used to stay at a nice place downtown for only 55 CAD per night, but that was some years ago.

The problem with this strategy is Canada does use mmw scanners. Not sure about the situation at YUL specifically (would make a nice thread). I think you can opt out though and get a non-genital patdown, but I'm not sure. I was planning to search for that and start a CATSA at YUL thread at some point if necessary.

You can also just keep doing Double Opt Outs and rescheduling your flight until you get lucky and are not selected for the x-ray scanner. A TSO mentioned a 20% chance of being selected. Of course all bets are off if you are a pretty girl.

littlesheep

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BearX220

That's pretty crazy advice considering that you'd stop at both Manchester NH and Burlington VT, and go through a lengthy border crossing check, on the way.

The 20-percent number is inoperative in the case of young attractive women. There are tons of reports of TSOs procuring a parade of cute women for the Nude-o-Scopes, presumably to entertain their nude-image-watching buddies in the remote room, while not caring whether lumpy middle-aged men like me go through the thing or not. Search this forum for the word "cutie," there's a long thread on this. This phenomenon should worry and outrage all women. TSA is profiling, all right -- but not to find terrorists.

Thank God I don't have a young daughter. If I saw her abused by TSA in this way they'd need medics at the checkpoint soon enough, and not for her.

Yes. When you enter the system through PWM and change planes at IAD or ORD you will not have to go through security again. Recommend you try to transfer at ORD; IAD / Dulles is just awful.

PS If you do this, please do write to Massport, the authority that runs Logan Airport, and tell them you are avoiding BOS because of the Nude-o-Scopes plus widespread reports of TSA abuse. It's costing them revenue when you do that.

littlesheep

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gojirasan

The advantage of YUL is you are dealing with CATSA instead of TSA. That's not a subtle difference. I have not heard that CATSA was doing the genital groping or at least not with such enthusiasm. I think the worst you would get from CATSA is a very slight karate chop to the beaver. No butt crack or waistband massage or peaking down your front. In Manchester and Maine you are still dealing with TSA goons. Even if they don't have the new scanners it doesn't mean you won't be subjected to a patdown. OTOH, you may end up walking through the WTMT with no patdown at all at one of those airports, which would be an even better outcome than YUL.

Probably the best plan would be to plan to fly out of MHT (assuming they don't have the scanners) unless they ask to grope you. In which case you can opt out of the grope and get on a bus to Montreal to try your luck with CATSA. Or just reschedule your flight and stay at a hotel in Manchester (much cheaper than Boston) until your next flight. If they don't have the machines it's highly unlikely you would get selected again for secondary. Well, unless they remembered you from last time that is. Hopefully you could go through a different checkpoint or get different people there who wouldn't recognize you.

FWIW, the border check does not usually take all that long. No more than 20 minutes by bus the last time I went. I was detained there for like 4 hours once but that's another story.

littlesheep

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BearX220

Do you have blue jeans? The best thing would be jeans and a polo shirt or demure buttondown blouse. Loose-fitting pants (like painter's pants) have been known to earn the wearer a punitive intimate patdown. I hate to be direct, but women wearing loose/baggy clothes have had the tops of their inner thighs and vulva palpated by TSOs using their fingertips / front of hand, not back of hand as policy dictates. Skirts and dresses are a big mistake; women have been asked or instructed to disrobe so the TSO can gain access to the inside tops of their legs, etc.

You can minimize the chances of this kind of thing by wearing jeans or chinos that fit. They don't have to be supermodel-snug, but not too loose or shapeless either. As for the overall look, in general I think professional is best because TSOs on power trips are marginally less apt to muck with people they think know the ropes. Guys with blazers and laptop bags draw less grief than guys with backpacks and flip-flops. (Of course as a young woman you are more at risk anyway.)

I would avoid a frumpy counterculture look as this may be seen as a political challenge and some TSO will set out to teach you an unwanted lesson about Respecting the State.

As for outdoorsy... if you depart from PWM the L.L. Bean look will blend you right in I guess.

gojirasan's advice about CATSA at YUL is inoperative as you would pre-clear US customs and security before departing YUL. You're subject TSA policy up there anyway. This is so you can just pull up to a domestic terminal in the US on arrival without having to go to a customs line. You don't go through TSA lines again in the State when arriving from most airports in Canada; it's just like deboarding any domestic flight into the regular concourse.

HighPotter

Suck it up, and do what it takes to fly home.
Just one time for crying out loud. Not only that, but you have a very good chance of absolutely NOTHING happening( Just the metal detector)
And then you will be home before you know it.

Then never fly again until things change. ( If you have that ability)

And yes, I am being serious.


HP

BearX220

Do you also tell victims of sexual assault to stop being such babies? Do you tell children that having strangers touch them all over isn't that big a deal?

If we don't get ten million littlesheeps drawing their own lines in the sand out of self-respect and conscientious defiance, within ten years DHS will be standing outside your local Safeway waiting to insert an anal probe before you can go in and buy Cheez-Its.

I say fight the power.

gojirasan

Good point. I forgot that you have to go through scanners again to go from an international leg to a domestic leg. There was an example posted here of someone who was able to double opt out of that situation but his arrival airport was also his final destination. So he just wanted to leave the airport.

Wow this situation is really a bigger problem than I had realized. I mostly fly international. So I thought that if I can just take care of my departure situation I might be okay. I didn't think that I would have the same situation on the return flight. On the return flight a double opt out would leave me stranded in a big way.

I guess Manchester may be your best option then. Have you checked to see if they in fact don't have the scanners? Maybe I'll start flying out of there too.

As for the clothes thing just don't wear anything loose. That in itself is a reason to get groped. You might consider spandex until after you get through security. Yes, you might look a bit like a prostitute, but it's better than getting grope-raped or having to reschedule your flight. You could change into whatever you wanted in a bathroom after the checkpoint.