goalie

If the x-ray did not show any "anomaly" in the image of your wallet, then they cannot look/rifle thru your wallet and tell the TSO to stop! If you are threatened (n.b threatened as that's what it is) with d-y-w-t-f-t, inform the TSO that you will only have your wallet looked thru if 2 TSO's are present for dual custody purposes and that they are witnessed by an independent 3rd party and insist that the 3rd part be a LEO.

FriendlySkies

And I'm sure that's how it works at the checkpoint..

In any case, I would bet that if they find you are carrying a large amount of cash, specifically foreign currency, which I do on all of my trips, then that is grounds for being suspicious

+1

I am still amazed that we have to have conversations like this. You would think that somebody higher up would have grown a pair over the last ten years, and kicked TSA and their Hawaiian counter parts to the curb.

FaustsAccountant

The Screener would be guilty of tampering with federal mail-would that (legally) work?

I'm sure one of the TSA agents here would come up with an argument that they are exempt-but that aside, if they opened the envelope in which their name was not on it, would they be at fault?

Fisher1949

They airlines are headed for the abyss. I dumped all of my travel stocks in December and that was one of the best moves I've ever made. For the past ten years I always had at least one airline and two other travel related stocks selected on the basis of my experiences while traveling.

It's funny that some folks think that predictions of eminent airline decline are guesses rather than financial analysis. This is a certainty that has yet to play out.

I checked the market Friday and airline stocks are down over 37% against the Dow since 12/1/10. Coincidentally the week after scope and grope really got underway.

12/1/2010 4/29/2010 Change vs Dow
DJIA 11,052 12,728 +15.16%
DAL 13.88 10.33 -25.58% -40.74% Delta
UAL 28.37 22.82 -19.56% -34.73% United
AMR 8.56 5.87 -31.43% -46.59% American
LUV 13.42 11.75 -12.44% -27.61% Southwest

Based on the current barrel price of $128 gas will be $4.50 in most areas by mid-May. The current $4.00 prices are due to the $118/bbl costs a few weeks ago. Therefore the airlines will see a sharp spike in fuels costs mid-summer as their lock-ins expire and fares will increase or they will have to offset the losses through other cut backs.

Once the business traveler again becomes the visible and primary source of revenue for the airlines, they will be pulled into the TSA issue, assuming FFers complain en masse.

For now, the oblivious kettles keep the airlines flights full and allow them to sit on the sidelines except where the pilots and flight crew are affected.

My guess is that the airlines will be in serious trouble toward the end of the third quarter and they will be grasping at every opportunity or issue that will improve ridership. We need to make this a hot button topic with the airlines when that time comes and let them know that TSA is why we aren't flying.

Bart

The correct procedure is to run the wallet through the x-ray. However, it is not unusual for passengers to request that the wallet be physically inspected in their presence instead. It's a tough situation to be in either way for both TSO and passenger.

My advice: place your wallet inside your carry-on bag before you go through the AIT/WTMD (whichever applies at your departure airport). It gets screened with the rest of your property and will most likely be cleared by x-ray.

Mr. Elliott

I do exactly this, but go even farther, I place my wallet inside my hard shell attaché case, which has a built in combination lock and lock the case. My attaché case does not have anything in it that the ......... working the x-ray machine would deem suspicious.

If for any reason the ......... would find any reason to open and inspect my attaché case, lets see now, maybe for retaliation purposes, the minute the ......... touches my wallet, I will demand they stop and get an LEO over before they open my wallet, and I have no compulsion about telling the ......... my reason for calling for an LEO, that there have been too many thefts at the checkpoint and I do not trust any of them at all.

Mr. Elliott

FriendlySkies

When I do not have to opt-out, I keep my wallet in back pocket, along with my passport or other type of ID I am using (NEXUS, pp card)

If I have to opt-out of the Chertoff Cancer Box™, I will put everything in my pockets into one of my carry-on's, and lock that section.

Have not had any problems, yet. During my first opt-out, I just tossed my wallet on top of my bin when I was about the get groped, and nothing happened to it.

YCTTSFM

Useful advice, certainly better than in an open bin, but not foolproof.

My wallet has been specifically removed from deep inside my carry-on three times at two airports. Nothing else was looked at, the same wallet in the identically-packed carry-on did not alarm at previous airports same day, and no "contraband" was ever identified. The wallet is thin woven nylon. It carries only folding money, plastic ID and credit cards, no coins.

Each time my folding money was fanned through and/or counted. When I asked if there is something specific about it that causes confusion (since obviously they are not finding anything) I received unhelpful responses that "we can search anything we want, we don't have to tell you why."

FliesWay2Much

I agree 100%. I've been doing this since about 1978. It goes in there in the parking lot right after I put my parking lot ticket in it and comes out again in a men's room stall in the airside terminal. This is just good OPSEC, and I don't know why it's so difficult.

halls120

Good advice, and something I've been doing for years.

What I don't understand, though, is how TSA can justify a TSO leafing through someone's wallet and examining the cash contained within.

stifle

What the TSA is allowed to do and what it actually does are two entirely separate things. And until someone reins it in, we have a problem.

Mr. Elliott

In the lawsuit that the ACLU filed against the DHS, in regards to the campaigner for Ron Paul who was carrying $4700 in cash and was detained by the TSA, to get the ACLU to drop the lawsuit, the DHS agreed to limit their inspections to WEI and not take out and count the money passengers were carrying, but it looks like the TSA feels it does not have to abide by this agreement.

I wonder if the TSA, or the supervisor on duty be held in contempt of court?

If it happened to me, I would immediately demand the ......... stop their inspection, quoting the lawsuit settlement, and if they ignore me, demand an LEO be called, I would ask to LEO to document the inspection by viewing the tapes and I would then contact the Boston office of the ACLU as soon as I can and ask them if they could reopen the lawsuit because the TSA is still continuing to count passengers money in direct violation of the settlement.

Mr. Elliott

packet

When I complained and they brought over a supervisor, she also told me "You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do".

She then asked the TSO if I had already had the pat down. If I hadn't already, I probably would have gotten the resolution pat down because I pissed her off.

Really at this point, if I didn't have to fly for work, I wouldn't be flying anymore.

323power

I better start putting my license to carry up front in my wallet just to make them uneasy

Wally Bird

The TSA seems to take the position that a court decision applies only to that one particular case. In this case since there was a pre-trial settlement it's not binding to anything else unless as cited as precedent in another case. TSA knows such cases are extremely rare and is quite prepared to deal each time to keep it out of court.

Then of course there is the well-documented disconnect between official TSA policies and what individual checkpoint workers consider their entitlement to do whatever they damn well please.