Today's IAH experience
Jul 27, 2011 | 11:51 am
#31
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 3,702
Hi folks - I hope all is well.
I just went through Terminal A security at IAH. I have made an entry at tsastatus.net as well. Here is my overview:
1. Document clerk immediately asked for my full name which I expected after having read the Houston thread. My exact words were "I usually pronounce it as {name} for those who have trouble reading." She replied in a very friendly manner that some names are difficult and how she hates to mispronounce people's names. I responded in a sarcastic tone "Yes, I'm sure that's exactly the case". She then smiled and said in a friendly tone, "Some people just hate it when their name is mispronounced". And I responded, "Some people just hate it when they are asked for information that is clearly right in front of them." She then decided the lies and smiles weren't working and said in a less friendly tone "It's security protocol, sir". I replied "Maybe your lies will work on someone else", snatched my BP, and walked away. I think she was shocked. Older woman.
2. Very few people in line but all were sent to the MMW. As I was moving my belongings toward the X-Ray a clerk said "do you have anything in your pockets, sir" to which I replied "I don't go through the nudie machines so call one of yer buddies over here to touch me". I stepped through and waited about 1 minute or less.
3. Extremely friendly guy came over and seemed to go out of his way to want to help. He smiled, asked which bags were mine, told me how quick this would be, carried my things to the chair, etc... He talked non-stop and I got the impression he was somewhat nervous. Before he said another word at the grope station I said "I wanna see new gloves right from the box". He graciously complied and even sterilized his hands first. He said "you seem like you've been through this before (laughing)" and I said "Sure have and I know the entire routine." He said "So you don't need the whole spiel?" I said "Not unless you plan on touching my testicles." He looked shocked and decided he better give the spiel to cover himself. I hummed and looked around while he talked and made it a point of ignoring him.
His grope was fast and pretty simple but that does not make it OK. He said "I'm pretty good at this cause I must have done thousands of them by now." I replied "If everyone loves the scanners so much as your agency constantly claims, then why are you doing so many gropes?" He gave some lame answer and realized he'd said the wrong thing.
After the swab was negative he asked if he could help me organize my bags as I got my stuff together. I replied, "Sure, might as well work for yer $10/hour." He organized by bags on the table and said have a nice day to which he did not get a response. I gotta hand it to him, he was good at staying calm because I can be a total prick-er when I wanna be!
I just went through Terminal A security at IAH. I have made an entry at tsastatus.net as well. Here is my overview:
1. Document clerk immediately asked for my full name which I expected after having read the Houston thread. My exact words were "I usually pronounce it as {name} for those who have trouble reading." She replied in a very friendly manner that some names are difficult and how she hates to mispronounce people's names. I responded in a sarcastic tone "Yes, I'm sure that's exactly the case". She then smiled and said in a friendly tone, "Some people just hate it when their name is mispronounced". And I responded, "Some people just hate it when they are asked for information that is clearly right in front of them." She then decided the lies and smiles weren't working and said in a less friendly tone "It's security protocol, sir". I replied "Maybe your lies will work on someone else", snatched my BP, and walked away. I think she was shocked. Older woman.
2. Very few people in line but all were sent to the MMW. As I was moving my belongings toward the X-Ray a clerk said "do you have anything in your pockets, sir" to which I replied "I don't go through the nudie machines so call one of yer buddies over here to touch me". I stepped through and waited about 1 minute or less.
3. Extremely friendly guy came over and seemed to go out of his way to want to help. He smiled, asked which bags were mine, told me how quick this would be, carried my things to the chair, etc... He talked non-stop and I got the impression he was somewhat nervous. Before he said another word at the grope station I said "I wanna see new gloves right from the box". He graciously complied and even sterilized his hands first. He said "you seem like you've been through this before (laughing)" and I said "Sure have and I know the entire routine." He said "So you don't need the whole spiel?" I said "Not unless you plan on touching my testicles." He looked shocked and decided he better give the spiel to cover himself. I hummed and looked around while he talked and made it a point of ignoring him.
His grope was fast and pretty simple but that does not make it OK. He said "I'm pretty good at this cause I must have done thousands of them by now." I replied "If everyone loves the scanners so much as your agency constantly claims, then why are you doing so many gropes?" He gave some lame answer and realized he'd said the wrong thing.
After the swab was negative he asked if he could help me organize my bags as I got my stuff together. I replied, "Sure, might as well work for yer $10/hour." He organized by bags on the table and said have a nice day to which he did not get a response. I gotta hand it to him, he was good at staying calm because I can be a total prick-er when I wanna be!
Jul 27, 2011 | 11:59 am
#32
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 3,702
Actually, the TSO encounted by the OP at the TDC was doing what all of you have been screaming for - following TSA policy, not making up their own rules, and being consistent. You may not like the policy, but that is a different world than this TSO being a "jerk".
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:03 pm
#33
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: IAH mostly.
Programs: I still call it Onepass every now and then. Platinum.
Posts: 500
The "just doing their jobs" crap doesn't fly. If it were an honorable honest job - like, I don't know, milking cows or working on a garbage truck - then yeah, they deserve to be treated with respect. Working for TSA is not honest work. It's a dishonorable job that perpetrates a corrupt and immoral system.
People who choose to go work for TSA don't deserve respect. They are purposely inserting themselves into an immoral system - in exchange for nothing more than slightly better than fast-food wages and a secure government job - and they deserve to be reminded of that at every turn. If you think so lowly of the Constitution that you're willing to violate the rights of your fellow citizens for $30,000 (and despite what some judge somewhere may say, searching someone and presuming guilt without cause is a violation of the natural rights of human beings), then screw you, you're going to have to earn every penny when you deal with me and I will take every opportunity I can to remind you of how low and immoral a person you must obviously be.
(and, for what it's worth, as I have posted in other threads, this is why TSO's always seem to be such ignorant lower class losers - anyone with a shred of self-respect and education would see the immorality of it all and not go through with the job... so by design, they hire ignorant losers and thugs because those are the most loyal soldiers...)
If working at TSA became unpleasant enough to make people think twice about taking the job - and if enough passengers resisted against the incremental invasiveness of it all and raised hell - then TSA would eventually go away. But because so many people seem to think that being "nice" is more important than their liberty, TSA takes that as acquiescence and approval and the crap continues and expands.
An unfortunate consequence of Godwin's Law is that anyone who compares anything to Nazis nowadays is often dismissed as being overly dramatic and exaggerative, but the truth is, "just following orders" wasn't a legitimate excuse after World War II and "just doing their job" doesn't justify what TSA allows its agents to perpetrate on innocent Americans, either.
People who choose to go work for TSA don't deserve respect. They are purposely inserting themselves into an immoral system - in exchange for nothing more than slightly better than fast-food wages and a secure government job - and they deserve to be reminded of that at every turn. If you think so lowly of the Constitution that you're willing to violate the rights of your fellow citizens for $30,000 (and despite what some judge somewhere may say, searching someone and presuming guilt without cause is a violation of the natural rights of human beings), then screw you, you're going to have to earn every penny when you deal with me and I will take every opportunity I can to remind you of how low and immoral a person you must obviously be.
(and, for what it's worth, as I have posted in other threads, this is why TSO's always seem to be such ignorant lower class losers - anyone with a shred of self-respect and education would see the immorality of it all and not go through with the job... so by design, they hire ignorant losers and thugs because those are the most loyal soldiers...)
If working at TSA became unpleasant enough to make people think twice about taking the job - and if enough passengers resisted against the incremental invasiveness of it all and raised hell - then TSA would eventually go away. But because so many people seem to think that being "nice" is more important than their liberty, TSA takes that as acquiescence and approval and the crap continues and expands.
An unfortunate consequence of Godwin's Law is that anyone who compares anything to Nazis nowadays is often dismissed as being overly dramatic and exaggerative, but the truth is, "just following orders" wasn't a legitimate excuse after World War II and "just doing their job" doesn't justify what TSA allows its agents to perpetrate on innocent Americans, either.
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:11 pm
#34
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 3,702
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:21 pm
#35
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 3,728
That's honest work. Hard, dirty, absolutely necessary.
An unfortunate consequence of Godwin's Law is that anyone who compares anything to Nazis nowadays is often dismissed as being overly dramatic and exaggerative, but the truth is, "just following orders" wasn't a legitimate excuse after World War II and "just doing their job" doesn't justify what TSA allows its agents to perpetrate on innocent Americans, either.
Yes, you can. You can say, "These policies are stupid, and I refuse to implement them."
The only reasons the TSA has gotten so far in violating passengers is that 1) the passengers haven't complained enough, and 2) there are still people willing to violate their fellow citizens for a mess of pottage.
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:26 pm
#36
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 642
The ones that make me giggle are the TSA clerks who say, "Well, I think these policies are stupid too, but I can't change them."
Yes, you can. You can say, "These policies are stupid, and I refuse to implement them."
The only reasons the TSA has gotten so far in violating passengers is that 1) the passengers haven't complained enough, and 2) there are still people willing to violate their fellow citizens for a mess of pottage.
Yes, you can. You can say, "These policies are stupid, and I refuse to implement them."
The only reasons the TSA has gotten so far in violating passengers is that 1) the passengers haven't complained enough, and 2) there are still people willing to violate their fellow citizens for a mess of pottage.
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:27 pm
#37
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 616
That's my approach too. I just find it easier and easier to become a jerk lately. That's not entirely the TSA's fault. The airlines are helping too.
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:32 pm
#38
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 616
The TSO at the TDC was not doing that to be a jerk. It is now policy at several airports, possibly to expand to many/all airports. But I guess many here will see a TSO carrying out a policy they do not like as that TSO being a jerk. Like the guy last year who filed a complaint about me because I was "rude" for using the HHMD on him when he alarmed the WTMD.
What happened to the HHMD? I never see it used anymore. My home airport is small and does not have the scanners yet. I almost always set off the WTMD, but I rarely set it off elsewhere. That instantly leads to a full body patdown. I used to get the HHMD treatment, but haven't for a long while. I preferred that to the patdown.
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:38 pm
#39
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: where the chile is hot
Programs: AA,RR,NW,Delta ,UA,CO
Posts: 49,087
Not me.
I grovel, I keep my eyes down, I "sir" or "ma'am" everyone. I bend over backwards to try to keep up with whatever the 'bark du jour' is about so I don't inconvenience someone or draw retaliatory attention to myself.
Doesn't matter. It's the luck of the draw what kind of rules and behavior are in place.
I consider myself lucky that I am not wheelchair-bound, don't have any surgical appliances that mandate a backroom strip, I'm not a little child being told to let a stranger run his hands through my hair. I'm just a charter member of the 'grope-for-life' club because I'm unable to assume and hold the position.
I grovel, I keep my eyes down, I "sir" or "ma'am" everyone. I bend over backwards to try to keep up with whatever the 'bark du jour' is about so I don't inconvenience someone or draw retaliatory attention to myself.
Doesn't matter. It's the luck of the draw what kind of rules and behavior are in place.
I consider myself lucky that I am not wheelchair-bound, don't have any surgical appliances that mandate a backroom strip, I'm not a little child being told to let a stranger run his hands through my hair. I'm just a charter member of the 'grope-for-life' club because I'm unable to assume and hold the position.
Jul 27, 2011 | 12:54 pm
#41
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Finally back in Boston after escaping from New York
Posts: 13,684
I agree with Ari. I am vexed by this action you took.
I am someone who finds the feckless incompetence of the TSA beyond compare but I normally do not "take the first shot" when it comes to checkpoint experiences, nor do I find the need to act foolish and uneducated in public useful. You actually got a TSA clerk who offered to help you with your bags, something many of us punish the TSA for not normally doing, and you acted small and provencial. Also, like it or not a TSA pay band E clerk makes more than $10 an hour (The "whether they should" debate is for a different thread).
Had the clerk been rude, flippant, or otherwise a "jerk" I might understand responding in kind but from your story it seems you had the best possible experiance given the unfortunate TSA circumstances we are dealt today.
What you did solved nothing re
olicy, other than possible taking one of the few courteous TSA clerks and making them possibly hate the next pax a little more (granted that is something they shouldn't do but we all know the history of the TSA).
I am someone who finds the feckless incompetence of the TSA beyond compare but I normally do not "take the first shot" when it comes to checkpoint experiences, nor do I find the need to act foolish and uneducated in public useful. You actually got a TSA clerk who offered to help you with your bags, something many of us punish the TSA for not normally doing, and you acted small and provencial. Also, like it or not a TSA pay band E clerk makes more than $10 an hour (The "whether they should" debate is for a different thread).
Had the clerk been rude, flippant, or otherwise a "jerk" I might understand responding in kind but from your story it seems you had the best possible experiance given the unfortunate TSA circumstances we are dealt today.
What you did solved nothing re
olicy, other than possible taking one of the few courteous TSA clerks and making them possibly hate the next pax a little more (granted that is something they shouldn't do but we all know the history of the TSA).Then I am equally guilty of being a jerk and I admit it and although I may have toned down the way I act towards a clerk who was courteous like this one, I smile at the thought of being able to do anything LEGALLY possible to make the clerks working life as miserable as inhumanly possible^ and if that carries over into their nonworking life, then so be it^, they are the ones that made the choice to work for an organization that is hated and despised by travelers from all over the world, they are the ones that choose to stay and enforce TSA upper managements orders to grope and molest people at the checkpoint, to force or coerce people into the radiation porno machines or submit to being sexually assualted as the only alternative to not flying
"trying to get on their nerves" you say?, ABSOLUTLEY^
"testing their professionalism"? then its a very short test in most cases
If this disgusts you, I make no apolgies, I have not read every post in this thread yet, but I am betting that the majority are in agreement with the OP.
"trying to get on their nerves" you say?, ABSOLUTLEY^
"testing their professionalism"? then its a very short test in most cases
If this disgusts you, I make no apolgies, I have not read every post in this thread yet, but I am betting that the majority are in agreement with the OP.
Mike
Jul 27, 2011 | 1:01 pm
#42
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: California. USA
Posts: 1,404
The TSO at the TDC was not doing that to be a jerk. It is now policy at several airports, possibly to expand to many/all airports. But I guess many here will see a TSO carrying out a policy they do not like as that TSO being a jerk. Like the guy last year who filed a complaint about me because I was "rude" for using the HHMD on him when he alarmed the WTMD.
Actually, the TSO encounted by the OP at the TDC was doing what all of you have been screaming for - following TSA policy, not making up their own rules, and being consistent. You may not like the policy, but that is a different world than this TSO being a "jerk".
Actually, the TSO encounted by the OP at the TDC was doing what all of you have been screaming for - following TSA policy, not making up their own rules, and being consistent. You may not like the policy, but that is a different world than this TSO being a "jerk".
I cant count the times when I get back "what" and not with a happy face.
Jul 27, 2011 | 1:38 pm
#43
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: BOS and vicinity
Programs: Former UA 1P
Posts: 3,730
Will it be like the ID thing--if you "willfully refuse" to pronounce your name, no flight, but if TSA (subjectively) decides you are unable to pronounce it, you get to fly?
Since when are Americans required to answer interrogations from government agents to go about their business? Policy or not, this one will be interesting when tested in court.
Jul 27, 2011 | 1:48 pm
#44
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: California. USA
Posts: 1,404
And what is TSA's response to a passenger who refuses to go along with this unpublished, unstated policy and pronounce their name? Seriously. I may find myself in this situation soon and would like to know.
Will it be like the ID thing--if you "willfully refuse" to pronounce your name, no flight, but if TSA (subjectively) decides you are unable to pronounce it, you get to fly?
Since when are Americans required to answer interrogations from government agents to go about their business? Policy or not, this one will be interesting when tested in court.
Will it be like the ID thing--if you "willfully refuse" to pronounce your name, no flight, but if TSA (subjectively) decides you are unable to pronounce it, you get to fly?
Since when are Americans required to answer interrogations from government agents to go about their business? Policy or not, this one will be interesting when tested in court.
Jul 27, 2011 | 2:09 pm
#45
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: IAH mostly.
Programs: I still call it Onepass every now and then. Platinum.
Posts: 500
That's it right there. Glad to see a fellow traveler who understands the big picture, too.