Ugly TSA wait times at MSP?
 

I have a one-day turnaround LAX-MSP a week from Monday. My associate in MSP just texted me saying it's all over the news, extreme wait times at security causing people to miss flights. I don't think this person is much of a ff, so not sure what they mean by "extreme wait times" Any word on if it's really bad, and if it affects UA's gates? I land at 1:05pm, coming in on a flight from DEN that appears to have a decent on-time rate. Need about 3 hours to conduct the face-to-face business of the trip, and have a 6:11 departure MSP-SFO that appears to be having all sorts of trouble, running 2-3 hours late :mad:

This came up in the EWR long wait time thread - apparently the issues experienced at EWR are also occurring at MSP - so get back to the airport as soon as you can. Others here will hopefully have more personal experience - but it seems like the issue is real and should be taken into account when travelling...

Do you have Precheck? When you get back to the airport, use the line way to the right. That will be faster whether or not you have Precheck. I did it last week on a Friday morning with minimal wait time.

Apparently MSP has consolidated security into a north and a south checkpoint. Apparently the south checkpoint is all Delta (SkyPriority, Pre, etc), and the north check point is everybody including Delta economy. Reports on the Delta board are that at times there are lines for both checkpoints stretching at least halfway down the check in area, if not all the way to the other checkpoint. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...2-16-16-a.html

You don't have to be a Delta passenger to use Pre at south check point.

Thanks, everyone. I don't have Pre...no status with UA but traveling on a paid F fare. I'm pretty confident I can get back to the airport by 4:15 but wish I didn't have to rush.

I've had no problems at MSP lately. Maybe it's the timing of my flights. On Friday morning there was no wait at all in pre-check and the premier line looked reasonable too.

I've been flying in and out of MSP a lot recently. Got to MSP at about 5:15pm this past Thursday, and no line at all at the north precheck. A colleague who wasn't precheck was flying paid F on AA and made it thru security and to his gate (same concourse as UA) in 10 minutes. You should be fine arriving by 5pm on a Monday. Ask to be dropped at departures door 1 (not at the UA door). The new north security is just inside that door.

At MSP? Say it ain't so! I fly out of there all the time.

Neffenger visited MSP on Friday, the 11th, and, miracle of miracles, there were no lines that day.

O'Hare took over 80 minutes for non-precheck on Sunday. Person I was travelling with, almost missed their flight.

They only have 1 scanning machine, it's crazy. The airlines should also update the latest time they can take baggage if this remains an issue. Or advise a time to present to security.

Sometimes when lines are insane at one TSA checkpoint at ORD, I may even walk to another checkpoint or terminal to try to get airside faster (and/or at least get some exercise).

Yes this is what the lounge rep in Flagship told me, but non frequent flyers from ORD are really none the wiser to this.

Seems the airlines are making money demanding change fees when people are missing flights due to these. I think this is unethical and you should be on standby if you miss your flight due to security delays but made the advised cut-off times for airport check-in & baggage acceptance.

Realistically TSA need to get with the times with the equipment on-site. ORDs equipment may as well have been for a regional airport. 1 Xray and Nude-a-scan for regular and 1 Xray and metal detector for pre-check. Look to most Euro airports for examples of the trays being auto fed back to the start of the queue underneath the x-ray.