There's a lot more than to "catch" the checked bags, I think any TSAer will back me up on that.

I respect and you are entitled to your opinion about the TSA being better. But understand that I see things differently -- in my eyes is boils down to is $5+ billion of our tax dollars to smile and for us to understand what they're saying easier. I just happen to think that's a waste of our money.

OK, I know this is a really stupid question, but who paid for security screening before our tax dollars did? Was it the airlines, the airports, what?

The airlines. Rumor has it they spent about $700 million annually.

If anything, the feds have thrown money at it, now spending over $5.5 billion annually.

At many airports, especially smaller ones, the dominant airline at that airport controlled security, hired the contractors and split the tab among the various airlines.

"who often did not speak English (even when they thought they were speaking English)."

Actually this is one of the largest problems with all the American travel industry in general. Lack of person who speak another language. Even airport signs and PA announcements are rarely in a language other than English. Overseas, almost every sign is in many languages. Including road signs.

In international airports, everyone including TSA should try to have someone who knows some foreign languages, for the benefit of tourists who do not speak English. I read the standards for a FA for one Asian airline, they want FAs who speak their native tongue, English, and preferably one other language.

In somewhere like MIA, having screeners who speak Spanish and Portuguese would be a big plus. In JFK in front of the AF terminal, some French would help, elsewhere some Japanese or Chinese or . . .

The travel industry employees I meet overseas are much better multilingual than in the US. I feel sorry for a foreign traveler who comes to the US and knows little English. This cannot be an easy country for them to visit.

Sorry, Whirledtraveler, but I disagree to the point of considering this thread invalid! Everytime I have watched a screener work, encountered one in the 'real world' or spoken with one, he or she has been young. VERY young. MADDENINGLY young! So I beg to differ with your idea that they are all seeming to be older, and...

...wait a minute! You ARE referring to MENTAL, as opposed to CHRONOLOGICAL age here, right???

The current TSA SOP, at least at IAD Int'l connections, is for the screeners to raise their voice and give a colder stare at the individual as the individual tries to understand what is being yelled at them.

Realizing that I can't speak for all airports, I'll share some insights with you. Starting pay for screeners is not great if you wish to raise a family, own a home or launch a career. It is, however, for single young people, a great START. Many of the young screeners we have are either part-time/full-time employees working their way through college or employees who are using TSA as a foot in the door for better jobs within the federal government. We have a number of screeners who are waiting for their opportunities with Border Patrol, Customs, DEA, etc. They've completed their application process, background investigations, physicals, etc. and are waiting for job offers. Some have received offers and jumped on them, others have not, and still others are waiting for the best job offer.

At the other end of the spectrum, TSA screener pay is great for augmenting military retirement, and we have a significant number of retired military screeners. We also have a number of other semi-retired screeners: people who were entrepreneurs and owned their own businesses who decided to take this job for a variety of reasons. These are older and more mature screeners. Some of them have decided to go back to their businesses while others have scaled down to part-time status so that they could avoid popping the social security limits on employment income.

Patriotism may have had something to do with it back in 2001 and 2002 when many of these screeners joined TSA. However, I think maturity and experience have more to do with it than anything else. After all the emotionalism from "doing one's duty" and "serving the country" wears off, it boils down to understanding that this is a job requiring attention to detail and dealing with a public that does not always appreciate the effort put into securing their safety. Younger people tend to get disillusioned and/or frustrated while many of us older people, especially those with law enforcement and/or military experience, clearly understand the situation only too well. We don't take it personally while a lot of our younger screeners do.

It's funny, but in general the younger agents I've encountered have been the friendlier and more-apt to follow the SOP ones. The times I've had no problems at CRW, it's been with 20-ish agents; the times I've been physically blocked from going through the WTMD until I remove my shoes it's been a agents who appear 50+.

Same at many other places in terms of which ones are pleasant, happy, and do the job right... although I can say the worst agents I deal with are the obese 30-ish women and the 50+ men. It sounds like a weird stereotype, but those are the ones who are much more likely to have no sense of humor, force me to remove my shoes even if they are 1/4" thick flip-flops, run my bag through the X-ray multiple times and then ask for a search, etc.

I know that UA at least staffs the gates for some flights with multi-lingual GAs; the JFK flights to NRT for example have been staffed by GAs who speak Japanese and English (at a minimum) the times I've been in the gate area when those flights are boarding. The foreign flag carriers seem to be better at it than the US ones, too. Still, these only apply to international flights; there aren't as many (if any) staff who are multi-lingual on flights from, say, IAD-BNA or ORD-MSP... although they could track someone down if needed, I'm sure.

In areas where there is a significantly spoken foreign language, you'll find plenty of bilingual staff, plus signs and announcements made in both. Spanish is the most common.

A lot of this probably has to do with the US's rather provincial attitude toward learning foreign languages in general; unlike Europe where it's a short distance to travel to a region with a different predominant language than one's native tongue, we're large enough (and most people travel infrequently enough) that most people never feel the need to learn another language.