Gate Pass Experience at IAD
 

Thought I would update everybody on my experiences over the weekend at IAD obtaining a gate pass. We were meeting a woman from a small African country who flew to the US to have some delicate surgery out on the west coast. She came through it fine, and her recovery is certainly in the "miracle" category.

I suggested to her hosts on the west coast that we obtain gate passes in order to make sure she got on and off her flights without any difficulty. This trip was this woman's first time outside her own country and the first time she has flown.

Her hosts obtained a doctor's note -- handwritten on his prescription form -- recommending that we, by name, be issued gate passes, etc, etc. Her hosts faxed us a copy which we took to the UA counter at IAD and had called UA to put our names in the computer. The guy informed us that only one of us could go to the gate. Not sure who's rule that is, but that was our plan anyway. My wife would go to the gate and I would wait in baggage claim because the woman was carrying back medical supplies in two maximum-size suitcases for the mission hospital where she worked.

My wife did the picture ID thing and the UA guy gave her an oft-Xeroxed TSA gate pass form. He scribbled her name, the flight number, and his signature. Amazingly, she was treated like a flying passenger -- no SSSS, no shoe carnival, no gate-grope, etc. The moat dragoness kept her gate pass at the checkpoint, which was interesting. My now-screened wife had the run of the airside without any gate or boarding pass in hand.

We did the same thing the next morning in reverse when the woman flew home to Africa. This time, South African Airways wasn't going to issue my wife a gate pass until she produced the copy of the doctor's note. The agent's tuned immediately changed and he issued her the same gate pass form, which the moat dragoness again took from my wife right at the checkpoint. The difference was that UA had our names loaded in the computer, but SA's computer was down when we tried to do the same thing with them.

I was prepared to do the Spiff-suggested routine of buying a fully-refundable ticket with a boarding pass if necessary, but things worked OK without resorting to this. I hope we didn't simply have a random success.

My kids fly through IAD frequently on UA and Independence Air...so my Eagle crew badge means little or nothing to anyone there. I get a gate pass by just calling ahead, making sure my name is in the record...and presenting my driver's license at the ticket counter. I get the same overly Xeroxed pass as mentioned and the TSA people take it as I go through security.

Your success wasn't random!

The reason we keep the gate passes is because your only supposed to enter the secure area one time with each pass. If people kept them, we don't know if they've gone in and out, and for what reason. If there was a problem and you needed to go out and come back in, talk to the supervisor at the checkpoint you entered. I've been allowed to let people back in after their pass has been turned in, but its been approved in advance. And lets face it. Flights get delayed, people want to smoke, etc.

I have gotten gate passes in both ALB and PHL without problem or question. In both instances, the need for the gate pass was noted on the PNR, and a quick stop at the ticket counter yielded the mentioned TSA photo-copied passes.

I did get a weird look in PHL once, but I'd like to think that it was a new agent who wasn't familiar with the gate pass process.

-Chris

Understandable, but I do wonder why the distinction when people with BPs can pass through the checkpoint repeatedly, presumably doing all sorts of nefarious things in the process.

Because people with boarding passes are accounted for on their flight. We know they've left the airport. Or the airline knows they haven't. You have to have a pretty good reason to get a boarding pass, but lets face it, its an honor system.

Someone *knows* that I've left the airport just because I enter the secure area with a BP? You have to have a "Pretty good reason" to get a BP? I've purchased refundable tickets to enter the secure area. I could enter and leave at will and nobody forced me to either leave or get on an airplane. I could just as easily have printed an imitiation BP at home. Then nobody at the airport would know (by name) that I was even there.

It seems to me that nobody is "accounted for" under this scheme. It's just that most people play along with the "it makes me feel secure" charade of showing ID/BP to get to the secure area. As with most of these rules, this "hall pass" approach to security used here is just another waste of time. It's really a case of the government enforcing the airline's ticket non-transferability rules.

At IAH you keep the gate pass and don't turn it in. I believe the pass says that it is good just for that certain day. The primary reason for not permitting non-passengers beyond security is because of the additional time and resources it would take for screening.

By TSA keeping the pass, how does that ensure more control? TSA will not know if I have left airside. If I go landside and then wish to go back airside, I would still be required to go through screening. So what purpose does this serve?

What does PHL TSA do with the gate passes that have my personal info on them? If TSA takes them from me, then what exemption is there for not providing me with a Privacy Act notice?

What if I am airside waiting for a passenger, the gate changes to another terminal and I can only get to that terminal via landside. I would have to go through the whole process again of obtaining a gate pass.

And how can I prove that I am legitimately in the sterile area if I don't have a BP and TSA has taken my gate pass?

As far as I know the gate passes are ripped up and put in the trash. I can only tell you what I know about. I'm sure the is a good reason why they are taken. And the primary reason for not letting non-flying passengers into the sterile area is that it allows some control as to whom is let in. It really is not all the extra screening.

No, they know when you board the aircraft. You are checked in at the gate, are you not? I've never said anyone forced anyone to do anything. But if you purchase a ticket, they do know if you use it. As for printing an imitation boarding pass at home, if the ticket checker lets you by with it, I guess you proved your point. We don't "check" boarding passes, we only look for the SSSS.

That may be a distinction without a difference. What control? I can go buy a refundable ticket from an e-ticket machine at the airport to get in without a problem. No, I believe that the extra resources required for letting in non-passengers was what excluded non-passengers from being let through.

I know at several airports, they don't scan thermal and home-printed BPs at the gate--the GA simply looks at them, then tears off whatever portion he or she needs and hands the rest to the pax.

Later they do key in all the BPs; I've sat there and watched them do so before. But there's no guarantee that the time they do so will be anywhere near the flight time, or that they'll actually get all of the BPs entered.

That certainly seems to make the most sense, and from a logistical standpoint, with the TSA's current screening "efficiency," I'd prefer it stay that way for now. Can you imagine the wait times at airports if the TSA had to screen everyone's friends & family who want to meet them at the gate, see them off, etc.? (This seemed to work fine pre-9/11, hence my quotes on "efficiency," for it clearly wouldn't work today)

You can believe whatever you want to, that doesn't mean your right. And this time you are not.

What is this "some control" that you mention and why does the TSA need control? At the checkpoints, the TSA only is there to search for prohibited items. Screeners do not have the control as to who starts through the screening process. If a person has a boarding/gate pass, they can go airside if no prohibited items are found. The airlines give the person the boarding/gate pass, not the TSA.

Economics plays into this much more than you may be willing to believe.