Just curious: Do you recall which airline this $10-million-per-year bigshot was flying?

Bruce

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Let me pose a hypothetical question in the other direction: Do I have a right to defend myself from an assualt by a screener?

Suppose, for example, that a screener in a process of patting me down reaches upward towards my private parts. Do I have a right to step back and/or block his hand?

Actually, the question is not entirely hypothetical. It did happen to me once, but it was before I took up martial arts training.

Seems Stephen's point has gotten a bit garbled here. The 'professionals' in question are GAO (or whatever agency/office) employees performing a specific task. I can't think why they would raise bogus or revenge complaints, except perhaps for some inter-agency rivalry.

We're not talking about real passengers in 'professional' occupations. I concur, there are some real a:mad:holes among those.

If the person is really a f**king idiot, it's not verbal abuse. is it?

The problem here is that radiation exposure is cumulative. Ok, the scanner is supposed to be safe for ASA 400. What if I take the film through two airports? (Very likely as I'll be bringing it home.) 2 passes for ASA 400 is the same as 1 for ASA 800. In reality, my normal vacation pattern involves three passes through security (one connection can be done airside, the return can't.), thus ASA 266 (should such a beast exist) would take as much damage as ASA 800 going through once. If I don't shoot every roll and take some if it again it's now up to 6 passes--now ASA 133 takes as much damage as the ASA 800 would in one pass.

Now, I usually shoot ASA 400. Is it any wonder I want my film hand inspected?

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Thank you for pointing this out. Many large companies (including airlines) contract with, or employ mystery shoppers who are professionals at analyzing and reporting on their interactions with employees as well as the overall product experience. I am not talking about the 'sign up online' deals, but the true professional organizations that offer comprehensive solutions.

Whether the people in the field are GAO employees or professionals contracted by the GAO to provide this service, I doubt the feedback is going to be skewed on a personal level.

Field employees at most companies live with the mystery shopper experience on a daily basis...why should the TSA, a customer-facing organization with severe customer service issues (and losing this battle every day) be exempt from this opportunity to enhance staff compliance and proactively identify problem employees?

I tried to speak to the supervisor. The response was the usual set of threats to make me miss my flight if I persist in complaining, to have me arrested, etc.

Actually, in this case there was no need to pat down the sensitive area - the wand never alarmed. There certainly were no explanations. The screener simply reached up and grabbed with the front of his hand, not the back as required by the SOP (supposedly). Still want to tell me this was not an assault?

When I tried to argue that I had a right to an explanation or to have this done in private, I was told point blank: "You foreigners have no rights here!". I guess, rules are different if you have a strong foreign accent and your name begins with "criminal" letters "AL".

Ironically, this took place at the airport named after President's father.

Please tell me you recorded the name and ID number of each of these people and intend on persuing it with your local Congressional leadership. Both of these people need pink slips...you would be saving countless other passengers from the same hassle you went through.

Unfortunately, this was before they started wearing name tags. Needless to say, they were not about to give me their names. They certainly wanted mine for the "incident report", whatever this means.

"Biggest mistake you could ever make is to grab, hit, or otherwise strike a TSA officer..."

Far bigger mistake is to believe anyone working secondary under the pledged Dignity and Respect promises of TSA.

Idiots. Damned idiots. Damned LYING idiots. Almost as bad as statisticians.

HOO- HAH!