Just had to post this. Yesterday morning at Charleston, SC airport I was astounded by the helpful TSA employee I encountered. She lifted my carry on bag for me (even though I wasn't struggling) and sent it on its way to be examined. She actually thanked me for knowing what to do in order to clear security. I know, it shouldn't be news when somebody does their job in a pleasant and professional manner but unfortunately that is exceptional in my experience flying out of DCA. I have never had problems at DCA but my experiences at other airports have been much more pleasant. I always get the feeling that the TSA at DCA are just waiting for me to screw up. Is it just me? Do I have a bad attitude?

I am frankly surprised that there hasn't been a single post until now. It is nice to see a complimentary thread when it is earned. I am a strong believer in the principle that you can't complain unless you are willing to compliment when it is earned.

You should also be applauded for not identifying the TSA employee in any way. We wouldn't want such behavior to be subject to retribution.

Paranthetically -

I once tried to send a complimentary letter to the TSA for a similarly pleasent experience. I was amazed how reluctant the supervisor was to provide the identifying information. The supervisor's attitude seemed to be "I'll take care of the problem. There is no need for you to do anything further". What a marvelous mind set!

While on the subject of marvelous mind sets, I find myself complimenting people for "DOING THEIR JOB". Clearly, I have been conditioned, as many of us are, to expect less, and when we recieve the service that employees are being paid a salary for, we consider it the exception and not the rule.

Dick Gregory - "If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem".

Something to consider: some supervisors will read compliments at the end-of-shift briefing to recognize the TSO in front of his/her peers. This has the effect of encouraging others to perform. Even though this is what you and supervisors expect as part of the job, compliment forms are a great way to encourage positive behavior in others.

As for complaints, the practice is to address it one-on-one with the individual concerned and then address it in general terms during the out-briefing.

"Hooray for normal behavior! Keep up the adequacy, guys! It's not often we get that around here, but you guys are the best!! Don't let anyone tell you you aren't worth the significantly inflated wages the government pays you or that people should have the freedom to decline our firm's services! Go team!"

No dawg, you're way off base. What that person did was far and above what was expected of her.

Credit where due.

Totally agee with you Wally...that woman went above and beyond the call of duty, to say the least! However, it's sad that the TSA has to use this type of stuff (when individual screeners do nice NON SECURITY related stuff) to promote the agency. As nice as some of these things are, I'd like to hear more reports about catching 100% of bombs and guns in tests at major airports.

I had one TSAer in IND ask if I needed to know which gate my flight departed from.

That's the one and only instance where a TSAer went above and beyond just doing their job.

Every other experience has been split between adequate job and flying monkey feces.

Hard to be willing to compliment when one can't.

Kudos to her, but she must be new. A few weeks working alongside the oldtimers will drum that helpful and pleasant attitude out of her silly head in no time.

The supe might have been burned before by someone using an old ploy to get info. If you need to send a flaming complaint but can't identify the target, you can often get what you need by pretending to be intending to send a complimentary letter. Schmooze works. FT'ers know that.

Regardless of whether I wanted to send a complaint or a compliment, I do not see any reason for the supervisor to stand in the way of such action, as your statement suggests. As to ploys, I am not in the business of ploys and leave that to those who are much more adept at misleading, misdirecting, and misrepresenting. As for me - "what you see is what you get". No hidden agendas.

I spent one whole break searching the crowds at terminal gates looking for an older passenger who left her license behind. After 25 minutes, and quite incredibly, I spotted her and returned the license. Thankfully she was very appreciative-- which is all the recognition I need. Several weeks ago I spent most of my first break seeing to it that two German tourists-- older w/ poor English skills-- got on the correct shuttle to IAD (Dulles). I am more than happy to help people when I can, on or off the checkpoint, and I treat each and every person the way I would want my Mom or Dad or sibling treated.

Would you please apply for Kip Hawley's job? I think it will be open soon.

In my first appearance before Congress I'd stress the need to shut down TSA ASAP and return security to private firms.

Care to explain why?

(Recommend you respond by initiating a new thread so we don't take this one way off-topic. I find your post interesting and would like to know if there's any substance to it.)

My top 12...

1) Absolutely no quantifiable improvement in security effectiveness over private screeners
2) Extensive waste of taxpayer funds
3) No progress in developing workable new technologies
4) "Security Theater" which causes tremendous customer inconvenience without evidence of a factual or realistic threat
5) Zero accountability from the screener on up through the TSA head
6) Ongoing failures to deal with realistic threats - through-the-fence access, cargo, etc.
7) increasingly poor public perception, bordering on ridicule
8) lacking accountability, often hostile relationships with airport management
9) poor/improper resource planning leading to extensive checkpoint wait times
10) rapidly increasing attrition due to poor management, lack of leadership, loosely defined mission, working environment
11) sloppy, disjointed and poorly maintained/enforced security procedures masquerading as a "policy" to "keep terrorists guessing"
12) continued focus on threats from past events with little effort to develop and deploy techniques or technology which take a holistic approach to threat detection and analyze risk from future, unknown threats

I've stopped here because I need to run to a meeting...I might have more later