I thought after 8/10 last summer that the shoe carnival became mandatory at every airport.

Also, what does removing thin sole shoes do? It does nothing for security. You can't even stick anything in them. Another Great TSA Idea�.

True. However, there's a difference between taking it personally and having to take it at all.

Why should checkpoint screening be any different at any airport unless you do gate screening and different levels of screening depending on which airport you are flying into. Otherwise, if screening is too tight at DCA, then one could just fly out of an airport that has a lower level into DCA and then make a connection airside, thus avoiding the supposed higher level of screening at DCA.

I see.

We are talking long ago.

Different story then.

It DOES stop the retarded "There's no metal in my shoes" argument.

If I had a dollar for every collective groan I heard in line watching some dimwit try that one.

"Lady, you have high heels, there's metal in there".

I'm not might sure if you can catch a connecting flight out of the same pier. And I believe every passenger making a connecting flight is a selectee. But all that aside, TSA screening is the same at every airport.

You got me. I'll ask around.

Yeah, DCA is a nice little airport. The passengers are exceptionally nice and there's never a dull moment with all that goes on in Washington (from war protests to global aid concerts). And as far as safe, I would say that DCA is perhaps one of the safest places you'll ever be. And if you're flying out of DCA you can be sure you'll have FAMs on your flight as well as FBI and other armed federal agents. In fact, you might be the only guy on the flight who's not an armed federal agent (so please, try to observe the 30 minute rule ).

DCA TSO:

Thanks for asking around - I'm curious of that house!

As for the thirty-minute rule, I'm not sure whether you're being sarcastic or not, but that rule was abolished in 2005 (thank heavens - was kind of a silly rule). And, you make DCA seem like it's positively crawling with governmental officials on serious business, watching the passengers. That kind of creeps me out a bit, to be honest, because whenever I visit or fly DCA, everyone seems "normal" and it feels kind of weird knowing that there's undercover government officers watching me without me knowing it (I'm not surprised of the FAM, but FBI and other agents....thought they only supervised high crime areas?). Is this common at other airports, or is DCA unique in this prospect due to its' nearness to the District?

I can assure everyone that this is NOT the case as I had to fly BDL-DCA-ATL on US air last week (an airline that I have no status on) with a 35 minute connection, and did not get the SSSS treatment.

Didn't someone at DCA get in a spot of trouble for using, of all places, a stairwell as a "private screening area" a few years ago?

The solution to that one is easy. Let the person go through the WTMD, and when (if) they alarm, give them the SSSS treatment, and send the heels through the x-ray after they alarm on wanding. The pax will then learn that her shoes (or, in the case of men, many dress shoes with metal in the soles) will alarm, and won't make that argument again.

Making everyone take his or her shoes off for no reason other than the knee-jerk, horse-has-already-left-the-barn reason than "someone tried to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb!" kabuki security should not be seen as solving the "problem" of idiotic pax.

(Not to mention that it's quite possible the amount of metal does not set off WTMDs at many airports but might at others--so the pax might not even have been clueless, or as you put it, "retarded." I know my typical business-casual shoes have enough metal that pre-8/10 would trigger the WTMD at about 40% of airports I traveled through, so I usually removed them, but there were plenty of airports at which I also knew I could keep them on with no fear of setting off the WTMD).

I was half kidding. As someone else pointed out, all these federal agents and LEO's are simply on official business and flying out of DCA.

And there was a solution to that. Let them walk thru the WTMD.

If they beep, send them to secondary for a wanding and swab. Problem solved.

No need to argue.

I thought you were going to say that it was NOT the case that TSA screening is the same at every airport.

DCA TSO:

I knew it! (re: half kidding)

Do you know if there are FAM's on flights to and/or from Dulles, too? Or only DCA?

There are definitely FAMs on flights to/from IAD as well (as there are at many airports, though I suspect IAD gets more than many due to its location).

I have watched them board and seen them onboard before; as usual, procedures often give them away, though DCA takes the cake in terms of ease of identifying FAMs at the gate IME.