Letter to the Editor -- TSA rant
 

This was in today's Portland Maine paper. It sums up the TSA experience up here --- our 6am bank backs up pre-TSA screening worse than any other domestic facility I'm aware of, and that's NOT an exaggeration.

I have stood well more than a full hour at 4:30am missing my 6am flight, as well, due to TSA line. Isn't 90 minutes in line for screening just a tad too long?!?!? I skate through other airports all over the place, but my little airport at home simply can't get it right. It's to the point that I'm now avoiding any flights before 7am since I'm not willing to arrive at the airport at 3:50am!!!

Anywho, here's the link to the letter.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/st...48464&ac=PHedi

Question: is it routine procedure to NOT allow pax to move up through the TSA line when risk of missing a flight is immenent? If so, what on earth is the purpose of such a mindless policy? If the fellow pax are in agreement, why would the TSA care who was next in line? Wow.

Lastly, this poor guy must not know that there are basically no real air travel options out of Portsmouth NH these days. Oh well.

"In Portland, sheer inefficiency and tyrannical procedures rule the day."

It's not just PWM. ;)

Nice to see some more negative press for Comrade Hawley's disgrace of an agency.

They let passengers through in Frankfurt. It was actually really nice to see. Along with relatively fast procedures, even given the long line, they willingly bumped people up.

TSA doesn't care who's next in line.

But the airlines do. The airlines set the policy for how passengers enter the checkpoint. In other words, it's up to the airlines to set cut-in-line policies. Trick is that they all have to agree and abide by it. Easiest way out is to not allow it under any circumstances because someone will always think it's unfair.

As for agreement among passengers, that's a different story. But I'm willing to bet that even then airlines discourage it because someone will always feel "pressured" because "everyone else" was doing it.

Too bad the article isn't clear if it was a contractor or TSO who sent the author to the back of the line.

No question but that the TSA staffing (or lack thereof) is fully to blame here, but count me in the group that does not like it when others are bumped to the front of the line (checkin or TSA) because their flight is leaving sooner than mine. I got to the airport on time, and it hacks me off to see people who didn't choose to do that -- usually with about 18 suitcases and four kids -- get asked by the CSRs to go to the head of the line because their flight is going to close out for baggage check soon.

I'm happy to invite that person with a loaf of bread and a jug of milk behind me in the grocery store line to jump ahead of me, but it is quite a bit different to have the cashier or the store manager make that decision.

Problem is that you can still be at the airport at the recommend time (UA is still recommending 90 minutes priort to departure if checking bags http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,2131,00.html) and due to TSA's incompetence, be stuck in line and miss your flight. And of course, others that get there as soon as the line opens in the morning (sometimes it's just an hour before departure) and still can't get thru due to TSA's incompetence. Are you saying that everyone should suffer due to TSA's incompetence by missing their flights and that you wouldn't want the same courtesy if it happened to you.

I agree that it sucks when someone is late they expect to be let ahead in line. That shouldn't happen. However, it's really hard to tell how long someone has been in line, especially at large airports.

If you make your flight, and the other people make their flight, why does it ultimately matter? Isn't it better for everybody when the highest percentage of people possible make their flights? If you miss your flight because someone else was moved ahead of you, that's a different issue. But if all it means is that you have to stand in line an extra minute or two...who really cares?

Skybus and Clipper Connection aren't enough?? ;)

Well, then there is always MHT or the Concord Coach to Logan.

I have had my luggage miss my flight because UA advanced 50 or more passengers to the front of the line so that their baggage could make their flight, only to find that when I finally reached the front of the line (a good bit more than several minutes later) that the luggage check-in time had just passed. Pretty annoying when fifteen minutes earlier I'd been second from the front. (And yes, I use curbside check-in whenever available, but that isn't an option under certain security conditions.)

So yes, when I have to make yet another trip to my destination airport the day after I arrive to claim my luggage I definitely resent United advancing all those other people ahead of me. (United won't deliver luggage if you didn't meet their luggage check time, and the reason doesn't matter.)

That does suck and I'd be writing a strongly worded letter to UA. :td:

Well of course that's wrong and you should definitely complain and/or shift your business to another airline. I think the situation you described is rare and has little to do with a handful of people in a screening line agreeing to allow one or two late-arriving passengers to move to the front.

Thanks -- that's precisely what can happen here in PWM during high tourist season (summer/fall). I have personally been standing at the UA counter at 4:29am (they open at 4:30) for a 6am departure to IAD and STILL MISSED THE FLIGHT (along with virtually every other pax on the plane, except those not checking bags) due to a 80+ minute TSA line. I'm not exaggerating in any way here, folks. Things have gotten much better in the past months since they added a fourth TSA screening line, but it's still among the very worst I encounter in all of the USA.

The problem becomes that, over time, frequent users of PWM have learned that they get burned on the early am bank, so we all show up 2 hours before flight time now. So, the poor guy trying to make the 6am flight must stand in line with a coupla hundred folks in front him -- many of whom are on 7:15 - 8:00am flights. That stinks!

Granted, situations like PWM that have serious traffic ebbs and flows present an operational challenge for TSA, but they've failed terribly here at addressing the problem competently. Do any others of you encounter early am wait times in excess of 45 minutes on a REGULAR BASIS?? If so, where?

While I sympathize for the woman's dilemma, something as simple as an equipment malfunction could explain the problem. A small place might only have 2 detectors and if one went down then that could be why she was stuck in line so long.

Her article was long on opinion and short on fact. She did not mention if this was indeed the case.

The woman also notes that, "Fellow travelers readily agreed to let me move to the front, as I have done for others at other airports, without incident." I'm going to call BS on her whole story. How is it that someone who travels as much as she does is not in a status line? Also, how is it that when she is traveling and not going through status lines, that she has to so commonly be let through security?

I mean, I can understand this happening to someone once, but by her own words it happens on a habitual basis. In essence, she shows up late, almost misses her flight and expects the other passengers and TSA to get out of her way to let her through. Her lack of planning does make an emergency for the other passengers and the TSA. By her own words she pushes this on a continual basis and it finally caught up with her.

It sounds very much to me like she got her comeuppance.

Or if you read on here and elsewhere, you would know that this is par for the course at PWM.

As are most of your posts. What's the difference?

Did it occur to you that as a small airport, PWM might not HAVE elite lines? :rolleyes: Not all airports have them, and some may have them for certain airlines and not others.

Maybe she spreads her business around and doesn't have status on any airline? A lof of people just go for whoever's cheapest.

Gee general, not everyone is as lucky as you at major international airports and can get thru in a minute. :rolleyes: Although I think that statement you've repeated made is BS myself.

So if TSA causes a long line and you're there when the airline says to be there (UA still says to be there 90 minutes prior to departure if checking bags, 60 if not), it can only be TSA's fault. It's TSA's fault the lines are so long. Do they really need to be spending 1 minute checking each ID?

PWM is notorious for having long lines and isn't alone. Even elite lines can have huge lines at hub airports. And as others have stated, if you're traveling and even get there at 430 am when the UA counter opens, you can STILL miss a 6am flight thanks to TSA.

Especially at such a small airport, long lines are unacceptable.

Sounds to me like she's a victim of TSA incompetence like everyone else in this country. :td:

Super

"super"guy,

Yes I do understand that many airports don't have status lines and people do spread the business around. The lady makes it sound as if she is on the road every week, but I've yet to meet a coworker who has the difficulties that she has had. Were she really a frequent flier who "regularly (flies) through dozens of airports in the United States and overseas" then she would have status even if she spread it around. Of course, she could be exaggerating as she is seemlingly doing with much the rest of her editorial.

You're getting only her side of the story here, but given that it's the security forum on Flyertalk, that's enough for the anti-TSA people to break out the hate. She's the one who has repeatedly has this problem, yet she does nothing about it. She's the one who expects the other passengers to get out of her way. This is HER problem, not those running security or checking her luggage.

"Although I think that statement you've repeated made is BS myself."

The problem there might be the think part. It must be frustrating seeing that someone like me who you dislike so much is so commonly correct. Mudslinging against me just weakens your argument and shows that you can't materially attack the post I've made here.

"Do they really need to be spending 1 minute checking each ID?"

I take it you didn't read the part about how the bottleneck and rate taking step was the single x-ray scanner that the TSA people were using here. Please tell me, if everyone at the airport were waiting for the one machine, how is it that checking an ID slowly, quickly or at all is going to have any implication on the line through security. It's not on the critical path in terms of the things that need to happen to get through security. It sure does give people with nothing good to say something to whine about though.

TSA incompetence or not, she travels enough through dozens of airports in the United States and has had this happen several times. Assuming she was a business traveler, do you think it is acceptable to a customer to miss a meeting because you didn't get to the airport in time? I don't always get to travel with status. Sometimes I have to fly AA or UA and end up in the regular lineup both coming and going. I do this magical thing before I figure out when I need to wake up in the morning. I go to the front desk and ask them when I should go to the airport for my flight. I have to say, I don't recall any colleague ever missing a flight for not being at the airport on time.

She could have easily been prepared for this, has dodged bullets this way in the past and it was her own fault for this happening. Were this the first time something like this had happened, then she might have an argument.

Thing is, though, you only seem to think that any problem anyone experiences with TSA is self-inflicted, and that's very far from the truth. I don't think that you think TSA is perfect, but if there are enough people saying the same thing repeatedly, doesn't it even raise the possiblity that maybe, just maybe there's something to what they're saying?

TSA only ever shares its side of the story when it benefits it or when it has to do damage control.

Ever think that maybe, just maybe, TSA should do something to fix itself? It's possible that this lady brings a lot of it on herself. It's also quite possible that she could be complying with the airline's recommendations, showing up at the recommended window and still misses the flight.

You've already seen people in here state that they've either missed or nearly missed flights at PWM because they don't have their acts together. I've flown there and I couldn't believe the lines there for such a small airport that has mostly RJ's flying into it. It was totally unacceptable.

I dispute that. Many others here do too. You tend to ignore a lot of material that has debunked your statements. Or you have the tunnel vision that how everything is in your world is how it is everywhere else.

See above.

Ok, so it's ok for you to call someone's argument BS (whether a poster on here or what's in article), but no one else can. Got it ... :rolleyes:

I read it. One lane alone was a TSA failure plain and simple. I don't know how you can spin that any other way.

ID is still a bottleneck though. However, at other places where the line isn't the bottleneck, is it really necessary?

As others have posted (which you may have missed or just ignored it) is that the long ID checks HAVE caused delays and even increased lines while the lines were short to nonexistent once past the ID checkers. If like at BWI's D gates they have 2 ID checkers yet they have 4 lanes open, I hope you can see that this IS a critical path issue and CAN and DOES cause delays.

Depends on what your definition on time is. If I show up with plenty of time to spare (well beyond the airline's recommended window), then yes, it's not my fault. If I show up at the terminal 30 minutes prior to departure, that's a whole other ball game.

Travel doesn't have to be a hassle, nor should anyone have to get to the airport 3-4 hours early simply because TSA doesn't have its act together.

You lost me here. Which front desk? The hotel's? What if they're wrong? What if you go by what your airline says and you still miss your flight?

Odds are that the person at the front desk doesn't fly very much.

So something can only happen once and it's an argument? And if something happens repeatedly it's automatically her fault? Geez, no wonder TSA thinks it can get off scott-free. Blame the pax! Problem solved.

Must really suck to be one of those people who share a name with someone on the No Fly or SSSS list when they get hassled all the time. Must be their fault that they have a common name and they had better change it.

Super

in a perfect world yes
matters to me because there are .......s in this world that will use this I'm late excuse to put themselves towards the head of line when I, and it would appear lupine, get to the airport with plenty of time to get through a security/check-in line.

It is truly rare in my experience that someone is late due to circumstances beyond their control.

--

Wow. I'm stunned to come back to this thread and read your comments. I thought I'd laid out a reasonable and competent explanation of how I, too, as a VFF flying out of PWM with great frequency also have the same experiences here. Why were you so quick to become aggressive and disregard what I'd presented?

I'll say again that PWM has some serious TSA operational issues with the early morning outbound bank of flights which causes the pax TSA line to become occasionally longer than ONE FULL HOUR (!!!) after about 4:30am.

If you consider that exaggeration, then I don't know what else to say. I have better ways to spend my time than to come to this thread and generate false tales. I'm pointing out a serious deficiency that is well known by those using PWM as a departure point with any frequency.

To suggest that there might be elite TSA lanes here in PWM is absurd. Can you name three other air facilities the size of PWM that can boast elite TSA lanes???

Equipment failure is not an excuse. The TSOs should show up a half an hour earlier than the earliest flyers, inspect the equipment, and when there is a failure, which inevitably happens, should formulate a plan so that the flow of passengers is not hindered. Now THAT'S professionalism.

Passengers should not have to be inconvenienced because of what is primarily and purely TSA's problem.

Short-staffed? Hire more staff. Equipment failure? Fix it. Too many passengers? open up more lines. There is NO EXCUSE, absolutely NONE, that I should have to get to the airport a 1PM to board a 4PM flight because TSA can't get its act together.