Just wondering how the TSA ID checkers are doing these days...do they seem slower? Faster now that they've settled in the position? How it's affecting the lines/available x-ray lanes, etc? (as compared to when they first began in 2007)

There does seem to be a crescendo of slower ID checks going on. There was a time over the summer that the blacklights and loupes weren't being used -- or I just happened to run into a streak of no-nonsense screeners.

For me, it's been hit or miss all depending on what ID I use and where I'm at.

If I'm at an airport that handles alot of military personnel, I'll use my Geneva Conventions ID (CAC). Rarely a second glance, it's quick.

If I'm not, I usually use my passport. This has provided some problems for me. It was issued in 2000 and has been used extensively and it shows. Problem being, some screeners seem to think it's fake. I've had that come up twice now. First, then go over and over it, look at it, look at me, repeat. Then a sup gets called and they do the same thing. So far both have asked me when it was issued to which I state "2000, like it says in the passport". You don't even need a blue light to be able to see the couple holograms that are there. The first time this happened, they asked if I had another ID on me. Nope. I was flying to FRA, that's all they get. It's frustrating, yet kinda entertaining in the same token. Some of these fools are so incompetent, it's scary.

I love it when I get yelled at for my "expired" DL. It has a renewal sticker on the back of it.

Strangely this almost always happens in my HOME AIRPORT!

I, too have an older passport that I use exclusively for the ID check. Recently I've had a few ID checkers want to thumb through the passport.

My response in those cases is to tell them that the identification part of the passport is their only concern and the presence of any stamps showing where I've been is none of their business. A couple of times I've had to ask that supervisors be called.

What is it with this agency? Why is is so hard to train people to perform their duties without intruding into passengers' private lives?

That would be correct, and incorrect at the same time. While it is true that the stamps showing where you've been is none of their business, the fact remains that they're also probably not thumbing through the passport looking at the stamps, either.

It's standard practice for me, on any of the two older variety of US passports (the old one with the digital image of your face on the left, and the old-old one with the actual photograph). The newer one, the RFID-equipped one, is the only one that I don't have to flip through the pages for.

You can ask me to call for a supervisor, and I would, naturally, comply. I can also guarantee you that the supervisor would take my side.

I always present my passport w/ the picture page open and with the BP held over the opposite page, facing the ID checker. Some of them still used to manage to rifle through the visa pages.

However, since I started securing the visa pages of my passport with six paperclips, no ID checker has had the guts to begin removing any of the paperclips to have a look inside, yet.

Be patient -- Didn't everyone know that the #1 threat to civil aviation security is underage college students with fake IDs???

yup. i/d only and that's it. glad you drew the line ^^ as that falls under the "looking thru the wallet routine" afaic which when it comes to me, is none of their bloody business. if they want to be curious, come back as a cat in another life.

And what could possibly be in those pages that would require a TSO to look at? And what security ramification does such an examination hold?

So this tells me that it's not SOP to do this. Why do you do it, and why would your supervisor back you for something that's not in the SOP?

You seem to have a serious misunderstanding of the agency's goal.

Huh? You're usually pretty reasonable, but I don't get this one. All of the ID information that TSA thinks is relevant is on the ID and photo page. The authentication features on this era of passport (at least the one with the digital photo, like mine), are on the ID page. The only information on the other pages is visa information, arrival/departure stamps, and the place where you are supposed to voluntarily pencil in your address and emergency contact info. None of that is TSA's business.

Writing/stamps/etc on those pages are not considered alterations of the document that void the ID. So what's the point?

There have been repeated reports of power-tripping TDCs pawing through passports and a handful of reports of them either declaring the pax's travel history "suspicious" and sending them to SSSSecondary or finding an expired visa and declaring the passport expired on those grounds.

Would you remove a pax's paperclip to paw through the visa pages? I haven't had any problems since I put on a clip, and I doubt that all of those TDCs are somehow violating SOP. (Looking forward to applying for my passport card next year and taking away one more opportunity for TSOs to power-trip.)

Specifically, one page. And yes, I would remove said paperclip to get to that page. Strictly speaking, it's not an absolute requirement - there are other things scattered throughout the passport that do the same thing (namely, authentication purposes)- but it's easier and faster the way that I do it. That's only for the two older US passports, remember; the new one, with all the pretty graphics on the biography page and such? Don't have to. The equivalent of what I look for on the older US passports is there on the biography page of the newer US passport.

Post-Script: Actually, after some thought on the matter, I take that back. If it's secured down with paperclips, then it would most likely take longer to pull them off, flip open the page I need, authenticate the passport, and then put them all back on. So, no, I probably would not take the paperclips off, since the whole reason I'd go to the passport interior anyway is because it's faster. :P

Most passports are different, too. India, Japan and Canada, for instance, I don't have to go any further than the biography page either. UK passports require a flip-up to the front cover's interior, but not back into the visa pages. Germany requires a flip to the very first visa page.

(By the way, to any overzealous persons from the TSA: Any of that is fully visible in view of the public, and, as such, is not considered SSI. The "what" is not the protected information, the "why" is, and I have not disclosed the "why," -- so there :P)

I'm not going to say what I'm specifically looking for. While I doubt it would be considered SSI, I don't know that for an absolute fact. I'm therefore going to be taking the path of caution. As it's been explained to me (not by TSA, by the way, but by actual State LEOs that handle the fake-ID stuff that did all the training for us here in HSV when we launched the TDC procedures), many of the security features on IDs work only because counterfeiters do not know what they are, so they cannot replicate them. While I do not think for an instant that they're SSI (since that classification of protected stuff exists solely in the aviation industry as defined by CFR 1520), they could be considered protected in some way, so I'm not going to get into the specifics.

Not all of them. Not even most of them. The easiest and fastest way that I have found to authenticate it is by flipping to that one page that I mentioned above. And, like I said, I don't care what the visas and stamps say. They're not what I'm looking for.

I do it because it's the easiest and fastest way to do what I have to do. :P

And as far as it being SOP... Look at it this way:

If your goal is to reach D, and you can go through A, B, or C to get there, then just because everybody else uses A, doesn't mean that the person using B or C is wrong. Some things require you to reach B and the only allowable path is A (such as, for example, hand-wanding someone; there is a required pattern to use, and a required order, with a required alarm-resolution procedure).

This, however, is not the case when it comes to the authentication of IDs. On my Alabama DL, for instance, there are at least four different ways to authenticate it that don't involve the UV light. The UV light, however, is the easiest and fastest way. That doesn't mean that anyone who authenticates it with one of the other four methods is doing something wrong.

Make sense?

And, it just so happens, that in this particular case I find B to be the easiest and fastest method to authenticate the older style US passports.

The first question of that I could probably answer, but then I'd have other TSOs breathing down my neck because they'd probably think of it as SSI, and I don't need any of that. We'll leave it with "authentication features," as studentff so neatly phrased it as.

As for the second one... "11 passengers were arrested due to .... or fraudulent travel documents"

Fake IDs are not a threat to aviation. Finding them is no more a success for TSA than finding drugs or finding a perfectly legal wad of cash hidden in a passenger's shoe. Not that that prevents TSA from touting them as successes. Arresting passengers for not having their papers in order is a sad testament to how the USA is turning into East Germany.

I'll have to go grab my passport and flip to the pages to get back to you on that one.