Delayed due to TSA
 

Sigh. Sitting on the tarmac at IAD now going on 45 minutes in delays due to the TSA not being able to handle checked bag volume. Captain says we're still waiting on 50 bags... And we're the first UA flight out today according to him, too.

Maybe. I'd love to see an examination of typical Saturday morning baggage volumes, today's volumes, typical and today's TSA and UA staffing counts, and throughput in bags per minute.

I'm betting that today (Saturday before Christmas) is a day with unusually high travel volume, moreover, one with especially high luggage volume what with everyone going home for the holidays.

If you guessed it, why couldn't the TSA? It's not like they don't know history and how many tickets and seats were sold. I smell staffing level and funding issues. "If only we had more staff we could have....."

Like the TSA chunking things up at MDW on Thanksgiving.

Nationwide passenger volume up 40+% over a typical Saturday.

Guessing it and spending for it are two different things. Infrastructure improvements (more machinery, more space required) and labor (it's not like they are ups and hire seasonal workers) come at a price. Remember the news reports at MDW during the Thanksgiving heavy days when they opened up in the AM? Not an excise, but knowing of a problem and being able to eliminate it completely given finite resources aren't always 100% in sync.

I agree BUT the TSA admitted their mistake at MDW and it was not funding or resources. TSA said they mishandled the scheduling (ie. not opening early enough).

If the Captain said, at 9:05 AM, that OP's was the first flight out of the day, that would mean a scheduled departure time of 8:20 AM. Even presuming that OP is sending this 20 minutes after the announcement, that means 8:00 AM.

That is simply untrue. Not defending TSA here, but when the Captain says that an 8:00 AM is the first flight of the day and that is untrue, what does that say about the rest of what he says?

Definitely slowed up at Dulles today. Random check of about a dozen flights this AM, I found one that left on time.