Roberto Duran
Member
Indeed, I've been there one trip and it's a fantastic airport.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Long TSA security lines at Chicago Midway airport (video)
- Thread starter RBH
- Start date
- Status
Indeed, I've been there one trip and it's a fantastic airport.
I think that viral video from Midway helped stir some attention.
Seeing people off at the gate was so cool.
eyeball_kid
Member
So what are these new checkpoint security measures the OP referenced?
"Good"? The TSA is useless, they've never stopped any terror threat, and have routinely failed when undercover agents have smuggled weapons through screening. All on top of invasive searches.
"Good"? The TSA is useless, they've never stopped any terror threat, and have routinely failed when undercover agents have smuggled weapons through screening. All on top of invasive searches.
Grimm Fandango
Member
Knew this shit was bad when I arrived at Minneapolis St Paul airport at 4am the other day and the line was at least 30 minutes long. Seriously at 4am.
timetokill
Banned
True, think of all the benefits:
- Your work is a complete waste of everyone's time and money
- You never get to actually make somebody's day better, only worse
- Passengers are justifiably angry at you because of the above
- Your job creates a bottleneck that makes for a far more desirable terrorist target
- Requirements are so low they have literally advertised your job on pizza boxes
- Your profession has stolen or broken thousands of things from passengers and paid out millions in damages over the years
- Somehow despite the above, you are the last line of security before getting on a plane, which really just shows what a farce this all is
- Nobody respects you because, let's be honest, why would they
7DollarHagane
Banned
They treat those TSA workers like shit and churn turnover because there are so many applicants and it's a relatively low skill job.
Nobody wants to do that job. If you want people who are efficient and effective start paying them and trying to keep them around.
Nobody wants to do that job. If you want people who are efficient and effective start paying them and trying to keep them around.
Yeah that was cool. Now how will romantic comedies end when the protagonist can't run up to the gate to wave for their one true love not to fly away.
I remember seeing school sports teams return from their trips, to be greeted at the gate by families and the pep squad. Horns, streamers, silly string... the whole works.
Feels like a lifetime ago.
A Grizzly Bear
Member
They would just catch them waiting in the security line.
shira
Member
Well you waste so much time getting there. . .
The mornings are actually the worst since all the airlines have their first flights at near the same time.
franknbeans
Member
I flew two weeks ago and the only problem with the lines were the passengers themselves that had 3-4 bins worth of stuff on their body. I swear this one dude had an old school coffee maker that he was carrying on.
Best airport I've ever flown out of. It was amazing when I flew back to the states last August.
The Totally Stupid Agency is a waste of time, money, energy and it shouldn't exist. The absurd, stupid shit that they make people go through is just a joke.
This is how Bin Laden beat us, and he fucking knew it. We played right into his hands. He knew he couldn't beat us militarily, so he got the population so scared that they're willing to give up their rights for the illusion of safety. It's how we got crap like this and the Patriot Act.
ActStriker
Member
Actually went through pretty quick at LAX. Caveats: Small terminal (Terminal 6), Saturday red-eye
Been flying since, Thursday and starting to wonder if there's a credible threat going on. At LAX and Huntington Tristate there looked to be the exact same number of TSA officers, but they were Really going through people's shit with a fine-tooth comb. Pulling folders and books out of people's bags and flipping through them, stuff like that. Never seen that before.
Sales of the Communist Manifesto have been on upward trend so this is for the greater good.
Haha, well, if it keeps me from stepping onto a plane with a bomb on it, I'll wait a little longer. Not like I have a choice, I guess.
Baraka in the White House
2-Terms of Kombat
Just about every time we've flown we've experienced TSA folk who were pushy and grumpy as all hell.
Oppo
Member
yes, hooray for paying more to return to how things were 20 years ago.
this is just another creative shakedown like paying for every bag of extra luggage (looking at you WestJet).
I do enjoy seeing the xray guys just stare agog at my camera bag, which is an impenetrable wall of electronics and batteries and wires and metal, and which they have swabbed or looked at exactly once, across many flights.
Glad to hear I'll get to wait even longer in line to get felt up and swabbed at the airport when I take my single flight to visit family in the fall. Hopefully it's not that bad come October.
The last time I flew they patted me down, swabbed me for chemicals, took everything out of my carry-on and then proceeded to swab that down as well. Told me it looked like I had something hidden in my pants and things were stacked in my bag. The odder thing was the bag inquiry, because things...you know...tend to get stacked on top of each other in a bag. Like all bags. And yes, they went to every pocket and pulled everything out. Every single thing. That took a nice 30mins to resolve and can be humiliating since people might assume you're doing something bad.
The last time I flew they patted me down, swabbed me for chemicals, took everything out of my carry-on and then proceeded to swab that down as well. Told me it looked like I had something hidden in my pants and things were stacked in my bag. The odder thing was the bag inquiry, because things...you know...tend to get stacked on top of each other in a bag. Like all bags. And yes, they went to every pocket and pulled everything out. Every single thing. That took a nice 30mins to resolve and can be humiliating since people might assume you're doing something bad.
If you look this can be had for free. My Citi AA card pays for my yearly PreTSA costs. Seen other credit cards offer this as well.
Jag
Member
ZackieChan
Member
At LAX last week, I went through the body scanner and the monitor showed a big square on my crotch. No idea what that could have been (insert Spinal Tap reference), but I got the full pat down. Dude didn't seem to happy about having to do it.
D
Deleted member 1159
Unconfirmed Member
Work paid for precheck, after using it a couple times I immediately made my wife go down and get it too. No going back after that. I have waited 0 minutes in lines since then, and don't have to take all my shit off and empty my laptop bag.
It shouldn't be that way but fuck it, I'm playing the game.
It shouldn't be that way but fuck it, I'm playing the game.
StarCreator
Member
If I knew I would be flying so often between January and March this year I would have definitely gotten TSA Pre-Check, as much as I disagree with it on principle. The lines I've experienced this year aren't nearly as bad as the Midway video but they are definitely longer than they were this time last year and I've had two close calls where I made it to the plane just before they closed the gate despite arriving hours prior.
I've had my carry on baggage flagged for inspection twice this year too, which never happened before. The first time, whoever was manning the x-ray machine decided my bottle of toothpaste, which was about half the maximum capacity TSA allows, deemed inspection. The guy forced to do the inspection was pretty incredulous about it when I confirmed with him it was well under the limit, stating it happened "because some people aren't very good at their job".
On my most recent trip, I had managed to forget that I had two screwdrivers - one ratcheting with swappable long heads, the other a fairly large #3 - in my backpack. This got flagged, but the guy inspecting it apparently only found the ratcheting screwdriver, which he confirmed with a superior was OK to bring aboard because detaching the head brought it under the length limit. He either didn't find the other screwdriver (which was unquestioningly not OK) or just didn't care to force me to get rid of it.
I've had my carry on baggage flagged for inspection twice this year too, which never happened before. The first time, whoever was manning the x-ray machine decided my bottle of toothpaste, which was about half the maximum capacity TSA allows, deemed inspection. The guy forced to do the inspection was pretty incredulous about it when I confirmed with him it was well under the limit, stating it happened "because some people aren't very good at their job".
On my most recent trip, I had managed to forget that I had two screwdrivers - one ratcheting with swappable long heads, the other a fairly large #3 - in my backpack. This got flagged, but the guy inspecting it apparently only found the ratcheting screwdriver, which he confirmed with a superior was OK to bring aboard because detaching the head brought it under the length limit. He either didn't find the other screwdriver (which was unquestioningly not OK) or just didn't care to force me to get rid of it.
That's one of those things were being happy or unhappy about doing it can feel insulting.
Ugh, and I'm going to have to fly from the east coast to the west coast twice this year for work. I should probably get on finally doing Precheck. At the same cost as Amazon Prime (but only needing to be renewed every five years if I read correctly) it seems worth it - though my work's booking system frequently screws up my name (mixing my first and middle name into one) so it may not even work half the time, bleh!!
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
How much was it?
Azure Dream
Member
A hell of a price to pay for Security Theater. Not to mention how many times I've heard of things going mysteriously missing from people's baggage after it's been separately searched. Either accidentally left out (never to be returned of course) or flat-out stolen, who can say in some instances.
Oh! But the airport's not liable for things they actively took from you just because you tried to use their transportation service.
Oh! But the airport's not liable for things they actively took from you just because you tried to use their transportation service.
This is what I don't get. How does paying a membership fee and signing up allow these shortcuts to be taken? Why can't those shortcuts be extended to the general line? Is the only reason the pre-check line is faster is because of the exclusivity? Am i missing something? If everyone started signing up for pre-check, wouldn't the pre-check lines takes longer? What is inherently quicker about pre-check besides that not many use it because of the cost/effort to sign up/or don't know about it?
If they are holding more efficient check in methods behind a membership fee then fuck 'em they deserve all the hate they get.
PreCheck does a through background check on you, fingerprints and all.
The line goes faster because shoes stay on and shit stays in your bag. Also, metal detectors are faster than the full body x-ray machines.
So how does a background check now ensure that, 3 years from now I won't have any sketchy shit in my bag? If we are willing to make the assumption that those with clean bg checks should go through faster anytime in the near future, then that assumption should be granted to the general population too. Same with the x-ray vs full body scans
StarCreator
Member
Uh, because they still x-ray your bag and make you walk through a metal detector (which isn't actually any less effective at catching weapons than the body scanners)?
It's fast because it's fewer people doing an abbreviated number of checks, but everything is still being checked.
So it's like the Post office, DPS, or any other government agency. Why are government workers the worst?
Hale-XF11
Member
I hear it's because it's really hard to get fired from a government job, so slacking off is easy.
hawkshockey11
Banned
meanwhile in Buffalo
People being so eager to sign up for TSA PreCheck weirds me out.
You all get so up in arms about privacy when a federal government agency snoops around the internets gathering information on you at random, but you get totally excited about giving a different federal government agency all that information and your fingerprints and then some just so you can be slightly less inconvenienced at an airport? AND you pay money for it on top of all that? To be able to do something you used to be able to do (and that most of the rest of the world is still able to do) anyway without being printed, interviewed, and investigated in the first place?
I don't know about you, but that all sounds super fucking creepy to me.
You all get so up in arms about privacy when a federal government agency snoops around the internets gathering information on you at random, but you get totally excited about giving a different federal government agency all that information and your fingerprints and then some just so you can be slightly less inconvenienced at an airport? AND you pay money for it on top of all that? To be able to do something you used to be able to do (and that most of the rest of the world is still able to do) anyway without being printed, interviewed, and investigated in the first place?
I don't know about you, but that all sounds super fucking creepy to me.
D
Deleted member 1159
Unconfirmed Member
$85 each, took less than five minutes with an interviewer at the Phoenix airport. They take your prints electronically there.
Like the other poster said they do a background check and take your prints. I've got 30 years of not being a criminal and a lengthy flight history behind me, it's a pretty good indication I'm not about to start shit on a plane. And yes, they still scan your bags, you just don't have 50 families with 5 kids each slowing you down.
- Status