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[muu]

Flew out of PDX this week and a few weeks before that. Not as crazy as this but slow as hell lines, some of their scanners were down, etc etc.

Some people mention terrorists might as well attack this new vulnerable concentration of people, but why would they when the government is spending our tax dollars to constantly remind us that our sense of freedom is nothing but an illusion?

 

[StarCreator]

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.

I can't speak for others, but I'm certainly not relishing the prospect - but unless there is a huge shakeup that boots TSA out of most of the country's airports, it's getting to the point that you have to do it or start showing up to the airport 3-4 hours before takeoff. Some people are reliant on air travel and don't really have a choice in the matter.

 

[Visualante2]

For people who fly a lot the $90 is not a lot. The problem arises when TSA are disincentivised to manage queues because it will hit pre-check revenue.

 

[timetokill]

So it's like the Post office, DPS, or any other government agency. Why are government workers the worst?

No real accountability, and no real competition.

 

[MetatronM]

I can't speak for others, but I'm certainly not relishing the prospect - but unless there is a huge shakeup that boots TSA out of most of the country's airports, it's getting to the point that you have to do it or start showing up to the airport 3-4 hours before takeoff. Some people are reliant on air travel and don't really have a choice in the matter.

The fact that a situation has been manufactured for literally no good reason whatsoever whereby many people do in fact have no choice as you said is precisely what makes this all extra creepy.

 

[BobTheFork]

Understaffed
Overworked
incompetent as FUCK

Maybe at least we won't have to ask WHAT HAPPENED? when they fuck up and miss something deadly.

 

[teruterubozu]

The bigger the airport, the shittier the TSA. Always fly out of the small hubs if you can.

 

[Hale-XF11]

$85 each, took less than five minutes with an interviewer at the Phoenix airport. They take your prints electronically there..

goddamn, that is quite the scam they have going on. Well, I guess freedom isn't free after all.

 

[boiled goose]

Trying to sell more tsa precheck?

#tinfoilhat ??

But really, calculated discomfort is a known tactic airlines use get you to upgrade.

Ive always said tsa precheck is a terrible system. Creates a second tier of advantages for the wealthy and creates financial disincentives for regular security check.

 

[Realplumpbox85]

It has to be an awful job.

I work private Security and never in my life would I dream of doing that shit job. I deal with A TON of crap at my job, but TSA jobs are a whole other beast.

 

[AntoneM]

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.

What bothers me is that I am a federal employee and have had extensive background checks and have been finger printed no less than 3 times in 8 years... and I still would have to go through the whole process.

 

[GoutPatrol]

I'm going back to the US in July. I can't even sign up for Global entry because I don't live in the US and I'm not going to schedule an interview on my vacation to go back to the airport and do it. And because I have a non-citizen, non-resident fiancee I would be waiting for her no matter what.

 

[Acerac]

"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.

Do you find it surprising that people care more about having this symbol than any actual results they may have achieved?

It's goddamn horrible, but many would freak out if it were to be suggested the TSA be disbanded.

 

[Stinkles]

Just about every time we've flown we've experienced TSA folk who were pushy and grumpy as all hell.

My favorite kind is the bad tempered post-menopausal lady whose job is to walk the line angrily yelling contradictory or obvious things at people.

 

[Bubble Metropolis]

Speaking of TSA folk's temperaments,

I usually fly through small airports where I only interact with TSA agents for seconds at most, but when I last went through security at O'Hare, whenever a random bag check popped up on the computer, all of the TSA guards in the area would start yelling things like "WE GOT A BAG CHECK HERE," "BAG CHEEEEEEEECK," "BAG CHEYECCCK,' "WE GOT BAG CHECK BOSS." like we were all on a chain gang or something. I don't know if they're required to do that or were just trying to have a little fun--they certainly weren't smiling during any of this--but that definitely amplified the shitty atmosphere of the ordeal.

 

[iamaustrian]

The harassment I got by TSA folks made me cancel all future US trips.
being treated like a third class criminal every time I enter the states was enough for me.
the worse is when you have smart ass agent who thinks he is the last standing frontier of US defense against foreigners.

seriously fuck that shit.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Flew from Oakland International Airport Saturday and it took all of 15 minutes to get through. I guess it'll get worse in a month or two. TSA is a joke either way. I've gone through with lighters and pocket knives before. Not on purpose mind you, i'd put that shit in my bookbag and forget about it for a few months and would get on a plane and find it in their thinking, "how the hell did they not see that?" When I used to be in the military they'd frisk me down and shit all the time, as a civilian though? Nothing. So strange.

 

[Frankfurter]

The harassment I got by TSA folks made me cancel all future US trips.
being treated like a third class criminal every time I enter the states was enough for me.
the worse is when you have smart ass agent who thinks he is the last standing frontier of US defense against foreigners.

seriously fuck that shit.

Had mostly positive experiences myself, but what I really hated where the officers that went through the (endless) lane with their huge ass dogs. And I'm not even one those people that are frightened of dogs, but nevertheless that's just a pretty shitty first impression for a country.

 

[ColdPizza]

The harassment I got by TSA folks made me cancel all future US trips.
being treated like a third class criminal every time I enter the states was enough for me.
the worse is when you have smart ass agent who thinks he is the last standing frontier of US defense against foreigners.

seriously fuck that shit.

care to share any specific circumstances of your encounter?

 

[SpecX]

I went through O'Hare a month ago and the lines weren't that bad. One of the TSA agents was actually funny and was giving out pointers to get through the lines faster.

Whenever I fly, I make sure I have easy to remove and put back in shoes, everything in my pockets end up in my backpack so I don't have to worry about emptying them, and my backpack is a approved TSA bag so I can leave my laptop in. I spend less than a minute putting my stuff on the conveyor and I can snatch up my stuff when I'm done.

 

[daveo42]

I went through O'Hare a month ago and the lines weren't that bad. One of the TSA agents was actually funny and was giving out pointers to get through the lines faster.

Whenever I fly, I make sure I have easy to remove and put back in shoes, everything in my pockets end up in my backpack so I don't have to worry about emptying them, and my backpack is a approved TSA bag so I can leave my laptop in. I spend less than a minute putting my stuff on the conveyor and I can snatch up my stuff when I'm done.

Must have been his first day. I've never met a "happy" TSA agent.

As for pointers, these only help if they don't decide they need to stop you to check your package or check your package. It was nice the last time they did that, as my bag was fine, but was just sitting with all my shit in it unattended and like 50ft away. Anyone could have just lifted my stuff no problem.

 

[Sai-kun]

I'm sitting in O'hare airport right now and the lines were thankfully pretty painless this morning. I thought my flight was at Midway and I was nervous as fuck before I figured out where I was going lol

 

[ZackieChan]

Must have been his first day. I've never met a "happy" TSA agent.

As for pointers, these only help if they don't decide they need to stop you to check your package or check your package. It was nice the last time they did that, as my bag was fine, but was just sitting with all my shit in it unattended and like 50ft away. Anyone could have just lifted my stuff no problem.

I dunno, I encounter TSA agents that seem happy a lot. There's always a few miserable looking agents, though.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

I'm sitting in O'hare airport right now and the lines were thankfully pretty painless this morning. I thought my flight was at Midway and I was nervous as fuck before I figured out where I was going lol

Tuesdays are the slowest and often times cheapest travel days because of it, since flying mid week like that is often inconvenient as far as vacation and business scheduling.

I always fly tuesdays if I can.

 

[Calamari41]

This TSA shit has to end at some point, and that day is only brought closer to the present every time the worthless agents stage these stupid slowdown strikes. I honestly believe that if either of the presidential candidates put "TSA abolition" as one of their campaign promises, they'd see a very noticeable uptick in support.

These people want to be armed, for God's sake. Armed TSA agents. I'd never fly again.

 

[wondermega]

I hope you guys are happy. I fell asleep reading this thread last night, and had a horrible anxiety dream about having to wait in line for a flight & missing it.

 

[Stinkles]

Tuesdays are the slowest and often times cheapest travel days because of it, since flying mid week like that is often inconvenient as far as vacation and business scheduling.

I always fly tuesdays if I can.

It actually varies from place to place, but Wednesdays are the worst at Seattle - biz travelers safely coming and going for business trips. Thanksgiving and Spring Break/Xmas are obviously nightmarish outliers.

 

[iamaustrian]

care to share any specific circumstances of your encounter?

yeah sure
One time I was heading from austria to the states (visiting my brother in sarasota). After arrival in atlanta there were the superlong "foreigner" lines (as usual). I waited for over an hour just to get to a TSA guy who was REALLY frustrated with his job and treated me (and others in the line) like total shit.
He asked me extremly weird and personal questions.
don't get me wrong: I'm ok with the usual "What are you doing in the U.S.?" questions but there should be line not to be crossed.
What really brought my piss to a boil was when he started to "check" the personal data of my brother (why the hell should he do this anyway?). I put check in quotation marks because he actually pretended to type words into his computer (which took 15minutes btw) but in reality he did shit (=nothing). He just wanted to make me wait and feel uncomfortable. not to be talking about his other crap like "You should not be doing this and that in my country. We don't like that here."
When he finally complained about my appearance I had enough and asked "seriously?" I wasn't impolite or anything before and very cooperative btw.
You could feel that he feels strong because of his uniform.

 

[RustyNails]

I want to know if this is happening in domestic terminals or international terminals. I'm flying out of O'Hare next month from international terminal and I don't know how bad it is there. I don't want to arrive 4 hours early and sit there since I'm also working that day.

 

[Deacon]

Flew out of Logan(BOS) over the weekend. Got fussed at because I left my iPad in my TSA checkpoint approved backpack because they were doing something new and doing that chemical check on iPads.

This was after the guy asked if I had if tablets/notebooks taken out and when I showed him my bag he goes "we like those."

 

[Swig_]

yeah sure
One time I was heading from austria to the states (visiting my brother in sarasota). After arrival in atlanta there were the superlong "foreigner" lines (as usual). I waited for over an hour just to get to a TSA guy who was REALLY frustrated with his job and treated me (and others in the line) like total shit.
He asked me extremly weird and personal questions.
don't get me wrong: I'm ok with the usual "What are you doing in the U.S.?" questions but there should be line not to be crossed.
What really brought my piss to a boil was when he started to "check" the personal data of my brother (why the hell should he do this anyway?). I put check in quotation marks because he actually pretended to type words into his computer (which took 15minutes btw) but in reality he did shit (=nothing). He just wanted to make me wait and feel uncomfortable. not to be talking about his other crap like "You should not be doing this and that in my country. We don't like that here."
When he finally complained about my appearance I had enough and asked "seriously?" I wasn't impolite or anything before and very cooperative btw.
You could feel that he feels strong because of his uniform.

ATL is the worst. The few bad experiences that I have had have all been at ATL. Some other airports aren't nearly as bad. Half the people at ATL seem disgruntled and the other half look like they're high or not all there in the first place. I walked past some TSA girl at ATL once who literally looked like she was about to pass out from drugs. She looked like she was in a daze and didn't understand what was going on around her.

I fly frequently and some airports have actually been decent.

 

[dantevsninjas]

Look at those photos of lines. Now imagine a world where we implemented actual intelligent security measures instead of this clusterfuck of security theater.

 

[iamaustrian]

ATL is the worst. The few bad experiences that I have had have all been at ATL. Some other airports aren't nearly as bad. Half the people at ATL seem disgruntled and the other half look like they're high or not all there in the first place. I walked past some TSA girl at ATL once who literally looked like she was about to pass out from drugs. She looked like she was in a daze and didn't understand what was going on around her.

I fly frequently and some airports have actually been decent.

well, feel lucky.
90% of my bad airport and airline/plane experiences happened in the US. yea, ATL is really a shithole of airport. The security measures are generally a total joke in atlanta. It seems all shiny fake to me and hardly anyone of the shitload of security folks seems to know what they are actually doing (except standing around in groups constantly using their walkie talkies..).
My cousin got completly lost on the terminal areal after he took some valium-like pills for the long flight. I lost sight of him after security check and he was picked up by a janitor in a "High Security Area". The nice man basicly brought him to the "Lost and Found" where I finally met him again.

 

[jmdajr]

Anybody been to Houston IAH recently? I don't ever remember it being THAT bad.

 

[RBH]

At the Atlanta airport:

 

[RoyalFool]

Meant to be swapping flights at Atlanta soon, thinking the 4 hours between flights isn't going to be enough. Arriving quite late so maybe it'll be ok. What a clusterfuck. Most of the flights still have less than 2 hours to switch which is going to lead to a lot of angry peeps

For international flights you still gotta do it at the first US airport you land in unfortunately

 

[RBH]

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is putting nearly $1 million into two new automated security lanes at Hartsfield-Jackson, which launch this week.

The Transportation Security Administration’s chief security officer Jill Vaughan said the new lanes with automated bin movements are the first in the United States.

TSA officials think the new lanes could speed processing by 25 to 30 percent, and will evaluate the Atlanta pilot project with an eye on expanding the system nationally.

Delta is also putting another $4 million into additional workers to supplement TSA staff in Atlanta and at other airports.


South checkpoint

Step 1: Once you get to the screening area, approach one of the five stations and take a loading bin from beneath the station.

Step 2: Fill it with all your items, including a roll-aboard suitcase, for example. The bins are 25 percent larger.

Step 3: Push the bin onto a conveyor belt, which will move it into the X-ray machine, then walk through the checkpoint. You don’t have to wait for the person in front of you to finish. Each bin has an RFID radio frequency identification chip for tracking.

Step 4: Retrieve your belongings on the other side of the X-ray machine. Your bin is automatically returned to the front of the line via a lower-level conveyor belt. If a bin’s contents needs to be manually screened, it is bumped over to an alternate conveyor belt for an officer’s inspection.

http://airport.blog.ajc.com/2016/05...w-smart-security-lanes-at-hartsfield-jackson/

 

[StarCreator]

So that's over a million dollars spent on a conveyer belt?

 

[Stinkles]

Yes. The problem is that there aren't enough steps.

 

[studyguy]

Went to snowboard in Colorado. Denver TSA made us nearly miss our flight, just catching as it was boarding despite being there over 2 hr early late as fuck at night. Shit was nuts. Looks tremendously worse now.