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Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

nytimes.com

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Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#231

Post by franciscop »

tacon wrote: post #211

This is the part that really ticks me off: >Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina recently said it had experienced three-hour wait times. [...] (T.S.A. officials denied that the wait had ever been that long, telling local reporters that it had been 75 minutes for a short time.) Will someone, anyone, please write the simple app that you punch in as you start the line, you punch out as you leave scr…

Install an app and everything? Why not just take a picture when you join, then take a picture just before you are there (with the same people before you) and lastly afterwards. Then just upload them to Twitter.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#232

Post by WildUtah »

nobody_nowhere wrote: post #212
fblp wrote: post #197

I find it absurd that a central agency manages the hiring of tsa agents. In Canada and Australia the airports hire private security to do the checks. They are more competent and friendly than tsa agents. It's also not obvious how a government run tsa could be trusted any more than regulated private security contractors (overseen and kept accountable by a smaller government agency).

Ironic that the "smaller government" party implemented this system after 9/11 then, no?

Wait. There's a smaller government party?

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#233

Post by Symbiote »

silencio wrote: post #208
vinay427 wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slightly off-topic, but just to clarify Miami requires everyone to go through security again for an international connection, or was this a special case?

I wonder if it's a case like domestic terminal -> international terminal without any post-security options to move between the two. I do know that flying _back_ to the US on my last few international flights, there was a second security checkpoint I had to go through. Very silly. I had filled my water bottle at a fountain at the gate and then had to empty it right out 5 minutes later.

I think the theory with this is many foreign countries don't do sufficient checks.

Based on travelling in south America, south East Asia etc, this is sometimes correct.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#234

Post by gnopgnip »

firebird84 wrote: post #135
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USCIS (the former Immigration and Naturalization Service) is a US government agency that functions without funding from the government - it gets all of its money from the fees and penalties paid by the people who require its services. Based on your story, I'm wondering if the TSA has a similar business model.

That sounds about right. I married a foreigner - costs $1500 and about 6 months to process the paperwork that lets her stay. I got sticker shock when I first learned that. I've never before seen government fees that high.

Many of the services USCIS runs are dependent on the local American Consulate. It is relatively cheap when you compare it to what a lawyer would charge for similar services. Most of the support staff could be better paid working in the private sector.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#236

Post by stephengillie »

lettergram wrote: post #206
tehwebguy wrote: post #25

Here's an awesome TSA story for you: Late last year while trying to fly out of LAX a TSA employee thought I was carrying a throwing star. They called the police, who correctly identified as a toy in seconds. I thought the whole ordeal was over until I got a "notice of violation" in the mail from TSA 45 days later. Now I'm banned from pre-check for three years, even though I have global entry and even though the fine…

I didn't get a warning, but I did have my bag opened, all my belongings thrown out on the ground, and was delayed for 30-45 minutes... All this because I had a box of poptarts that apparently looked like a bomb.

It may be an unpopular opinion to express, but these "horror stories of TSA incompetence" are somewhat entertaining to those who cannot afford to fly. It's like that "Cops" TV show, on location in the airports of America, with the men and women of law enforcement - the TSA in this case.

Your having LEOs violate your rights and go thru your belongings - for someone thinking your box is a bomb - is no different than a cop stopping a driver for thinking the driver's Coke can is a Budweiser and searching their car.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#237

Post by dragonwriter »

WildUtah wrote: post #232
nobody_nowhere wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic that the "smaller government" party implemented this system after 9/11 then, no?

Wait. There's a smaller government party?

> Wait. There's a smaller government party?

No, there's a "smaller government" party. The quotes are important, as the reference is to a rhetorical position rather than a substantive one.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#238

Post by tacon »

shawkinaw wrote: post #227
tacon wrote: post #211

This is the part that really ticks me off: >Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina recently said it had experienced three-hour wait times. [...] (T.S.A. officials denied that the wait had ever been that long, telling local reporters that it had been 75 minutes for a short time.) Will someone, anyone, please write the simple app that you punch in as you start the line, you punch out as you leave scr…

That's pretty much what this app does: http://gomiflight.com

Great, thanks! Can they generate press releases and statistics about average and peak wait times per airport? Maybe their penetration isn't hitting a critical mass. I'd love to see a live dashboard that shows "X number of people have been standing in line for Y minutes in city Z", or "the worst lines in the US airport system right now are A, B, and C". Reporters could then just show that display to the TSA press shill and call them out on their bad data in real time.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#239

Post by menage »

gsnedders wrote: post #221
tehwebguy wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TSA factors in if an item appeared to be intentionally concealed as well, I'm glad you didn't get a notice with a significant fine

The TSA has nothing to do with Heathrow where it was found, though. (I don't think in the UK anyone can be fined: if there's any belief of malice, you're likely to be dealt with under normal criminal law such as conspiracy to murder, or potentially terrorism related offences; if there's not, you can either surrender your property or return landside).

A criminal conviction could lead to a fine.

Re: Catching a Flight? Budget Hours, Not Minutes, for Security

#240

Post by dragonwriter »

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #225
nobody_nowhere wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic that the "smaller government" party implemented this system after 9/11 then, no?

No, you actually have it very wrong. George W. Bush was not a 'smaller government' president. It was the grassroots conservative reaction to the GWB administration's "progressive" Republican administration that leads you to even think of the modern GOP as the 'smaller government' party in the first place.

> It was the grassroots conservative reaction to the GWB administration's "progressive" Republican administration that leads you to even think of the modern GOP as the 'smaller government' party in the first place.

The GOP (including the both of W.'s campaigns, and his administration) has been beating the "smaller government" drum for decades (pretty consistently since at least Reagan's first campaign). Its not exactly a new rhetorical position (substantively, like the Democrats -- though virtually a mirror image on the specific programs -- there are areas of government that, in practice, they work to expand and areas that the seek to shrink.)

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