If airline passengers are feeling hassled by the never-ending stream of airline hidden fees that are driving up their travel costs for the holidays and planes that are more crowded than ever, they now have another boogieman, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) making holiday travel more of a hassle.
TSA is unwrapping gifts, slowing down screening systems, subjecting passengers to punitive pat-downs should they have the temerity to decline a virtual strip search or extra dose of radiation and introducing new Secure Flight check-in requirements.
Unwrapping holiday gifts
We all have known that it may not be the best idea to wrap presents for the holidays and they try to go through airport security. It seems that TSA has received a secret message that the next terrorist bomb will come disguised as a present wrapped with a bow. Whether or not that intelligence insight is true or not, inspectors may require any wrapped gift that seem suspect to be unwrapped.
My suggestion for anyone planning on bringing gifts for either Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays — don’t. Ship them ahead of time using FedEx or UPS (or if you have plenty of time, use the postal service). Not only will travelers spare themselves the problem of having gifts unwrapped (in both carry-on and checked luggage), but they can save the extra airline baggage fees that can amount to $120 round-trip. Plus, unlike the airlines where getting your bag at the end of your trip is still hit-or-miss, FedEx and UPS will track your package and guarantee its arrival date. Plus, the costs are less if you use normal shipping instead of overnight services.
Slower screening systems
The arguments about whole-body scanners stripping passengers naked have been going on for years. TSA really doesn’t care. The more transparency the better from their point of view. Questions about excess radiation and the unknown effects are routinely dismissed even though many doctors are recommending that pregnant women and children avoid the new backscatter machines. That’s old news.
The new problem that is rising to the top when it comes to airports and airlines is the extra time that these new whole-body scanners take to process passengers. Lines are getting longer slowing down the TSA inspections at airports where whole-body scanners are in use at every inspection lane. With the extra crowds expected for Thanksgiving and Christmas, these security lines are only going to get longer and longer. Passengers’ patience will get shorter and shorter.
Punitive pat-downs
TSA is introducing, just in time for the mirth of the holidays, new “enhanced” pat-down techniques. Little did we know that pat-downs have been a long-running issue with TSA. Originally, they were relatively benign, then the administration, according to discussions I have had with senior executives in Homeland Security decided to frisk passengers differently based on the reason for the pat-down.
In other words, passengers who had to be patted down because of medical reasons like pacemakers, hip and knee replacements got one relatively light level of pat-down. Those who refused to go through the whole-body scanners received a more robust pat-down. Folk who set off metal detectors were subjected to another type of pat-down. And so it went for what was mentioned to me as being five different types of pat-downs.
According to executives with whom I discussed these various pat-downs, training was too difficult for a selection of pat-downs, so the decision was made to treat everyone like a common criminal suspected of carrying a hidden snub-nosed pistol or secreting drugs or explosives. (No one at TSA or DHS has ever put it in those words. That is my own description.)
Be that as it may, anyone declining a walk through the whole-body scanner should get ready for what some have described as an abusive pat-down complete with hands to the crotch. Those who feel everyone is a potential terrorist will have warm and fuzzy feelings for the agent poking and probing their body. Others will feel violated.
Secure Flight requirements
Again, coming to an airport near you just in time for the holidays, TSA’s Secure Flight program will add new hassled for passengers and check-in personnel that will blindside most of them.
Basically, every airline ticket must have the full name of the passenger, their birth date and gender. This means airline tickets must list a passenger’s first, middle and last names. Many travelers who made reservations months ago in order to secure low prices will find themselves unable to check in at airport kiosks without a middle name on their ticket or in their record. They will have to wait in line and be checked in by an agent and have their middle name added to the record.
It is not rocket science to see that this will add uncertainty to the check-in process and a lot more time at the check-in counter should a traveler’s ticket be missing full name, birth date and gender.
Suggestion: Call your airline and make sure your tickets have all the appropriate information. If you have a passenger profile with any airline, now would be a good time to make sure your middle name is listed.
Finally, get to the airport early for check-in for any holiday travel. That advice is always useful because of the additional crowds, but this year, with TSA security point slowdowns and pending confusion, especially for Thanksgiving travel, the advice may be even more important.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
You’re absolutely right on about the naked body scanners and the retaliation TSA will put you through if you exercise your right to opt-out. It will probably be nothing short of an invasive, genital-touching grope.
If you’re of the mindset “anything for security” please take a moment to get the facts on this new technology before you let TSA take naked pictures of you or your family: http://www.savvytravel.net/2010/10/5-reasons-to-reject-tsas-strip-search-and-grope/
The TSA has gone off the deep end. Your choices are to be viewed naked by strangers, or groped by strangers. When I travel into the city, I’m not groped and X-Rayed before getting on the train, or before going through Grand Central Terminal so why do airlines get to subject passengers to this treatment?
In the future will they have Government Groping Stations at every street corner and at the entrance to every public building “for our safety?”
This is insanity. It’s impossible to have complete and total safety, but it is possible to turn an entire society into a bunch of “Locos” jumping at every shadow and in constant fear for their livesYou have the UNCONDITIONAL RIGHT to OPT-OUT and especially to OPT-OUT your kids!
Click on my name above or Google “DONT SCAN US” or go to:
http://DontScan.me
for important safety and privacy information as well as actual images, not the propaganda that TSA is spewing.
And to add to that Secure Flight uselessness, be careful of flying two different airlines in the same leg. For example, I flew United from Chicago O’Hare to Cleveland, then flew Continental from Cleveland to Newark. I was able to check in to both of these flights in Chicago, but my full name was not sent to Continental. When I got to Cleveland and was walking around stretching my legs, I heard the gate agent page me–she had to get my full name and date of birth so I could fly.
To make a long story longer: if you find yourself in the same type of situation and are have a short layover, be sure to call the other airline and add the information needed.
Re safe flight. What if I don’t have a middle name?
I couldn’t agree more about the scanners. Interestingly, on a recent flight from Boston, where the scanners were first deployed, I was routed around the thing, did not go through the old type machine and wasn’t patted down. My wife had the same experience. On the other hand, returning from ABQ, my wife, grey hair and all, had a water bottle confiscated. She had forgotten it was in her carry-on, and despite it being unsealed and carrying a hotel label, the woman took it on the grounds that there are machines that can reseal bottles.
As to middle names, this doesn’t square with what we as agents have been told. Our practice is to ensure that the ticket matches the name as it appears on whatever ID the passenger will be using.
I can think of only one way to stop the strip search juggernaut. It’s a long shot, but it’s probably the only way. Inundate our members of Congress with snail-mail letters expressing our concerns, in sufficient numbers to overcome their natural aversion to doing anything to restrain the TSA.
Congress is the only entity that has the power to control the TSA. But they have thus far refused to do so out of fear of being blamed for “weakening security” when the next terrorist “incident” inevitably occurs. However, if enough people take the time to bring their dissatisfaction with the TSA to their members’ attention, that may be sufficient to overcome the normal overwhelming instinct to keep their posteriors covered. It will take time and persistence, and it’s complicated by the fact that many people do believe that the TSA is protecting aviation. But it’s the only hope we have of ever of bringing the TSA under control.
Complaining to the TSA, or to anyone else, is not merely useless. It may even be counterproductive. TSA management considers themselves and their agency infallible, so they have interest at all in what we think of them. They’ll just ignore any complaints or concerns, unless they involve a specific incident that’s embarrassing enough to require defensive action. And if they do hear our complaints, they may regard them as validation of their effectiveness. If their “security measures” get ordinary people so upset, they clearly must have an even more aversive effect on terrorists.
So in the short term, there’s absolutely nothing we can do about the TSA. If we want to fly, we have no choice but to accept whatever they inflict on us. Choosing not to fly is one way around this, but too often that’s just not an option. But in the long term, the only possibility is to complain to Congress loudly and persistently enough to overcome their posterior-covering instincts.
The new pat down is not as invasive as everyone makes it out to be. I’ve been subjected to the new procedure several times and it has been handled professionally and quickly every time. No one grabbed my crotch or touched any place on my body they shouldn’t have. TSA training is much better and the officers are way more professional than they used to be. Personally, I’d rather be inconvenienced for a couple of minutes and feel safe.
A lot of this reaction is from people who probably have never been through the procedure and rarely fly. As a frequent business traveler, I welcome any security that makes me feel safe.
I wonder when it’s going to occur to people that “feeling” safe is meaningless. I am sure that the people on all those flights on 9/11 “felt” safe. But were they safe? Not even close.
Feeling safe is kind of like sucking on a pacifier. You don’t get anything out of it, but it feels good.
Can I (a male) request to be patted down only by a female screener?
Lots of paranoia here! I don’t have a problem with full-body scanners or patdowns. And who’s to say that a terrorist wouldn’t consider a wrapped gift the perfect delivery system for a bomb? Whinge all you want, but if any of this stops even one terrorist, it’s worth it. Charlie: An unfair slam against the post office. USPS Priority Mail will get your package to its destination within 2 days (a tad longer for Alaska and Hawaii) and Express will get it anywhere in the U.S. overnight for quite a bit less than FedEx Air (forget FedEx Ground if you want to see your package this year!), and (at least for now) the post office delivers on Saturday at no extra charge.
Actually the pat down was extremely sensual and covered all areas. Just wish my husband could be that sensual. Next time I will get there early and go through twice.
Per Joel Wechsler: “As to middle names, this doesn’t square with what we as agents have been told. Our practice is to ensure that the ticket matches the name as it appears on whatever ID the passenger will be using.”
Actually, travel agents have for months been adding FULL name, gender and date of birth information to passenger records. Some airlines and ticketing systems will no longer allow a record to be transmitted without this information and it’s not long before that will be all but universal.
Delta’s site [I just purchased a ticket there] explicitly stated:
“Name as it appears on your ID card.”
My first name does not appear ANYWHERE! I have never used it; at least not since I graduated from high school. So, how are the TSA agents going to check it?