TSA and the boarding pass

[Cmdr Taggart]

I was commuting into work this afternoon from San Diego on AA as an off line jumpseater, which I have done 30 or so times in the last year. I was not in uniform and as I proceeded to the screening line the TAS agent said they did not know if they were allow pilots through without a boarding pass and that she need her supervisor. Well her supervisor came up and I said I was jumpseating on AA and I showed her my ID and she said she needs to ask her suprvisior if I could get through without a boarding pass. I told her I was running late and that my flight closed in 20 min and I need to get through. Well 10 min later after the third supervisor was asked I was told to get a ticket. Well a long ticket line wait later and I get my boarding pass, wait in the screening line again only to get additional screening. All said in done I missed my flight.

What is everybody else doing to avoid this issue, are you wearing your uniform to compute in? Most of the airports I go through I have no problem like PHX, PIT, PHL and SAN until today. Is this boarding pass rule system wide?

 

[SDdriver]

Wear your uniform

SD

 

[Brother Francis]

Wear your uniform

Or get the boarding pass in advance.

What a load of crap. The terrorists have accomplished their mission.

 

[SpiderMan]

Yeah Im sure their main goal was to force jumpseaters to get a boarding pass.

 

[merikeyegro]

...

Uh, lighten up, schmucko. I think he was talking about how bin Laden and his cronies ran a few planes into the ground and now everyone in the government is afraid of his own shadow. I got an idea! Let's make every citizen's life a living hell at the airport! Of course, that's a great idea, considering that al Qaeda is going to do the EXACT same thing again...

That's why this guy is pissed. The TSA, with their heads right up their asses, is making honest, hard-working-for-little-money pilots jump through hoops for no reason other than some guy at the top said to look for suspcioius activity. So, let's pick on the pilots. Not to mention there is no standardization across this country for the Gestapo.

I understand his pain. Bin Laden was not out to make jumpseating harder. Shrub, better known as GWB Jr., said that the terrorists would not "change our way of life." We have begun to target our own citizens, take away pilot's licenses for suspicion of terrorism, hamper our own country's productivity, discourage free speech, limit freedom of travel, etc. Oh yeah, the government is grasping at straws by using the USA PATRIOT Act to surveil you, me, and the rest of the lot day in and out. He's basically saying that, whether or not you admit it, bin Laden and his buddies changed our way of life by making America un-American. Learn it soon, lest you unwittingly support those who enjoy their newfound power over you.

This is why GWB and his crew must go. But, hey. At least we have a national no-call list...

 

[jarhead]

merikeyegro

I can only speak to my personal experience as a non-rev pax, but I have found the TSA people who have screened me, to be quite civil in their demeanor, and on occasion, my wife has been asked to remove her shoes for X-ray, as the steel shank tripped the metal detectors. I do not find this to be unreasonable, given the Brit, Richard Reed's attempt to blow up an airliner with a shoe bomb. Granted, with all the people who frequent this board, I am certain that many have run into an occasional AH who was having a bad day, and wanted to vent on his 'prey'. That can happen with a traffic cop, or anyone in the position of authority. I would suggest that the proper way to handle such events, would be to follow up with letters or emails and phone calls, to the proper authority, rather than politisize the event with a personnel attack on the President of the United States. I don't care who the president would be, one cannot stop all incompetent people from making stupid decisions. I suppose it was the presidents fault (pick any administation going back many years) that a pilot flying drunk, somehow is the fault of the president. Give me a break....please!

 

[Brother Francis]

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away.

--"For What it's Worth" Stephen Stills, 1966

 

[Tim47SIP]

Whats the problem?

Iv'e been jumpseating for a few years and when a boarding pass became a requirement to get into the secured area, I simply went to the ticket counter and got a jumpseat form filled out and then went through with out incidence. This seems to me to be a no brainer. You might have gotten in those 30 times before, but the rules are that you need a boarding pass, jumpseat form or be on the dispatch sheet (if it is not your current base of assignemnt) to get into the secure area unless a differnt set up for crews has been implimented at that airport. I personally didnt think TSA could even let you through without the boarding pass unless you had a SIDA badge (whether in uniform or not) for the airport you are assigned. Anyway, I think they did the right thing here but I do understand the frustrations with the security hassels.

 

[metrodriver]

I had my encounter with these idiots this week. When I'm exactly halfway through the detector they tell me to take off my shoes. The detector starts to scream at the same time. So grandpa tells me to sit down and raise my legs so he can pull the wand around my legs (got to lift them legs higher!, higher!). Then I have to stand on a little mat with footprints and oh my if your foot is not exactly on that thing. So now he can wand the rest of me above the knees. You got to loosen your (tiny) beltbuckle. In the meantime my bag and plastic box with my wallet with creditcards, passport, driver license, pilot license, medical and money is set on top a cabinet for everybody walking by in the terminal to grab it, and they won't let you get it anywhere near you. If you want to get rid of your posessions, go see the TSA.
So on my way back from the east coast I tell them I suspect metal in my shoes, so from a distance I stick my foot through the detector to see if it would go off. Sure enough. So I want to take my shoes off and put them through the X-ray and now they tell me they have to wand me down since the alarm rang and I can keep my shoes on till I'm seated for the same procedure as in DFW. So after I get through I visit the bookstore, and to my surprise they sold everything the TSA deems inappropriate to be in your carry-on baggabe like sewing needles, safety needles, nail clippers, cissors, razors. The lady behind the counter told me that they had those products since before 9/11, and people came there to buy the stuff TSA had just stolen from them.
My shoes have been TSA proofed immediately after I came home.
All I need now is a TSA proof belt buckle, maybe I'll go with those plastic clips you see on luggage and backpacks, will not look professional but hey, what do I care

 

[merikeyegro]

...

Jarhead-

I have written many letters already and have received responses from Adm. Loy, Rep. Mica, and Sen. Nelson. Not that anything has changed, but I've at least tried.

I believe Bush is not directly at fault for anything at the TSA, but he and his crew incite fear in everyday Americans that know no better. They vote these creeps into power.

Whoever wrote the next post-

I believe "For What It's Worth" was written by Buffalo Springfield. If Stephen Stills was the writer for that band, I stand corrected