5 ms·

The real time consuming part of the security process is the conveyor belt, those awful plastic tubs and pulling all the crap out of your pockets and carry on. F

The real time consuming part of the security process is the conveyor belt, those awful plastic tubs and pulling all the crap out of your pockets and carry on. Followed by the bottle neck of having a single full body scanner. The showing your photo ID step takes a few seconds. So they are going to spend gobs of tax payer money on the one part of the process that takes the least amount of time? What is the the threat justification of this nonsense? Is there any proof that people are increasingly traveling using someone else's ID? This just sounds like the TSA throwing tax payer money at well-connected companies and people in the security-industrial complex. Just refuse.

sokoloff 4y ago
The body scanner is faster than the bin process and is rarely the rate-limiting step in the process. I opt out of the scanner every time, receiving a manual pat-down instead, making the bin process no longer rate-limiting for me.
- landemva 4y ago
  I also opt out of the scan, and have been 1K without ever going through those contraptions. Knowing which cattle lanes to get in is helpful, along with having (ADA protection) shoulder injuries which cause me to be unable to physically comply.
- bogomipz 4y ago
  Agreed, the actual time it takes once inside the body scanner is nominal. The bottle neck is waiting in line to get into the thing. It's not just the line though, there's this weird "power trip" charade where you have to wait some random amount of time before a TSA knucklehead gives you the "go ahead" to enter the thing, despite it being empty.
landemva 4y ago
I'm old enough to have flown for business on tickets the office admin would book in her name. Whoever got the short straw would have to travel to the customer site... The ID check is to help airlines prevent sale of frequent flier award tickets. It's not about security it's about airline revenue/loss prevention.
- shagie 4y ago
  One of the parties from that era... January in Chicago. Everyone pays $20 per person to go to the party - its a couples party and is themed for the tropics. You're to show up in the god awful Hawaiian shirts, fruit punch and mai tai cocktails... and have your backs packed. At midnight, there's a drawing and the lucky couple is given a pair of plane tickets to Hawaii - the flight leaves from O'Hare in 2h. The room in Hawaii are already booked too. This was back when you could just have a plane ticket as a physical thing and with it, get on a plane.
- bogomipz 4y ago
  I believe in that era you used to be able to sell airline tickets you couldn't use. I think it was just about whomever had the physical ticket.
sidewndr46 4y ago
Does anyone else regularly experience a form of compliance test as far as the shoes on-off or the laptop in or out of the bag? I fly way more than I would like, so I figure I can memorize the procedure by just reading the TSA website or something. The interesting thing is, they almost always subtly modify the procedure in some way. Sometimes I can keep my shoes on. Sometimes the laptop can stay in the bag. In some cases, two agents in the same exact line give contradictory instructions.
- bogomipz 4y ago
  I do think it's more of power trip than anything else. The TSA overwhelmingly seem to want to browbeat the very people they are supposed to be serving. Indeed the rules seem to vary arbitrarily by time of day, by airport, by passenger volume. It just proves that most of what the TSA does in airports is is really just security theater.
  - sidewndr46 4y ago
    Had to fly again last week for work: I kindly ask the TSA employee if laptops need to be in or out of the bag I carry as I pas through the checkpoint. He says "yes", so I proceed to remove my laptop. As I'm pulling it out, the exact same employee yells at me "NO, laptops stay in the bag".
- dang 4y ago
  You broke the site guidelines egregiously in another thread. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33860483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33860483. I'm copying this information here because I want to make sure you see it and the other thread was a few days ago.

sokoloff 4y ago

The body scanner is faster than the bin process and is rarely the rate-limiting step in the process. I opt out of the scanner every time, receiving a manual pat-down instead, making the bin process no longer rate-limiting for me.

landemva 4y ago
I also opt out of the scan, and have been 1K without ever going through those contraptions. Knowing which cattle lanes to get in is helpful, along with having (ADA protection) shoulder injuries which cause me to be unable to physically comply.
bogomipz 4y ago
Agreed, the actual time it takes once inside the body scanner is nominal. The bottle neck is waiting in line to get into the thing. It's not just the line though, there's this weird "power trip" charade where you have to wait some random amount of time before a TSA knucklehead gives you the "go ahead" to enter the thing, despite it being empty.

landemva 4y ago

I'm old enough to have flown for business on tickets the office admin would book in her name. Whoever got the short straw would have to travel to the customer site... The ID check is to help airlines prevent sale of frequent flier award tickets. It's not about security it's about airline revenue/loss prevention.

shagie 4y ago
One of the parties from that era... January in Chicago. Everyone pays $20 per person to go to the party - its a couples party and is themed for the tropics. You're to show up in the god awful Hawaiian shirts, fruit punch and mai tai cocktails... and have your backs packed. At midnight, there's a drawing and the lucky couple is given a pair of plane tickets to Hawaii - the flight leaves from O'Hare in 2h. The room in Hawaii are already booked too. This was back when you could just have a plane ticket as a physical thing and with it, get on a plane.
bogomipz 4y ago
I believe in that era you used to be able to sell airline tickets you couldn't use. I think it was just about whomever had the physical ticket.

sidewndr46 4y ago

Does anyone else regularly experience a form of compliance test as far as the shoes on-off or the laptop in or out of the bag? I fly way more than I would like, so I figure I can memorize the procedure by just reading the TSA website or something. The interesting thing is, they almost always subtly modify the procedure in some way. Sometimes I can keep my shoes on. Sometimes the laptop can stay in the bag. In some cases, two agents in the same exact line give contradictory instructions.

bogomipz 4y ago
I do think it's more of power trip than anything else. The TSA overwhelmingly seem to want to browbeat the very people they are supposed to be serving. Indeed the rules seem to vary arbitrarily by time of day, by airport, by passenger volume. It just proves that most of what the TSA does in airports is is really just security theater.
- sidewndr46 4y ago
  Had to fly again last week for work: I kindly ask the TSA employee if laptops need to be in or out of the bag I carry as I pas through the checkpoint. He says "yes", so I proceed to remove my laptop. As I'm pulling it out, the exact same employee yells at me "NO, laptops stay in the bag".
dang 4y ago
You broke the site guidelines egregiously in another thread. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33860483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33860483. I'm copying this information here because I want to make sure you see it and the other thread was a few days ago.