Encounters with the TSA

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , PTRAVEL
writes
There's a simple solution to this (used in the UK). Station a *polite*
individual at the belt and have them ask people *politely* and *calmly*
whether they've remembered to empty all their pockets, check their
cellphone, and so on.

That's exactly what is done in the U.S.

Well it's clearly not working, as the tales here confirm.

Quite the contrary, the usual post from we-who-are-frequent-flyers is that
the TSA inspectors are, for the most part, polite and efficient. The only
ones who seem to complain are those with little experience of US airports
who, themselves, have, either wittingly or unwittingly, contributed to the
problem they experienced.


--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , PTRAVEL
writes
I don't believe that, whereas the domestic side has
enough room to drive several trucks through, international is a narrow
corridor 3-feet wide.

It's worse than that. Perhaps you didn't read my earlier description.
It's a line for a thousand people, and about six sets of x-ray machines,
shoe-horned into a lobby.

No offense, but I'd like to hear someone else's description of this
facility. I travel internationally frequently (though never through
Atlanta), and have transited from international to and from domestic flights
in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York (Newark and Kennedy),
Philadelphia, St. Louis and Houston, and have never experienced an
inspection location so tight that it was impossible to let the person behind
me pass.


--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
PTRAVEL writes
There's a simple solution to this (used in the UK). Station a *polite*
individual at the belt and have them ask people *politely* and *calmly*
whether they've remembered to empty all their pockets, check their
cellphone, and so on.

That's exactly what is done in the U.S.

Well it's clearly not working, as the tales here confirm.

I think those tales are exceptions. The TSA people I've seen have
overwhelmingly been as polite as I could hope for, sometimes moreso.

miguel
--
See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/

AJC wrote:
Why is it a sin to mix inbound and outbound pax? Some of the most
pleasant airports in the world, Changi, Schiphol, Kastrup mix them. It
gives a more open, relaxed feel to an airport.

Agreed, but those airports transfer your luggage to your connecting flight
without having you go pick it up, carry it 50 meters, then put it down
again.

miguel
--
See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/

In message , PTRAVEL
writes
the usual post from we-who-are-frequent-flyers is that
the TSA inspectors are, for the most part, polite and efficient. The only
ones who seem to complain are those with little experience of US airports
who, themselves, have, either wittingly or unwittingly, contributed to the
problem they experienced.

Perhaps it's a cultural and "body language" (indeed "body contact") kind
of thing. The fact is that many Europeans find the inspectors
threatening and rude when they first encounter them. Sometimes it's the
reverse, Americans disliking casual eye contact from strangers, for
example, something which doesn't bother Europeans at all.
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , PTRAVEL
writes
the usual post from we-who-are-frequent-flyers is that
the TSA inspectors are, for the most part, polite and efficient. The
only
ones who seem to complain are those with little experience of US airports
who, themselves, have, either wittingly or unwittingly, contributed to
the
problem they experienced.

Perhaps it's a cultural and "body language" (indeed "body contact") kind
of thing. The fact is that many Europeans find the inspectors
threatening and rude when they first encounter them. Sometimes it's the
reverse, Americans disliking casual eye contact from strangers, for
example, something which doesn't bother Europeans at all.

Americans don't mind casual eye . . . Hey, who are you lookin' at? You
lookin' at me? Hunh? Ooops, sorry. Okay, you're right, I guess we do.

It very well may be a cultural thing. I think another factor, too, is that,
before TSA, we were used to minimum-wage martinets who were frequently, to
put it charitably, less than professional. The TSA inspectors are angels
from heaven, by comparison.

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:

In message , PTRAVEL
writes

(2) don't put watches, cellphones and other metal objects on the belt

There's a simple solution to this (used in the UK). Station a *polite*
individual at the belt and have them ask people *politely* and *calmly*
whether they've remembered to empty all their pockets, check their
cellphone, and so on.

Why do you need a person to do this?
Signs or electronic announcements can do this for a lower cost.

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , PTRAVEL
writes

Perhaps it's a cultural and "body language" (indeed "body contact") kind
of thing. The fact is that many Europeans find the inspectors
threatening and rude when they first encounter them. Sometimes it's the
reverse, Americans disliking casual eye contact from strangers, for
example, something which doesn't bother Europeans at all.

Interesting you should say that. I was just thinking about my experiences
with the TSA after reading this thread. On the whole I've had no problems
but to me (as British) they came across as being rather rude compared to the
British inspectors, and now I realise why this is, they never looked at me
when talking to me! They either looked at my bags or at the detector
anything else but actually talking *to* me.

Maybe your correct that it's a cultural thing...

On Thu, 6 Nov 2003 11:11:09 -0800, "PTRAVEL"
wrote:


"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , PTRAVEL
writes
I don't believe that, whereas the domestic side has
enough room to drive several trucks through, international is a narrow
corridor 3-feet wide.

It's worse than that. Perhaps you didn't read my earlier description.
It's a line for a thousand people, and about six sets of x-ray machines,
shoe-horned into a lobby.

No offense, but I'd like to hear someone else's description of this
facility. I travel internationally frequently (though never through
Atlanta), and have transited from international to and from domestic flights
in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York (Newark and Kennedy),
Philadelphia, St. Louis and Houston, and have never experienced an
inspection location so tight that it was impossible to let the person behind
me pass.

Basicly the exit from the immigration/customs area streams pax into a
relatively narrow (10-12ft, maybe) "corridor", off which the x-ray
machines etc. sit at right angles - so the main queue feeds into six
smaller queues. It *is* pretty ad hoc and I would imagine that if
several full flights had arrived at the same time could be exceedingly
crowded (although I suspect that the crowding would be at the entrance
to the security area rather than at the individual machines). The
current arrangement replaced the pre 9/11 configuration, which still
checked pax leaving the int'l arrivals area, but had only 2-3 x-ray
machines.

Once you get to a particular checkpoint you have tables leading to the
belt feeding into the x-ray machine on one side of you, and a
partition separating you from the next checkpoint on the other -
possibly as little as 3ft between them (basicly the width of the metal
detector gate). As the OP stated, if you get "stuck" sorting out your
bags, there's really not room to stand aside to let pax behind you
pass.

As at all US airports, I tend to (a) transfer wallet, coins, etc. (and
my baseball cap!) into my backpack, and (b) remove my laptop *before*
I go anywhere near the security area -- at ATL, I'd do this as soon as
I've rechecked my bags.

Julian

--
Julian Fowler
julian (at) bellevue-barn (dot) org (dot) uk

"Miguel Cruz" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry wrote:
PTRAVEL writes
There's a simple solution to this (used in the UK). Station a *polite*
individual at the belt and have them ask people *politely* and
*calmly*
whether they've remembered to empty all their pockets, check their
cellphone, and so on.

That's exactly what is done in the U.S.

Well it's clearly not working, as the tales here confirm.

I think those tales are exceptions. The TSA people I've seen have
overwhelmingly been as polite as I could hope for, sometimes moreso.

miguel
--
See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/

I have travelled to and within the USA about 10 times since September 2001
(and many times prior to that) and have found the US TSA people invariably
to be polite. I don't really think that what they are doing is very
effective, but that is another story. And I think that is the message the OP
was attempting to convey and he really should be listened to because
Lansbury does really know what he is talking about as many regulars of the
UK Group are aware.

JohnT