Why I prefer to take the train over the plane

"Scott en Aztln" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 21:44:33 -0600, "Stephen Sprunk"
wrote:
Tip: if an airline does that, make sure they put your FF number on the
ticket. My travel agent has left it off a few times, and getting it added
"mysteriously" deselected me for screening each time. That included
one-way tickets purchased on the day of travel.

LOL!!! Why am I surprised that it's possible to work around a
nonsensical rule by doing something equially nonsensical?

That's how govt works...

So are you saying that having them put the FF number on the boarding
pass will avoid having the SSSS printed on it? Or are you saying that
both are printed, but the TSA will ignore the SSSS if they also see
your FF number?

I'm saying that if your boarding pass has the evil SSSS on it but not your
FF number, and you go to the ticket counter and have them add your FF
number, the new boarding pass will not have the evil SSSS on it.

If your boarding pass has your FF number and you're still selected, you're
screwed. I managed to get "randomly selected" on 11 flights in a row with
five different airlines back in 2003. I've never been selected since then
(on hundreds of flights) except when my FF number was missing.

I've never understood those rules, but I guess terrorists are dumber
than we give them credit for.

Or maybe the TSA and/or the airlines all think that terrorists are
dumb? After all, by now it is common knowledge that buying a one-way
ticket will result in your being subjected to extra SSSScreening, so
any terrorist would simply buy a round-trip ticket - wasting the
return fare is a small price to pay for all those virgins. Or, since
FF numbers are free, the frugal terrorist could simply sign up for a
FF number on the day they buy their ticket.

As I said, just apply for a visa card and charge the round trip, since you
won't be around to pay the bill, the trip to Paradise is free.

I do have to wonder about the intelligence of people who believe all that
fundamentalist crap, though...

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "Stupid people surround themselves with smart
CCIE #3723 people. Smart people surround themselves with
K5SSS smart people who disagree with them." --Aaron Sorkin

*** Free account sponsored by SecureIX.com ***
*** Encrypt your Internet usage with a free VPN account from http://www.SecureIX.com ***

"Stephen Sprunk" wrote in message
m...
"Scott en Aztln" wrote in message
...
On 21 Feb 2006 20:02:13 -0800, "Abe Kouris"
wrote:
On boarding the train -- no taking off my shoes, no TSA security
weenies treating me like I was some kind of criminal.

And Amtrak doesn't print "SSSS" on your boarding pass (singling you
out for extra security screening) just because you bought a one-way
ticket instead of a round trip.

Tip: if an airline does that, make sure they put your FF number on the
ticket. My travel agent has left it off a few times, and getting it added
"mysteriously" deselected me for screening each time. That included
one-way tickets purchased on the day of travel.

Didn't work for me. But it was already on the ticket.

Marianne

"Jack May" wrote:

"Buck Fush" wrote:

"Ron" wrote:

Would suggest you actually try flying rather than believe what you
read. I love trains but, frankly, find flying less frustrating than
sitting around a station and waiting for hours, sometimes, for a
train that doesn't come close to departing on time, or trying to
get information that is in any way reliable. Ten extra minutes
though security is nothing to me.

Ten minutes? Where do you live, Utah?

I fly a lot and ten minutes to get through security can often be
significant less even in large airports like SFO and LAX.

Apparently the person is unfamiliar with air travel.

Apparently he is more familiar with air travel than you are. Wait times
in teh past month at LAX at a number of terminals has exceeded 20
minutes in the peak morning hours, with delays up to 45 minutes.

http://tinyurl.com/q2f76

I can remember seeing lines coming out of the Southwest terminal snaking
back on themselves on the sidewalk in front of the terminal. That wait
was certainly more than 10 minutes.

With the terrorist love of bombing trains, it looks like there is
going to be a lot more security check to board a train in the US.

Not likely, since it would simply be too difficult to implement. The
volume of passengers through places like Penn Station is simply too high
to an airline-style security check, and nobody is going to run three
passengers through a metal detector and xray machine when they get on an
Amtrak train at Holdrege, Nebraska at 2 in the morning.