Airline Thieves!

[Dave in PA]

I am taking my family on a vacation from PA to Orlando (I will be diving the living seas) in two weeks. Are we flying? Nope. We are driving. 1090 miles, 17 hours spread over two days each way. Will it be as quick as flying? Nah. Will I have to worry about my son's game boy setting off a panic at the screener's desk? Nope. Will I get pulled aside (again) for the personal treatment? ( I must look like trouble) Nope. Will the airlines get my business? Not this time. Will I save about $600? Yep. Probably buy a Suunto Mosquito and a nitrox course with the money. I realize that driving is not the answer for every situation and I have flown and will continue to fly at least once a year. However, if you analyze what TSA is doing, you will realize that Tom is correct and they are not really preventing anything. Photo ID? OK, so they know that the picture on the card is you, big deal. Take what TSA is doing and extrapolate that to all aspects of travel in your everyday life. Can you imagine what it would be like to drive across state lines, having to show ID before you could cross? Or if your vehicle was scanned or searched for contraband, (fireworks, cigarettes and alcohol comes to mind). No thanks. Not for me. I don't believe a police state, even just in airports is worth it. If TSA, a large government body, would examine their policies and procedures and apply something like business do to measure their effectiveness, air travel would be safer and more streamlined.

As far as hand searching bags, maybe it could be done only with the owner present, after which a numbered seal is applied to the bag and a tag with a corresponding number is given to the traveller. I don't know. If I had the answer, I wouldn't be working where I work.

 

[RonDawg]

Photo ID? OK, so they know that the picture on the card is you, big deal.

At least they know you didn't steal that boarding pass from someone else. I was more referring to the consistency of things from airport to airport anyway.

I don't have the answers either. But what I do know is that Americans demand their government protect them from everything, but God forbid if THEY are the ones who get inconvenienced in the process!

 

[jbisjim]

......but God forbid if THEY are the ones who get inconvenienced in the process!

No kidding.

 

[Chocoholic]

I'm going to carry-on my BCD and my reg set-up. I am just wondering if anyone has had any troubles doing this. I expect that they will want to inspect the bags and all but has anyone been denied carrying on their equipment and why. I just have to remember to take my knife off my BCD.... I'll do that right now and pack it in my checked luggage.

 

[rockydiver]

For checked lugage, we pack our dive gear (including dive bag for the boat) in ordinary looking baggage so not to alert everyone we have dive gear in there. Zip ties are good but we have TSA locks. They are combo locks that can be opened with a universal TSA key. The lock alerts us if it was opened by TSA. (Wal-Mart. Target...)
We also always carry-on our regs and computers in a a small reg bag. We have never had trouble with security. Those people looking at the x-ray always know exactly what it is. When we were leaving Cancun the Mexican Security Officer hand checked the bag and asked what was in there. He was satisfied with "SCUBA gear".

 

[rockydiver]

[Shoes: Shoe removal is optional. Period. However, based on the judgement call of the staff, certain shoe characteristics will lead to secondary screening even if the magnetometer doesn't beep; this leads to some pre-magnetometer staff trying to find every possible way to imply that it's mandatory, because they already know that if you keep them on, you're going to secondary, beep or not.]


There seems to be some consternation about shoes in this thread.
Here's the deal with shoes and Metal detectors.
There is a 2-3 inch space at the floor of the older walk-through detectors that does not detect. This was to keep the detectors from alarming from steel shank shoes and metal eye holes. Of course after the "Shoe Bomber" incident there was a realization that this was a problem. Hence, shoes off and through the x-ray or inspected with a hand heald detector.
I like the idea that the TSA learns from their mistakes.

I find it amusing that people who will dress in a wetsuit on a rolling deck or walk in flippers backwards through the surf wearing 50 lbs of dive gear would complain about walking 20 feet in their stocking feet in an airport.
But then I'm easily entertained...

 

[Nomaster]

[Shoes: Shoe removal is optional. Period. However, based on the judgement call of the staff, certain shoe characteristics will lead to secondary screening even if the magnetometer doesn't beep; this leads to some pre-magnetometer staff trying to find every possible way to imply that it's mandatory, because they already know that if you keep them on, you're going to secondary, beep or not.]


There seems to be some consternation about shoes in this thread.
Here's the deal with shoes and Metal detectors.
There is a 2-3 inch space at the floor of the older walk-through detectors that does not detect. This was to keep the detectors from alarming from steel shank shoes and metal eye holes. Of course after the "Shoe Bomber" incident there was a realization that this was a problem. Hence, shoes off and through the x-ray or inspected with a hand heald detector.
I like the idea that the TSA learns from their mistakes.

I find it amusing that people who will dress in a wetsuit on a rolling deck or walk in flippers backwards through the surf wearing 50 lbs of dive gear would complain about walking 20 feet in their stocking feet in an airport.
But then I'm easily entertained...

For me it's a question of having my person violated by a stranger for a cause that I believe strongly to be political only.
Further I don't believe it is only the politics of gaining votes from timid people, I believe it is really the politics of oppression.
Just one more badge telling me that I don't have the freedom to move without their okay. When I was in High School we were shocked to learn that people in some countries actually had to carry ID, and get permits to move from one place to the next. Now it's in our country.
My my.
What is freedom?
What was the cost of the freedom we throw away every day?
We'll all be safe when we're kept in little isolated cells and fed gruel through flimsy paper straws, through a hole in the undoored wall.

Tom

 

[lostinspace]

For the 5kg carry on luggage allowance - I actually think this is a great idea.
I sat in the aisle seat on one journey, the luggage bin overhead popped open during turbulence, and some fat b*stard business man (sitting next to me, body mass invading my space/seat) had crammed his 7+kg computer bag into the overhead bin.
It landed on my head.

It hurt like f***.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I strongly believe one does not NEED to carry on more than 5kg in any one bag.

 

[DPJ]

For the 5kg carry on luggage allowance - I actually think this is a great idea.
I sat in the aisle seat on one journey, the luggage bin overhead popped open during turbulence, and some fat b*stard business man (sitting next to me, body mass invading my space/seat) had crammed his 7+kg computer bag into the overhead bin.
It landed on my head.

It hurt like f***.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I strongly believe one does not NEED to carry on more than 5kg in any one bag.

I travel for business entirely too much. In the last month, I have spent 5 nights at home. If I can save 30 minutes to an hour sitting in an airport waiting on checked luggage, then that is extra time at home or the client site. I will always carry everything on if it does not exceed the limits set on the airlines.

 

[lostinspace]

understand, sympathise and empathise.
when I travelled a lot on business I would do the same. but never exceeding the airline limits.
I get mad when I see people barely able to carry their bags bring them on the plane.