Cozumel Airport Security WARNING

[DandyDon]

Amen !!!

:laughing: When clicking Like is not enough.

TSA baggage agents do have absolute power. Heard about that one? I know that they cannot search bags while the passenger watches in all airports, but that needs to change.

 

[ggunn]

Amen !!!

As the alien said at the end of the Buckaroo Banzai movie, in a Jamaican accent, "So what? Big deal." I'm sure all this bluster makes you feel all better, but one has to deal with the world as it is. The reality is that the TSA and all the attendant hassles with flying are here to stay. P!$$!ng and moaning and gnashing of teeth is totally ineffectual. You can deal with it or you can stay home. I would love to just breeze through the airport with no inspection of my person and possessions, have friends see me to the gate and meet me when I return, carry on a six pack of beer, park in the white zone, etc. like we did 20 years ago, but that isn't reality. I travel with the TSA in mind and conduct myself in such a way as to minimize the conflict. DSFDF and YMMV.

Out of curiosity, what do you do when you go through security in airports? Do you give the TSA people a ration of grief? If so, would you mind letting me go through ahead of you?

 

[cvchief]

Maybe we can start up a two tier program:

1. First Tier: Same as the current TSA program.
2. Second Tier: Totally not searched. Oh, maybe a little drug dog action on incoming flights, but that it. You pay more for a ticket and we give the flight crews extra danger pay.

You can pick whichever. I mean I get it, they are intrusive and they fail a lot. So besides the complaining what can you suggest? On one hand you say they are missing guns and bombs and such and on the other hand you say they are too intrusive.

I mean given their mission, how can they win? Everyone b$%^%$# about getting felt up, so they get fancy scanners. Then everyone b%^&$## about being scanned. They get busted on for not preventing attacks, but if it worked you wouldn't know right? I can't say if someone turned their plans from aircraft because of security. The security really isn't in what they find but more in who doesn't bother to try, right? I mean they only make what 20-40 a year and they have to put up with your crap. I bet that means the applicant pool is a little murky.

I'm just saying its easy to complain without real solutions. Of course fire the criminals to start, but what after that?

 

[redacted]

Another option is to accept a few casualties and put that $$$ into intelligence gathering and precision guided weapons and other offensive responses. And I think such an option may be worth a shot if the public will allow it. But it does mean accepting possibly successful enemy actions on US soil.

 

[JerryK]

Any loose batteries are probably going to be confiscated. I was told that anything NOT in the device, was not allowed, whether in the original container or taped or whatever.

You have to realize that TSA flight regs don't mean squat coming back from Coz or any international airport. You are dealing with a foreign country and they have there own rules and regulations.


Jen --- I am not saying that the procedure you got at LA was correct or by the book, but you agreed to the pat down by going in that line and not going through the full body scanner. If you felt that strongly about not using the scanner, then you put yourself in that position. It may not be right, by anyones book, but you do have an option. I don't want those guys handling my stuff, so I go through the scanner.

Sorry about the camera, I lost 1 myself during the invasion a couple of weeks ago.

 

[azscubadude]

Out of curiosity, what do you do when you go through security in airports? Do you give the TSA people a ration of grief? If so, would you mind letting me go through ahead of you?

Actually I am very nice and very polite as I have been in all my posts.

I just think the TSA is an overgrown (110,000 employees and growing) useless organization that screams WOLF at every chance so they can continue to bloat themselves like most other government agencies do while buying hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of useless machines every time a new threat comes out. The latest being the headlines in the paper the other day adding another "cry wolf" to their ploy of terrorists implanting bombs in body cavities. How much do you think all the new machines they will say are needed to detect this threat will cost the taxpayers.

This could all be solved in short order with a "Trusted Traveler Program" just like Customs has (and I have) that works perfectly. Sign up, get a background check, get fingerprints and a picture taken and I am good for 5 years. The people that wanted it could go through the process and the people that didn't could go through TSA.

It took me one month and one interview to get my Customs clearance and now I walk past the hundreds of people waiting in line and I'm through Customs in less than 3 minutes, that includes going through a special line and getting waived through the bag check area as well.

 

[azscubadude]

I'm just saying its easy to complain without real solutions. Of course fire the criminals to start, but what after that?

I have two that could cut the TSA down to about a dozen employees at each airport.

1. A Trusted Traveler Program (like Customs has) using a retinal scan if necessary. It would take 1 minute to go through.

2. Profiling.

 

[DandyDon]

I have two that could cut the TSA down to about a dozen employees at each airport.

1. A Trusted Traveler Program (like Customs has) using a retinal scan if necessary. It would take 1 minute to go through.

2. Profiling.

Sounds far. One girl is making national news because they checked her hair bun. :silly:

 

[redacted]

I have two that could cut the TSA down to about a dozen employees at each airport.

1. A Trusted Traveler Program (like Customs has) using a retinal scan if necessary. It would take 1 minute to go through.

2. Profiling.

You mean like every military commissioned officer who is already trusted with at least secret information could be treated as a trusted traveler? You do see where that could go wrong. #2, unfortunately suffers from similar problems if those who do not meet the profile get a pass. Perhaps some probabilistic selection routine might help. But I'm not sure whether it help safety or recruitment more.

 

[ggunn]

I have two that could cut the TSA down to about a dozen employees at each airport.

1. A Trusted Traveler Program (like Customs has) using a retinal scan if necessary. It would take 1 minute to go through.

2. Profiling.

What do you plan to do with these solutions? Talk is cheap.

There are problems with both of them. With #1 all you do is set up the goal for <insert terrorist organization name> to get one of their operatives onto the TTP list. Then getting explosives on a plane is a piece of cake.

With #2, there is a similar goal. Find out who fits the profile and get an operative who is the opposite of that.