So, this attempted terrorist attack in Detroit (where I am headed tomorrow) took place during my visit home to see my mom and dad. TSA is saying that I should get to the airport an hour earlier than usual and that other security precautions haven’t changed, but I’m wondering if any of you have first-hand experience.
Thanks, guys.
I flew from Ohare to Minneapolis on Christmas day in the evening and it was weird. I didn’t know that anything had happened until I was on the plane, but I could tell something was different. I just chalked it up to the holiday.
The woman doing the x-ray hand searched my bag and made me open a candle in a tin, then she swabbed it with something. Then they had TSA agents randomly searching people as we boarded. However, everyone was friendly and nice, especially the lady who searched my bag. We bonded over some Lush soaps I was carrying.
My experience was that it wasn’t bad, just a little more uptight than usual.
Flew from Las Vegas to Phoenix on Sunday. The TSA group at LAS were the rudest I’ve dealt with. I saw a few people pulled for extra screening including inspection of items in bags.
While I do think the TSA at LAS were rude, I can imagine that it isn’t fun working security in Vegas when half of the departing passengers show up at the airport drunk!
I flew this morning, PHX to ORD, and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. The line at security was not any longer than I would expect for the Monday morning after a holiday. I had a few oddball items in my luggage and wasn’t stopped for a hand search. The guy in front sent a water bottle through the x-ray, he said ‘sorry forgot it was there’, the screener tossed it, guy went on his way.
I flew Syracuse-Detroit-Los Angeles-Reno yesterday. There were more TSA personnel than usual, and in Syracuse two of them were carrying rifles at the gate. I didn’t go through the security checkpoint in Detroit, but the processes in Syracuse and LA didn’t take any longer than usual.
I flew Tulsa to Chicago on Sunday morning - same old, same old. No security delays.
I will also be flying Chicago - Newark on Wednesday and expect nothing out of the ordinary.
…and there were dogs at the gates in L.A. It was pretty strange, and more than a little disconcerting - neither the dogs nor the handlers seemed to be particularly well-trained. I remember two different dogs straining at their leashes with little or no response from their handlers, and one barking a few times at seemingly random travelers with no response.
It didn’t make the airport seems any more secure; it actually had the opposite effect on me.
Okay, sounds normal enough. I appreciate your responses.
I flew from Huntsville AL to Lubbock TX with a brief layover in Memphis TN on the 26th. Security seemed a bit more uptight but not terribly so, saw a woman pulled aside for a random detailed search of her carry on. My wife forgot that she had a couple of small perfume bottles in her laptop bag, but the TSA guy was very nice and allowed her to keep them since they were within the size limit. While at the gate in Memphis I saw a couple of security types, one with what appeared to be a Heckler & Koch MP5. They seemed to be scanning the crowd looking for someone.
Jacksonville to O’Hare on Sunday 12/27, and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordianry, exept that the sign that usually says “Moderate” had been changed to “High.”
Contrary to dalej42’s experience, I actually found the TSA agents to be much more pleasant than usual! One of them even joked with me about my CPAP.
Well, this is coming to you direct from Oakland International Airport. Security was no big.
I flew from Manchester, NH on Sunday. It didn’t take us any longer to get through security than it normally would with the amount of people that were there, but there was more security present, including officers with dogs. However, Manchester airport is TINY. It has one terminal, so it’s really difficult to get a long wait there, anyway.
We didn’t have to do anything other than the normal security measures, like taking off your shoes & belts, and putting our 3oz containers of liquids in baggies. They let me through with my knitting needles with no problem - they are an allowed item, but I thought the heightened security might mean I’d be tossing them. They didn’t even open my bag.
Flew out of Bush-Houston (IAH) that Monday. I got there about an hour before my flight and made it up to the gate just as they were announcing general boarding. It was pretty crowded, for being as sugar and spice noted, the Monday after a holiday, but not very bad. The sign coming into the airport announced threat level ORANGE but I don’t think I’ve seen that change in 6 years. The screeners were friendly and pushed us through. I was stuck in a herd that was fairly familiar with the airport drill so we had a line of beltless, shoeless, unzipped people waddling up to the screeners.
I flew yesterday, out of PHL. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
(Actually, it was, because there was no line, which I have never seen before at that airport. Freaky.)
Flew from LAX to MSP on 12-27/12-28 (midnightish flight), nothing different.
Okay guys, um, thanks for all of your help, but I am now safely back in Michigan. If you still want to go ahead and describe your flying experiences, be my guest, but the question is not only answered, it is now redundant.
So… how was your flight?
I flew from Los Angeles to Philadelphia on the 23rd (red-eye) and returned on the 29th (8pm EST). I was quite worried about getting there on time to deal with security at LAX and PHL.
I was quite surprised that it took less than 15 minutes BOTH ways to check my bag AND get through security. No one took my lighter on either flight, but going out, the same rules apply for liquids. I had to give up my unopened bottle of Arrowhead water.
Only real difference was security patting me down at the security line coming back to LA. This guy patted me everywhere. I was waiting for a phone number and a dinner invitation took him so fucking long. 
See post #11.
We flew from LAX to ORD on Dec 26-27 red-eye, the Saturday night/Sunday morning of Christmas weekend. The security line was pretty much the same as other times we’ve taken that flight (although, frankly, that’s probably a very low traffic date)