When I recently flew back from the US via Auckland (NZ), we had to go through all the security brouhaha at LAX, then, almost as soon as we got off the plane at Auckland, we had to go through security again, despite the fact we had quite literally been nowhere except the departure lounge and then on board a Boeing 747-400 as soon as we cleared security at LAX. And on arrival at Auckland, we’d come off the plane, walk down a corridor with no exits to anywhere except the toilets, and then have to go through security again to get into the departure hall.
There were a lot of annoyed, cranky, tired people who were not happy about it, but as we all know, getting mad about it just gets you dragged into a small windowless room for a frank discussion with several humourless people in uniforms or suits.
The sad thing is that I don’t think we’ll ever see a return to “sensible” airline security, either- it’s only going to get worse, IMHO.
No we won’t, and as long as the American public is willing to bend over and grab their ankles and keep tolerating this shit, it’s going to keep happening. The airlines love to wave their hands and claim the abominable nature of air travel isn’t their fault, but that’s horseshit.
Personally I cut my air travel by 75% as a result of the ever-worsening conditions. And yet I still see shit at work on a daily basis, where managers are sent off on trips across the country for 1-hour meetings all because the client expects to see a human face. Hell, twice in the last year I’ve had to fly across the country to sit for a couple hour meeting. And why? Why was it so important? The clients are so stuck back in the 1950’s that they seem incapable of doing anything by telephone or internet, and videoconferencing is a giant joke to them.
I’m sure you did. In many US airports, after customs you are dumped into the general terminal area where the non-travelling public can mingle, and you go through the regular security to get to the gates. That’s what happens in San Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, and Chicago In other places, there is a separate security right after cutoms. That’s what happens at Atlanta, and Washington Dulles. I’m not sure which procedure is followed in Houston, but it must be one of the two. Somehow, before you get to the gate for the conecting flight, you go through security.
A recent thing I have observed at the TSA checkpoint for the American Airlines terminal at SJU – at least both times that I used AA this year, March and May, was they were telling people to do the “separate ziploc baggie” thing with all your power adapters and chargers. This is NOT TSA standard procedure AND this was NOT done at any of the other terminals at SJU during the same period when I travelled on other airlines. Sounds like a test run, brace yourselves, people…
Regarding the OP situation, who knows, some of us may accidentally benefit from the recently-imposed requirement (for US travel) that my ticket name exactly (or very closely) match my ID card name which in turn under the REAL-ID law should exactly (or very closely) match my full legal birth-certificate name.
Up until relatively recently I was very annoyed at all these since I had assembled an entire life out of using my preferred version/combination of personal and family names, including credit cards, passports, college transcripts, etc. HOWEVER, at some point starting in 2004 it became obvious that I had been put in a check-dis-guy-out list, an inconsistent one at that, so that sometimes I’d get the no-online, no-kiosk thing, the re-check at each change of airline thing, and other times not; and the crowning moment being a half hour “please step into this waiting room after we take down some info” session at the US- preclearance area of Toronto airport in '07, where it was explained to me that my chosen nom-du-ticket was the problem (very nice and professional ICE people, must say; entertainment was had courtesy of the travelers from Spain who somehow seemed to not have expected that in a YYZ-JFK-MAD itinerary the Americans would want something to say about whether you got on the first leg and were freaking out).
Serendipitiously, I lost my passport late last year and had to replace it; it now shows my full legal name per birth certificate, including maternal surname; four words, 10 syllables, 24 characters including spaces. Enjoy, TSA people! The date at which we all are supposed to start travelling under our full legal names was 15 August. So far, one trip using the Long Form name, NO problems at all. Fingers crossed for upcoming ones.
Now guess what… not all the airlines could reset their systems to accommodate my “real” name… AA and Continental changed it to the whole megillah without a problem… but Delta and USAirways told me their database did not contemplate spaces or hyphenating! They just ranthesurnamestohetherlikeso to make it fit the preexisting number of fields. Guys… you’ve known this was coming for MONTHS. It should not be THAT complicated to change a field properly?
This is the same CKS airport (actually now Taoyuan airport) where I was going through the routine screening and put my carryon in the X-ray machine, emptied my pockets, and then walked through the metal detector – oh, the contents of my pockets included a full-sized camera that no one even glanced at, sitting in the little key and coin tray off to the side, having gone through neither the x-ray nor the metal detector.
I wonder how big of a boom a block of C4 could make if it had been shaped and painted to look like a camera? The question had never occurred to me before then, and it had obviously never occurred to the security screeners.
I’m annoyed that US permanent residents now have to use the furriner line at passport control. It used to be that there’s a line for US citizens and permanent residents, and another line for others. This is thanks to the US-VISIT program, where they collect the fingerprints and photo of anyone who is not a US citizen at the border. I’m not exactly sure what does this program accomplish for permanent residents, since they all of them should have already been vetted during the arduous green card application process (which is a whole other BBQ pit topic all by itself). I know for sure that they are not comparing my prints to make sure I’m who I say I am. My fingerprints are extremely light, and none of those authentication systems that use fingerprints ever work for me. When I applied for my green card, I went through several appointments with different technicians before they could finally get a set of useable prints. There’s no way that little machine at the border could have captured anything of value.
The worst part is that the US security requirements have become the de facto global security requirements. For example, you still have to go through the “no drink bottles/put your toothpaste in a small bag” bullshit for a flight between Australia and New Zealand, which is probably as close to “zero security risk” as an international flight gets.
Wait, fucking what??? Oh that’s just fucking wonderful.
How in the hell do we get some sanity back in the airport? Or are enough people so terrified of the evil boogymen (who lurk, ever vigilant to pluck airliners from the sky and hurl them at buildings full of children and kittens) that this national cowardice will never be undone?
Speaking of bracing yourself. Saudi Prince Injured in Suicide Bombing link.
I have it from the security folks at work (Yemen), that this article doesn’t tell the whole story. It is important to know that the fellow who was going to give himself up to the prince was held in custody for 3 days prior to the event. So, what does this have to do with air travel you may be thinking? Well, apparently he was screened as a precaution and still managed to set off a bomb. Where was the bomb? It was inserted into his rectum and most likely set off remotely. The people doing the screening would have used metal detectors and got a reading from this guy that they figured was false before sending him on to meet the prince. Now imagine if the TSA gets a hold of this information? Heaven help you if a filling sets off the detector and they can’t find what is doing it!!!
That might be, but the rest of it isn’t. The paranoia, the “no knitting needles or pocket knives or nail files”, the liquids/gels in plastic bags, and all the other assorted WOFTAM measures are now being enforced in places that really shouldn’t have to, all to keep the US authorities happy.
My wife and I had the pleasure of traveling in the USA in Feb 2002, just after the post-9/11 security regulations had been instituted. Traveling on South African passports and with only one-way tickets (we did a big loop), we were “randomly” selected for hand searches at every single security point and boarding call during that trip (except for the side trip to Toronto). 8 internal flights, 16 “random” security selections.
It got to the point where, when we were called to board the plane, we’d take our shoes off - other passengers would ask whether they needed to take their shoes off and we’d say, “No, just us…”
You boycott flying. No matter how much you think you need to go to Cabo for a drunkfest. No matter how much you think you need you to go on a cruise. And most importantly, since business travel props up so much of the airlines, you convince yourself, your co-workers, and your company of the money, GHG emissions, and time savings of aggressively purusing any other option but flying. Make flying “the last possible, no we really mean it” resort. And when the same airlines that trap you on a tarmac with no food and water for 13 hours and laugh in your face go crying to Congress for yet another “bailout”, you phone and write your Congresspeople and say “not without a REAL traveler’s bill of rights which has brutal, yes BRUTAL penalties for mistreating passengers and their possessions.”
I fly only as much for work as would keep me from being unemployed, and since I’m my own manager I work my clients well to convince them that it’s “saving them money in this brutal economy”, and for the most part it works. The only time it doesn’t work is when the job requires me to be on-site (such as when I’m hired to do physical inspections of the power plant) or when some other white-haired manager who grew up in a “Mad Men” atmosphere decides he doesn’t like that strange “Una method”; oh no, he needs to pack up 10 people to fly to Charlotte for a 3-hour meeting.
People who don’t work in the professional consulting world probably don’t have any idea how much that costs, so let me give you some rough figures. Depending upon the contract (mainly, whether it’s a government or non-government entity we’re working for, and whether it’s fixed-cost or cost-plus), I charge from $1,000 to $1,500 a day. For the trip to Charlotte recently which had 10 people in it, the mean cost was about $1,200 per day. Everyone charged one day for travel out, and one day for the meeting and travel back. We had 10 flights at about $700 per on average. We had 10 hotel rooms downtown at about $160 each (including taxes and fees that hotels gouge you on). Net access was $9.95/day, and I’ll bet at least half of got it. There was a dinner the travel night where I’d reckon the average cost was $25 per person. Breakfast at the hotel was the open bar $12.50 “American High-Fat” breakfast - you know, sausage, eggs, omelet bar, biscuits and gravy, and cheese grits, since it was Charlotte. I skipped it since I can’t maintain my weight and eat like an average American. Rental cars, let’s see…we had 3 of them, plus petrol, was about 3x$100. Of course to get to our flights in the first place, we had to pay for mileage to and from the airport, plus parking. I’ll assume 8 people drove, with 2 carpooling with them - I’m not certain, but it’s likely close.
So let’s see how much a 3-hour kickoff meeting cost the client:
10 * $1,200 * 2 = $24,000 labour
10 * $700 = $7,000 flights
10 * $160 = $1,600 hotel
5 * $9.95 = $49.75 net access
10 * $25 = $250 dinner
9 * $13.50 = (say a $1 tip average) = $121.50
3 *$100 = $300 rental car
8 * $40 mileage = $320 mileage reimbursement
8 * $20 parking = $160 parking at the airport
Grand Total: $33,801.25
Now you can add to that some other expenses I’m sure. Bought a $5 Starbucks at the airport? That’s chargeable. Bought two $5 whiskeys on the plane? Yup. Some probably charged lunch as well on the travel day. Some may have charged for newspapers too.
How important was this vital kickoff meeting? Well, during the 3-hour meeting, we:
Introduced ourselves (10 minutes)
Shared our vision and mission statements (10 minutes)
Had a “safety moment” (1 minute)
Read the same goddamn scope of work out loud which we’d already signed and delivered to them (1 hour)
Coffee and drink breaks: 3 times, 10 minutes (30 minutes)
Clicked through a Powerpoint of data requirements needed (something which they had already been sent via e-mail) (30 minutes)
Answered questions from the client WHICH WERE ALREADY EXPLAINED IN THE DAMN SCOPE OF WORK WE JUST READ: (10 minutes)
Miscellaneous bullshit, including the men yammering for nearly 10 minutes about some stupid assed football players: balance.
Who paid for this? YOU, yes YOU (imagine my finger coming out of the screen), the electric ratepayer.
My point? There are added benefits to reducing frivolous business travel, which we ALL can share in.
The problem is that some of us (including myself) like being flown all over the country, having good meals in restaurants, getting a nice rental car, and being put up in decent hotels, all at someone else’s expense.
