Showwwww me “things people say as they’re getting dragged off the plane in handcuffs!”
You’re lucky to have not gotten arrested, everybody else on that plane was lucky the flight wasn’t delayed because of you.
I wrote an unsuitably feisty email to TSA about this topic. I’m trying to figure out their funding to write to those department heads too. I know sending emails is pointless of course but a lifelong habit as well.
That and Nexus/Global Entry. They make travel so much better. Both flying and driving across the border!
The horrors; having to take my computer out; having to take my belt off; having to take my shoes off. Having to stand in line with the plebes.
Global Entry - Skip the long Customs line, walk up to the facial recognition system, look at it for a couple seconds, go on your way.
I’ve had Global Entry for more than five years, though I haven’t traveled overseas in that time. I originally got it as a cheap upgrade from Pre-Chek. (I think $100 vs $85 for Pre-Chek alone.)
If you drive across the border, it can be a huge time saver as well. We go to BC a couple times a year, and if we use the Blaine, WA crossing, it can save you a couple of hours.
I get pulled aside for secondary screening every time I go through the scanner because of the compression sleeve on my leg for a varicose vein. It was pretty stressful the first time it but I’ve kind of gotten used to it. I tried wearing shorts so the sleeve was visible/obvious but the scanner still flags me.
I’ve used that crossing too. It’s a good way to avoid congestion.
For Mexico, the crossing at Otay Mesa is the same, a good way to avoid congestion instead of the main crossing into Tijuana. Even better yet is Tecate, but that’s farther east than Otay Mesa.
The line that’s an hour long. Yup.
I used to feel bad about “paying to cut in line”. Then i read an article by some security guy about how the security theater is crazy and expensive but no one has the political clout to get rid of it, so they are whittling around the edges, trying to move as much traffic as possible back to a reasonable level of screening. That’s when i applied for global entry.
Though I believe Nexus is even better for crossings into Canada, and the fee is even less. I think it’s fifty bucks for five years and includes Pre-Chek.
I get pulled aside for a pat down about half the time, because i wear clothes with baggy pockets. It’s still a lot faster, and other people move past me as i wait for the pat-down.
Lost a small knife. Forgot about it.
Lost the smallest multi-tool I have ever seen. I kept it in my dop kit. Perfect for the random fix in a hotel room. How they found it is amazing. I forgot it was in there, and I had been using the dop kit for local car travel.
TSA would identify something, and sometimes I’d respond with, “Oh that’s where that is! Thanks for finding it.”
Those TSA so-and-sos tried to confiscate my package of Cracker Barrel Malted Milk Balls once — the ones that are an inch and a half in diameter with the thick chocolate coating. They decided to search me in a back room instead. They said they needed the practice. It wasn’t all that bad. I kept my MMBs. Nice try, TSA! 