I see so many threads every day about 9/11 and airports and security that I really don’t want to bog the site down with a [most likely futile] search right now, so I apologize if this has been done but I don’t think it has.
So here are my questions:
Has there been any kind of official word on if they will ever let people go to the gates again without a ticket?
Is this a law or just a voluntary policy adopted by airports?
Why do they do this? Terrorists quite obviously have no problems buying tickets. Every single 9/11 suspect had a ticket.
Why do they check IDs now? Terrorists have no problems getting fake IDs. This just seems to make lines longer.
Thank you.
Don’t hold your breath. How does never strike you?
Does it matter? By law do you mean act of Congress or regulation from either FAA or TSA? Answer is I don’t know, but it really doesn’t matter as you aren’t going to get to the gate unless you are ticketed.
For the simple reason that if you allowed Aunt Tilly, Unckle Furd, and their 27 kids all to go out to the gate to meet you that that is 29 more people that have to be screened. Needless to say the higher the load at security, the longer the wait. Please don’t mention that Aunt Tilly doesn’t have to be screened, because she isn’t getting on the plane. If she isn’t screened, then she could pass the Uzi in her purse to the hijacker that was screened, once they have cleared security.
The only additional ID check is at the gate itself. If the passengers don’t have their head up their ass, and have their ID out, it takes only a couple of seconds to do the ID check. ID has been required at check in for quite a while (before 9/11). Also with the advent of self-check in machines without the ID check at the airplane door, there would potentially be no ID check of some passengers. ID check is not required at security, just a check of the boarding pass.
How do you know though? Do you have a cite or are you just guessing?
It seems like alot of the “security measures” taken after 9/11 were, to use an overused term, kneejerk reactions and they will eventually lighten up. I’m just curious as to whether there has been an official word either way.
I hope you aren’t equating selling heroin to minors with our pathetic excuse for airport “security.” And if you are, did you read the part where none of the participants in this thread are even sure of the legality behind this yet? That is part of the GQ here.
I feel I should clarify my thoughts from my last post though.
I don’t think current security measures in US airports are very practical. I think they’re mostly just for show and to give people a false sense of security. The only clear purpose they seem to serve is to make lines longer. That is my opinion and I shouldn’t have brought it into GQ.
The GQ’s were Are these security measures permanent? and Are these security measures law?, which Zagadka seems to have missed and I was a little hamfisted in clarifying in my last post.
I encountered just the opposite this holiday season, unless I’m misunderstanding you. In Baltimore (BWI), Houston (IAH), and Miami (MIA), ID was required at security, and not at the gate. The airline was Continental. Have things changed, or is there some variance?