Taking my shoes off at airport security is one of my biggest pet peeves (apart from waiting in long lines). While it’s certainly understandable that in a post-9/11 world, security must be tight, for frequent travelers waiting in long security lines and dealing with restrictions on carry-on items are some of the least pleasant aspects of flying (and that’s including airline food). And the restrictions keep coming. Most recently, the Trump administration barred passengers on foreign airlines headed to the US from ten airports in eight majority-Muslim countries from carrying “personal electronic devices (PEDs) larger than a cell phone or smart phone,” and US officials have even discussed expanding the ban to include flights to the US from Europe. Who knows what might come next.
Read moreThe New Yorker: "Pets Allowed"
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has an extensive list of prohibited items but does, of course, allow travelers to bring their pets (not just service animals) through security, letting airlines decide their own pet travel policy. Reporter Patricia Marx recently tested TSA's response (as well as JetBlue's) by bringing a one-year-old pig named Daphne with her on a flight from Newark to Boston. (In this experiment with "emotional-support" therapy animals, she also brought a turtle to the Frick Collection, a wild turkey on the Hampton Jitney as well as to Katz’s Delicatessen, and an alpaca to a pharmacy—though Ms. Marx had hoped to travel with the alpaca on Amtrak.)
Ms. Marx's conclusion: "I’m pleased to report that passing through security with a pig in your arms is easier than doing so without one: you get to keep your shoes on and skip the full-body scanner." JetBlue also welcomed the additional traveler, and on the return trip from Boston, Daphne got to pre-board, where she was welcomed by the delighted flight attendants.
In lieu of traveling with pigs, those who want to save time at security or US customs (traveling internationally with animals has its own difficulties) should look into TSA preCheck and Global Entry.
Politico: "TSA Screener Confession"
Jason Edward Harrington, former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screener and once anonymous author of the TSA-themed blog Taking Sense Away, writes a lengthy piece about his time with the TSA:
I hated it from the beginning. It was a job that had me patting down the crotches of children, the elderly and even infants as part of the post-9/11 airport security show. I confiscated jars of homemade apple butter on the pretense that they could pose threats to national security. I was even required to confiscate nail clippers from airline pilots—the implied logic being that pilots could use the nail clippers to hijack the very planes they were flying.
We learn of the agency's racial profiling, the ineffectiveness of the Rapiscan Systems full-body scanners (reviewing the scans turn into an "an unofficial break" time for officers), guyspeak, and various other unsettling secuirty lapses and issues that any frequent flier probably does not want to know.
The LA Times reports the TSA has responded saying that Harrington is either "lying or describing long-abandoned practices" and furthemore the TSA will not "pursue the allegations of misconduct that Harrington raised."
[via the Economist]