For about 10 years, I was in charge of photography at a science fiction convention in Atlanta, Dragon Con. And when the con gets close, I answered travel questions for folks who post on their community blog on LiveJournal. I'm also a frequent flyer out of Atlanta on business, so I kinda know what I'm talking about. Anyway, just before the convention started in 2006, the ban on liquids was in force and there were a lot of questions flying back and forth so I did my best to help answer them. Mostly by putting up news reports and links to the TSA and appropriate agencies. About the middle of August, they partially lifted the ban and I posted to that effect ( http://community.livejournal.com/dragoncon/741785.html). I also gave my own personal advice on how to deal with the TSA and my personal experience and at the end I said, "Above all be nice and courteous. And pack all that makeup." Someone, claiming to be a TSA supervisor, took exception to what I said about them lying to me and proceeded to tell me that I knew nothing of what I spoke and that:
"And, as a side note, elected representatives complain enough about us, we really don't care what they have to say anymore. They get screened almost like the general public....but if you Do write them ask them to put a step increase in our next budget, we haven't gotten a real raise since, well, never. Thanks!"
By the way, he deleted his comments from the public journal. But as all things on the internet are eternal, I have emailed replies to them.
Depends on the airport and if your connecting flight is in another terminal. The old Dallas, Detroit, and Newark concourses used to not be fully connected between the terminals, so if you changed airlines or just had to change terminals, you had to go out and back in.
The better explanation could have been, "Sir, we didn't fully screen you as we should so we need to escort you out of the secured area if this is your final destination."
The real surprise will be when he flies next. Will the TSA realize they created a PR disaster the first time or will they retaliate?
BTW, the TSA is not a law enforcement agency (no arrest or detention powers) and cannot touch you without your permission. That's why they kept trying to get him to say yes.
It's called "Deregulation". Congress did it to the airlines and to AT&T; we can see how well *that* has worked. The airlines are competing, but it's become a crapshoot as to which one will be in business by the time you use your ticket and AT&T is fast becoming Ma Bell again.
And again, the math for their charges still doesn't work. An SMS message is literally 140 bytes long, costs about 25 cents to send at .10 cent per byte (that's one-tenth of a cent). As a contrast, a CDROM costs about .0000000003 cents per byte. That's 3 BILLIONTH's of a cent per byte on a CDROM. It cost's them NOTHING to transmit that SMS message as it's inserted into a blank space 140 bytes long in the transmission packet, built in for error checking that isn't used anymore.
The argument about not reading your contract or you should know better doesn't work when it is painfully obvious to someone who can do basic math that the profit margin on data transmission is hundreds of thousands times greater than the costs. And if my math is off by a decimal place or two, it's still obscenely greater than anything the banking or oil industry's do.
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A TSA Officer's Attitude
Anyway, just before the convention started in 2006, the ban on liquids was in force and there were a lot of questions flying back and forth so I did my best to help answer them. Mostly by putting up news reports and links to the TSA and appropriate agencies. About the middle of August, they partially lifted the ban and I posted to that effect ( http://community.livejournal.com/dragoncon/741785.html). I also gave my own personal advice on how to deal with the TSA and my personal experience and at the end I said, "Above all be nice and courteous. And pack all that makeup."
Someone, claiming to be a TSA supervisor, took exception to what I said about them lying to me and proceeded to tell me that I knew nothing of what I spoke and that:
"And, as a side note, elected representatives complain enough about us, we really don't care what they have to say anymore. They get screened almost like the general public....but if you Do write them ask them to put a step increase in our next budget, we haven't gotten a real raise since, well, never. Thanks!"
By the way, he deleted his comments from the public journal. But as all things on the internet are eternal, I have emailed replies to them.
Re: Re:
The better explanation could have been, "Sir, we didn't fully screen you as we should so we need to escort you out of the secured area if this is your final destination."
The real surprise will be when he flies next. Will the TSA realize they created a PR disaster the first time or will they retaliate?
BTW, the TSA is not a law enforcement agency (no arrest or detention powers) and cannot touch you without your permission. That's why they kept trying to get him to say yes.
Sue him
(untitled comment)
The math simply does not work
And again, the math for their charges still doesn't work. An SMS message is literally 140 bytes long, costs about 25 cents to send at .10 cent per byte (that's one-tenth of a cent). As a contrast, a CDROM costs about .0000000003 cents per byte. That's 3 BILLIONTH's of a cent per byte on a CDROM. It cost's them NOTHING to transmit that SMS message as it's inserted into a blank space 140 bytes long in the transmission packet, built in for error checking that isn't used anymore.
The argument about not reading your contract or you should know better doesn't work when it is painfully obvious to someone who can do basic math that the profit margin on data transmission is hundreds of thousands times greater than the costs. And if my math is off by a decimal place or two, it's still obscenely greater than anything the banking or oil industry's do.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by TheTripper.
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