Voodoo BDOs Slow Security Line to a Crawl, 4-Hour Delays

We should have some kind of TUG DO! I'll fly around and pick everybody up!

 

I'm still waiting for PlaneRed to, er, take off. As I'm sure many of us on TUG are.

 

I'd read someplace that the inquisitor's podium had disappeared from Terminal A at BOS.

 

you have to think these sorts of delays can only be a good thing for cementing the poor opinion of passengers and airlines towards the TSA, and from there hopefully it's control or demise...

 

We live in hope.

I guess.

 

I'm sure no one here is surprised that TSA would screw this up. Then again, even the apologists thought this sounded fishy.

Personally I don't care which mechanism takes TSA down. As long as they do something that makes enough people miserable enough to get them to start complaining I really don't care what it is.

This one could be a good one, since it will play (expletive deleted) with the airlines schedules and screw up FAA traffic control. My guess is that they'll keep the BDO program to give these misfits jobs, but will deploy them away from the checkpoints to harass arrivals and anyone else unfortunate enough to be in the airport.

BTW, tried to comment too but the website is seriously screwed up.

 

I'm not sure why anyone at the airport is surprised by the 4 hour delay. This is exactly what my experience was in Israel and it's going to be exactly what happens here. It takes time to ask people questions and the delay just cascades down - and then you end up with a long wait. And if the chat downs spread, this is what it will be like all through the US. Can you imagine this at LAX or Atlanta? Those airports will become completely unusable.

Oh, and by the way, way to try to blame part of it on Delta!! -->

A TSA spokeswoman said part of the reason behind the delay was a large amount of Delta Airlines flights scheduled within a small time frame.​

Because, you know, it's completely reasonable for Delta to rearrange all of their flights so that TSA can 'chat' with people.

What are these people using for brains? (rolls eyes)

 

for brains

 

Ha! That would make a good T shirt.

"Head X-ray of TSO" showing skull outline with inside.

 

Oh, I know. I was being nice.

By the way, TravelnMedic, I love your avatar. I still have to finish up my certification.....

 

Hmmm I could probably rack that design out this weekend if i get a free minute.

Thank you, Diving is one of few things that keep me sane. Well get on it as once you get it you will be addicted, and why now 80% of my bucket list includes dive locations.

 

Vicki & Sammy Weaver would agree with you wholeheartedly ...

... if they could.

 

The airlines know this rule explicitly. That's why the door closes either 10 or 15 minutes prior to posted departure. There are so many complaints of, "I ran up to the gate and the plane was just sitting there, but no one would let me on." A minimal delay will just snowball throughout the day, and in some schedules may not be recovered for up to a week.

Based on previous experience, I imagine TSA was told this. Of course, they are smarter than the rest of us, and they do know better.

Not necessarily. While Atlanta is the largest by passenger volume, the local originating market is actually very small. In spite of its size, Atlanta security actually moves pretty quickly. Except when TSA thinks it knows better and tries to send every.single.passenger through the "faster" NoS. TSA is its own worst enemy.

Now, apply this method to a larger airport where most of the traffic is local, like BOS, you're going to see this kind of stuff. Put it in heavy business markets like LGA and DCA, you'll see the exact drop you saw with the total liquids ban. People on those flights are making short 1, 2-day trips, tops to do business. They absolutely will not wait in a 4-hour line for a 1-2 hour max flight. Put it at the largest O&D market, ORD, where screening was fubar when they had only metal detectors, I wouldn't be surprised to see 6-hour waits. Honestly, I hope this program expands in typical TSA fashion and inconveniences as many people as possible. Sadly, we're about to see a precipitous drop in bookings, so it may not even matter.

Classic TSA tactic: don't argue the point, move the goal.

While DL is notorious for schedule changes, DL loves set banks. I'm being lazy and not researching specifics, but I can almost guarantee you the the essence of the DL operation has been mostly unchanged in terms of how much "traffic" is going through BOS for at least 2 years, if not longer. It should have surprised exactly no one that probably thousands of people would go through there from about 2 pm on.

 

A bit off topic but airlines, airport and FAA have long complained about the traffic jams during the day at larger airports. I have a solution, no more arrivals or departures during any one hour of the day than the opposite 12 hour period. In other words 5 departures/arrivals at noon, same at midnight.

Of course TSA would figure a way to screw this up also.

 

May I take this opportunity to raise one of my standard rants, which is that TSA places us all in danger of attack at the security line itself.

 

Agree, anytime people are corraled in one area the risk of something going down is magnified. A target of opportunity just waiting.

 

Which, to me, proves that terrorists have moved on, and have ultimately lost interest in the airport/airplanes as a primary target.

 

Really thoughtful post. I'm going to have to digest this for a bit....

 

Thanks.

It also won't be a problem limited to traditional East Coast markets, either.

• LAS - already has 2-hour waits
• SNA is another highly local, business, short-travel airport. In spite of its much smaller traffic footprint, waits can be anywhere from 30-60 minutes on an average day. And they only have WTMD
• LAX as you already pointed out. It is the second largest (from what I remember) O&D airport. It is not uncommon for lines there to snake through the terminal, out the door, and literally out to the next terminal with waits from anywhere to 1-2+ hours depending on the terminal. This was back when they only had WTMD. I can't even imagine what these lines will look like once they add interrogation on top of the much, much slower NoS. Keep in mind, too, that there they use BKSX, which produces considerably more false positive resolution pat downs. The last time I flew out of LAX, in spite of the fact that the baggage x-ray was slowed to match the throughput of the NoS, they were processing WTMD:NoS at 4:1. If NoS actually becomes primary there, expect that airport to grind to a halt.

 

I believe the point is the worse, the better. What's a common short flight? LAX to SFO for example. Who in the world is going to wait 4 hours at LAX for a 1 hour flight? Has anyone ever been to LAX that didn't think it was H-E-L-L? You could be tooling along the King's Highway a good ways to SFO in 4 hours.