New TSA "Bribe"

Most of us would love to travel by some great EAA type classic vintage Connie or somthing similar. But, alas we often end up going on the regular airlines, ( my preference is Southwest or Hawaian) and therefore havve to deal with those guys who like to touch other guys, aka TSA.
I don't know anyone who doesn't find them annoying, it is only a matter of degree as to how much.

But in reading on a financial site under Delta, I found there is a new program that let's you bypass most of the TSA drama. Precheck, for some people, cuts out some of the process and shortens it. TSA has had so many complaints for people about how much they delay the business traveler or how uncouth it is to practically strip search grandmothers; that they have come up with this new P R item. It's obvous to any unbiased observer, ( anyone whose salary is not paid by TSA or related spending) that most travelers are not terrorist, just regular citizens.

I, for instance, have been travelling on airlines for 50 years, own stock in them, and had a "Secret" clearance when I was in the Air Force, not that I knew any real secrets. So why waste their time on me?

For others like me, you can, in theory get in this prescreen program.
The catch is the fee is $100. Should a U S citizen, natural born, no crimainal record of any type, really have to pay a $100 bribe to TSA to get treated with some degree of courtesy and logic?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood

have to pay a $100 bribe to TSA to get treated with some degree of courtesy and logic?

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You were doing fine until you used the words "TSA" "courtesy" and "logic" in the same sentence. The $100 bribe falls in the same category as paying extra for an exit row seat or to check a bag.

;)Hey Bill, if you are C-section born rather than "natural born", can you still participate in the program?

Well we got TSA as a result of the massive over-reaction to the 9/11 "attack" followed by the anthrax scare that hit D.C. that fall. Now we have 'baked" into every national political campaign a ton of fear mongering which is like pouring gas on a fire. As usual, the Federal response is yet another "agency" that is "adding value" . The simplest solution to the whole airplane take-over thing was handled by the passengers of flight 93, and since we have improved the cockpit doors and armed the pilots that should have been enough to satisfy the public. As usual The Fed's response has turned out to be a big expensive pain-in-the- a_ _! Now their getting "inventive" with this $100 "pre-check" fee. Given that nobody wants to actually pay for any govt. "services" we really shouldn't be surprised by this new program to pre-pay for our strip search. Given the "quality" of the current airline "service" I'm going to switch to Grayhound, any passenger can take-over if the driver is out of action and most the "terror" threat is reduced by the bus lines' customers!

Joe
:P

I'm going to take the contrarian view on this.

Back when I travelled a lot on commercial air, usually on last minute notice, I got pinged for the "Special Search" quite a bit. Rather funny to see a guy in an Army uniform getting the extra screening being told by another passenger that the TSA is racially profiling him and it's not random or based on ticket purchase profile.

I'd of gladly paid a hundred bucks to offset the cost of being vetted by the TSA as a low risk passenger if I were still in that situation. Let me present credentials and be on my way!

I'll also take exception to the characterization of TSA employees as "those guys who like to touch other guys ." They're people just doing the job as they're instructed to do it; take a look at your average passenger standing in line again and tell me anyone wants to touch them. Let's put you in the job and throw a different set of screening priorities and procedures at you every third day and see how you do!

Oh, and if one person gets past with an explosive device or weapon it's your fault that a couple hundred people die, so go ahead and just let people get on the plane without prudent screening because you're too scared that someone might be offended.

We can't have it both ways - don't complain that the TSA folks are incompetent on one hand and then complain that they're following the procedures as it's been laid out to them too closely on the other.

And it wasn't some Government Plot to take over screening in a Socialist Coup with the creation of TSA. Airport screening was hit-or-miss without clear standards across all commercial airports or whom gets hired for the job, their level and standards of training, or their salaries. While how standing up the TSA was handled and the details are open for debate - and I have serious concerns about a lot of it - the intent and actual implementation has been at or above expectations. I'm all for government only doing those things within its bailiwick - but interstate commerce is clearly within its charter.

Screening has always been a PITA. The only thing that's really changed is that now we can gripe at a central source of control instead of just one airport for crappy service or a dumb screening procedure.

Brilliant sense of humor, though I'm sure many miss the point. More of those who "get it" are groaning instead of laughing. I for one, love it!
(reference to Floatflyer's comment)

A little history (unfavorable to TSA): Three airports in the D.C. area were essentialy closed after 9/11. I recall that an old favorite of mine , College Park was one. There were two others. By about 2003, there was a program to clear folks to use these fields again. Trouble was that it involved an expensive and convoluted process. One had to eventully submit a fingerprint card and request a National Agency background check. Then came the first of several versions of a "trusted traveler" program. Again, the fingerprints and back ground check.

About then, my employer gave me a blank fingerprint card, prepaid FEDEX envelope and written instructions to get a background check. This was to fly A/C that dressed out at more than 12,500 lbs. It was called the 12-5 progeram. I expected to get a card or certificate after complying, (good for cashing checks?) but it never happened. No one got anything.

The most irritating feature of these three TSA programs all running in parralel was that the finger prints and back ground check for one program would NOT be good for any another. I suppose there could be some folks that wanted to participate in all three programs. They would have to get a lot of ink on their fingers.

Apples and oranges, Bob.

The D.C. airspace issue is different from the TSA screening one.

And yeah, it's pretty standard that every program is mutually exclusive and not talking to each other. Part and parcel of any beaurocracy.