All | Aquariums | Arduino | Btrfs | Cars | Cats | Clubbing | Computers | Dining | Diving | Electronics | Exercising | Festivals | Flying | Halloween | Hiking | Linux | Linuxha | Monuments | Museums | Outings | Public | Rc | Sciencemuseums | Solar | Tfsf | Trips



>>> Back to post index <<<

2008/05/13 Ongoing Stupidity of Airline Security
π 2008-05-13 12:42 by Merlin in Public

So, Jennifer and I flew to Chicago during the weekend, and for reasons that are a bit long, I didn't have my driver's license with me.
Not to worry though, I knew that for a local flight, licenses or IDs were not actually required to travel within the US.

At the checkin, I showed them a copy of my real license, which they could have looked up by number, but they have no way to do that. I also had a real copy of my old license, which had expired driving privileges, but was still a perfectly good ID.
Why expired driving licenses aren't good IDs if the picture matches, is beyond me...

Anyway, I got the SSSS (special security screening something...), and the sole security guy at SJC proceeded to inspect every single pocket of my scottevest jacket while complaining to me that had too many pockets and too much stuff (he actually missed a couple of pockets).
Then, he started working on my backpack and asked me "is it as bad as your jacket?". I told him yes, he started and then just gave up because by then he had backed up the security line for 10mn.

So, outside of the fact that going through all this when I actually had a fully legit but just expired ID, and a copy of my real ID that they should be able to look up, is pretty sad.
Where they failed is that I was going through security with Jennifer, we had a combined ticket, she didn't have the SSSS, and they didn't search anything on her even though she was with me the entire time.

On the way back, it got worse though: we showed up a bit earlier at the airport (Chicago/ORD). Since I was somewhat annoyed that the previous guy emptied all the carefully sorted pockets in my scottevest, I just gave my jacket to Jennifer, I got the SSSS again, the guy barely looked at my backpack and couldn't look at my jacket since I didn't have it with me (not that he would have bothered apparently), and I went through.
Then, it occurred to me that the only reason I got SSSS was that they had written SSSS on my printed at home boarding pass. Next time, I can just print two boarding passes, they print SSSS on one, and I show the other pristine one at security.

Seriously, this stuff is just a joke!

More pages: November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 May 2023 August 2022 March 2022 November 2021 February 2021 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2018 July 2018 May 2017 September 2016 May 2016 September 2015 May 2015 April 2015 December 2014 July 2014 April 2014 March 2014 October 2013 May 2013 April 2013 January 2013 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 May 2012 April 2012 December 2011 November 2011 July 2011 April 2011 March 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 May 2007 March 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 June 2006 May 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 October 2004 August 2004 June 2004 May 2004 March 2004 September 1997 July 1996 September 1993 July 1991 December 1988 December 1985 January 1980

>>> Back to post index <<<

Contact Email