Is the news overblowing the TSA airport issues?

seadoug

seadoug

Well-known Member
Location
Texas
If you watch the news, you would never head to an airport to board a plane right now. We only see interviews with passengers who have missed their flights and lines going out to parking lots. "If it bleeds, it leads."

I was watching CNN the other day at the gym. They were doing a story on the long lines at airports, yet they were listing airports by wait time in a side panel. Most of the wait times were in the 10-20 minute range. The issues have been primarily in New Orleans, Houston, Atlanta and LaGuardia. I'm leaving Thursday for San Diego and have been checking DFW's wait times. They have been consistently at 20 minutes. 20 airports don't even use the TSA but instead use private contractors trained by the TSA. We never get the full story.

You would think the apocalypse is here!
 
seadoug said:
If you watch the news, you would never head to an airport to board a plane right now. We only see interviews with passengers who have missed their flights and lines going out to parking lots. "If it bleeds, it leads."

I was watching CNN the other day at the gym. They were doing a story on the long lines at airports, yet they were listing airports by wait time in a side panel. Most of the wait times were in the 10-20 minute range. The issues have been primarily in New Orleans, Houston, Atlanta and LaGuardia. I'm leaving Thursday for San Diego and have been checking DFW's wait times. They have been consistently at 20 minutes. 20 airports don't even use the TSA but instead use private contractors trained by the TSA. We never get the full story.

You would think the apocalypse is here!
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They recommend getting to the airport in Atlanta 4 hours early. Not sure what the actual wait time is but it looks like a mess.
 
Everything gets whipped into a frenzy by the media but I believe that this situation is a very real national embarrassment and disgrace.

If a private business required employees to report to work yet refused to pay them, the government would certainly step in to help those people and protect their rights.

I also believe that it’s a real kick in the head for unpaid TSA employees to have to work next to untrained ICE employees who are getting paid.

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice
 
Unless you use one of the few airports that are suffering severely from TSA agents calling in sick, the answer is Yes. It is overblown at least for the moment.

I have relatives who work for TSA. Some of the younger ones are new homeowners and they are getting help from the Parents National Bank to pay their monthly mortgage amount.

The whole thing is ridiculous.

Remember this is the second time in about 6 months, TSA employees have not received their paychecks on a timely basis. This level of incompetence by our elected officials is legendary.
 
OldOld said:
Isn't it always recommended that people should have at least 6 months cash reserve in case of emergency?
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I was well into middle age before I had 6 months in an emergency fund.

It sounds a bit like blaming the victim for our elected officials inability to conduct the people’s business in a fair and timely manner.

Not being at all partisan in this there is plenty of blame and incompetence to go around.
 
From the pilots that I have spoken to, the larger airports were backed up, but it was mostly the morning flights. I just got off the phone 10 minutes ago with a pilot and he said Houston was having issues with long lines through security. I had heard Atlanta was bad, but is doing better. I think it’s kind of hit and miss.

I flew down to Florida for a few days last week and took the United flight out of BWI (Baltimore) and it was an early morning flight, but took about a half hour longer than it usually does and I use Pre Check. Starting in May, I am using the newest version of Pre Check. There was only two people in that line. Touchless ID is the latest version, which has no additional cost.
 
I just read a short article that talked about the number of TSA employees that have recently quit to find work elsewhere because they can't pay their routine bills... I kinda' think that's a bigger story.
It's often touted that TSA is a major "layer" in American security and yet they're paid squat and are essentially living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Would that not be a significant potential security risk, in and of itself?
 
I was in Hawaii for 3 weeks and on the way home, I changed planes in Chicago. The lines weren’t bad at all in Honolulu and I didn’t have to go through security in Chicago because I was only changing planes. I did hear some of the other passengers that did go through security and were saying it went smoothly.
 
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