Category Archives for Airports.
There are stories everywhere about a new major warning from the TSA about travelers getting their devices hacked by using USB charging at airports. Except the TSA did not just issue this warning, and there’s no evidence there’s actually a problem.
A U.S. Senator placed a call to the TSA Administrator, and got her husband removed from watch lists. In fact, we now know that TSA has a VIP list that exempts people from getting flagged for additional scrutiny, and the Senator’s husband was added to this list.
A Canadian traveler pled guilty to attacking two TSA employees at the Miami airport in a rampage caught on surveillance camera.
This lets you skip the physical ID at eligible airport security checkpoints, by linking photos you’ve already provided to your identification. TSA has facial recognition devices, and they usually just verify you match your ID. But with this opt-in you skip the ID because they verify you match what they know about you already.
Two people are buried underneath runway 10/28 at the Savannah Hilton Head International airport, and planes take off and land there every day.
TSA screening slowed to a crawl on Friday at the Las Vegas airport took a break from their duties, as passengers and bags backed up, in order to break into song. This was a group of screeners just one audition away from America’s Got Pat-Down.
The airport targeted gate announcements, overlapping PA messages, and tenant music. Instead of blasting departure calls terminal-wide, messages are limited to each gate and their immediate surroundings. In 2020, they worked with airlines to centralize and reduce announcements, cutting 40% of the paging.
There’s something to rethinking how air traffic control works entirely in a digital world. But if we’re realistic, and can only expect incremental improvement, surely this is one we can accomplish?
Mandatory tipping of people is bad enough, mandatory tipping of machines seems to be where we’re headed. You’ll face a surcharge to cover… their health care costs? I guess that’s what they’re calling maintenance these days.
Former NFL quarterback Cam Newton is reportedly a jerk at airport security. The Heisman Trophy winner who led the Carolina Panthers to a Super Bowl 50 appearance, who has the most career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, apparently tried to skip the queue but TSA wasn’t having it.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
