Tag Archives for tsa.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske, who was expected to lead the Department of Homeland Security until South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was confirmed as DHS Secretary, has been fired by the new Trump administration.
There’s a growing elite consensus that the TSA has been fixed and is no longer a problem. I think that the narrative is misleading. TSA pays screeners more, so it doesn’t have a problem hiring screeners. That’s made a difference in security lines at some airports. But that’s the only dimension along which they’ve seemed to improve. It’s also the one most visible to travelers, so they’re getting too much credit.
Surprising absolutely no readers of this website, the March 2025 REAL ID deadline isn’t going to happen. The first enforcement deadline, by the way, was in 2008.
Under a new proposed rule – that has not been finalized, even – full enforcement might not begin until May 2027. In the meantime, the plan is to hand a piece of paper to passengers whose IDs don’t meet the standards laid out in the 2005 Real ID Act telling them to get a new one.
Whenever you’re at an airport that has both new Analogic machines and older x-ray machines at the security checkpoint, get in the line with the older machines. It doesn’t matter if that line is longer, it will move faster.
Former American Airlines Chairman Doug Parker shared how he championed his airline’s cause using the federal government to try to take out a small competitor. In March he went on the Airlines Confidential podcast and shared that a year earlier he and Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson button-holed David Pekoske, asking him to stop allowing JSX from operating out of private terminals without TSA screeners.
There was a move to enshrine a legal right to opt out of TSA facial recognition in the recent FAA Reauthorization bill. The amendment didn’t make it in – killed by TSA lobbying.
TSA’s current policy is to allow passenger opt out, but wanted this left to their own discretion rather than requiring them to honor it.
The ‘Real ID Act’ was passed in 2005, requiring enhanced security measures for people to prove their identity in order to get drivers licenses. Nineteen years later it’s never been implemented. Now TSA says they’ll finally require REAL ID-compliant drivers licenses at airport security starting in May 2025 a full twenty years later. The first deadline was in 2008. Does anyone believe them this time?
A 30-year old American has been arrested after two bullets were found in his backpack prior to boarding a cruise in Turks & Caicos. He now faces 12 years in prison. The Virginia resident is a father of an 18-month old child and says he didn’t realize the bullets were there.
We just heard this story about another American last week. It stems from a change in Turks & Caicos law based on a new court ruling in February, and from TSA’s persistent failure to catch bullets going through security checkpoints at U.S. airports.
A bipartisan California bill would ban CLEAR in the state’s airports. Sponsors view the service, which identifies passengers through their biometrics and escorts them to the front of security queues in exchange, as anti-egalitarian.
Members of Congress, Cabinet Secretaries, and federal judges who have received any threats (and they almost all receive threats at some point) are to receive an escort for their entire journey through commercial airports and won’t be required to go through normal screening – instead receiving private screening.
TSA has estimated the cost of letting politicians, their families, and two accompanying staff members opt out is public security and providing them VIP secure escort throughout their airport experience.
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 »
