Tag Archives for tsa.
My dog ate my homework, I have a secret identity and had to fight crime, I was surfing the crimson wave.
Those classic excuses weren’t nearly creative enough for a Tampa airport TSA employee running late for work.
For years, advocates of the security state dismissed civil rights concerns over intrusive TSA searches and requirements that air passengers show their papers by suggesting people have a choice – that this is all optional – they could take the train instead.
No more. The government’s rail corporation, Amtrak, has now asked the TSA to check passengers lists against the No Fly List.
For years TSA has been warning that if you don’t get a ‘REAL ID’-compliant drivers license you won’t be able to fly and I’ve explained that isn’t true because you can fly without ID, in fact people do it all the time.
The requirement of an ID to fly began as a ‘do something’ policy after the explosion of TWA flight 800. President Clinton demanded to be able to immediately announce new airline security measures, and told his National Security Council team to come up with some. Yet to this day around 700,000 people per year fly without showing valid ID.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) has vowed to fight for people who bring firearms to the airport in their carry on bags.
Now this just seems like next-level trolling by the Biden Administration Department of Homeland Security. The Transportation Security Administration says that undocumented immigrants “who are unable to obtain proper identification” can “pass through security using an arrest warrant to prove their identity.”
The FAA and TSA have a new partnership where people facing fines for unruly behavior will have PreCheck revoked. As the FAA Administrator puts it, “If you act out of line, you will wait in line.”
The Biden administration is getting behind a national no fly list though – at least to start – only for violent passengers. Remember that David Dao was accused by many of being violent when he was removed from a United Express plane. His face bloodied an officer’s hand.
One of the people challenging the legality of the federal mask mandate is Michael Faris, and he’s filed a motion with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to be removed from a government terrorism watchlist he was placed on after seeking to litigate the mask requirement.
Another passenger who filed suit against the mask mandate claims to have been placed on a watchlist as well, which they discovered after trying to check in for a Delta flight on October 26.
The $103 million verdict shows just how silly U.S. patent law has become, since the patent is for “send[ing] trays through a checkpoint and us[ing] two carts to move the trays back and forth” including “use [of] a cart to move trays from the end of the checkpoint back to the start.”
While most of the focus has been on airline workforce issues, and whether a federal deadline of December 8 to comply will wreak havoc on holiday travel (American Airlines says they’ll begin termination proceedings on the Wednesday before thanksgiving!), a big mess could come out of TSA screeners ineligible to work because they’re unvaccinated.
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 »
