TSA Worker With 18 Years Of Experience Gets Blatantly Honest About What They’ve Seen

Good for you!

The dude can take a sabbatical and go back

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If that person had stuck it out for 20 years, they would have been clinically insane, and possibly a danger to themselves and others.

Precisely. Do not volunteer random information. If they ask, be truthful of course.

Rude workers exist in all public-facing industries.

That’s true in many occupations, unfortunately. IMHO, nobody should be a supervisor unless they have worked in the job they’ll be supervising.

If it helps, a lot of West Point/ROTC lieutenants were fragged by drafted enlistees in Nam. If you have a bad boss, frag him

Management. It figures.

"as nausea"?

Thats everywhere. If you have a bad boss, trick him into self sabotage. Frag him

The only time I was pulled aside and had my bag searched was for a bag of rocks 😅 I was leaving Louisiana after a family visit to Mom's; she had taken us to the Shreveport aquarium. They had this fun river-panning activity, you paid for a big bag of sand and with water and sifters got to find and keep cool rocks, crystals, and even fossils! The kids loved it, heck I loved it lol. So I could see how my baggy of souvenir rocks and crystals might look a little sus lol...

PSA: cheese apparently looks like plastic explosive on many scanners. If you want an exciting trip bring a few pounds of hard cheese.

They don't have the time or capacity to care what color you are. Step out of yourself for ten seconds.

purchase TSA precheck.

I hadthis once at an airport and they were like nope never mind , he didn’t wanna answer the question

Ha, the WORST airport security issues I've had have been every time I've been through Heathrow in the UK. Rude, lazy, aggressive... doesn't mean entering/leaving the US is a dream but it hasn't been awful every time.

I dunno, I found security in India (Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Mumbai) to be far more challenging than anything in the US. GB/UK (Heathrow, Gatwick) and Paris (de Gaulle) were also bureaucratic, just not as nutso bureaucrats as in India. Schiphol (local folks) were fine until you got to the additional security at the gate for US bound. Middle East could be challenging, although you skip if in first cabin. Most (EU, Scandinavia, UK, ME, South Asia, APAC, Australia / South Pacific, SA) have been fine if not effusively friendly (but, c’mon, it’s not exactly a fun job, esp given huge numbers and weird or whiny fliers). But, at least from my experience, Tokyo (Narita), Singapore (Changi, amazing), Santiago (SCL) were great. In the US, it’s all over the board - with a generally curt to outright surly vibe, inconsistent & seemingly capricious procedures and rules. BOS, ATL, DFW, LAX, EWR, SNA, ORD least favorite; MSP, SAN best; rest? Meh. Tough job, don’t envy TSA, but…

Transiting via LA a couple of years back the TSA on the desk got very confused and irate as I have dual nationality, and hence two passports(British / Aussie.)

We’re America. We do everything the hard way.

Have a friend who's a lawyer, a senior counsel. She has a face that looks middle eastern, but she's not and has no family that is. 80% of the time when she travels she gets pulled for searches. I suspect there's some kind of profiling going on.

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It's possible the machines are programmed to racially profile. Just because the people aren't doing it doesn't mean the computer isn't.

I'm white, female, and over 40, so not exactly in a highly scrutinized group, but I get searched almost every time I fly alone. When I'm with someone else or a student group, I usually don't. I finally figured out that once you travel alone, you are more suspicious and therefore more likely to get searched.

Sounds like any other job to me...

I’ve got to say, I’m in the UK and I wouldn’t take anything like that in hand luggage, that’s just asking for trouble.

Or just buy what you need at your destination.

Or avoid JFK for layovers; it's miserable for lots of reasons.

Don’t blame you one bit. Yolo

Flying in general is like riding a Greyhound bus, only 100x more expensive.

Yes, but, if you are taking ANY narcotics (Adderall) or controlled substances (Xanax, Klonopin) you HAVE to have the actual bottle with the prescription label on it. It's illegal to travel without. (I know cause I'm required to carry my entire bottle of klonopin when traveling now and I was required to carry my entire bottle of Metadate (methylamphetamine) when I was being medicated for my AD/HD, I wish I could just take my pill case)

I went to school with a guy who used to be a TSA screener - he said they don't even look for illegal d***s or other typically illegal things unless they're related to safety. This would have been around 2006 though.

I’ll keep that in mind and try to avoid flying through Charlotte.