It doesn't seem particularly unique to TSA. Flying elsewhere in the world has essentially identical security screening, with all the same stupidity.
I'm a little butthurt right now, in particular, about the security at Heathrow. They confiscated a bottle of whisky that we got in Edinburgh. After 10 minutes of head-scratching and consulting with a supervisor, they concluded that "it does not say 100ml" (it had "10cl" cast into the glass) and "even then, that is just the size of the bottle, not the liquid inside it." What an incredible demonstration of intelligence there.
They gave us a receipt and said we could have it shipped. We checked when we got home. 130 GBP with shipping. Ended up just buying a 700ml bottle from an importer, cost about half as much.
1. Ok, security is bad, what are you going to do? Go to different, competing security?
2. Nobody wants to be the politician that relaxes the security right before an accident, even if the accident wouldn't be prevented with tighter security anyway.
You can only do that if there are competing airports that are equally usable for where you want to go. Perhaps SFO vs SJC if you're going to the peninsula, JFK vs EWR or LGA, or the various Los Angeles airports but that's pretty much it that I can think of.
Does it not? I fly out of SFO all the time and the experience is very similar. I guess I never checked if it was officially the TSA, but I never noticed any difference.
SFO security is run by some company "under contract" to TSA -- probably required to follow all the same procedures, so it's not clear the business arrangement makes that much difference to the passengers. I've been through there a few times, and haven't found it any more organized or pleasant...
>It doesn't seem particularly unique to TSA. Flying elsewhere in the world has essentially identical security screening, with all the same stupidity.
That's largely due to the US and 9/11. In fact, the US even pressures other countries into creating a separate mini TSA at their boarding gate for flights that fly into the US.
I don't mean TSA or CBP literally. I am aware of the programs you are talking about. I'm talking about unofficial/soft-power policy that adds additional barriers pre-boarding for flights that fly into the US. You won't see this in the west/EU. I suspect it's more widespread in the rest of the world.
No, it's just more theatre. They'll have more stooges at the gate where they'll run your bag through a scanner and do this (https://x.com/VCBrags/status/1595473294878048257). They do it in India, only for US bound flights.
I'm a little butthurt right now, in particular, about the security at Heathrow. They confiscated a bottle of whisky that we got in Edinburgh. After 10 minutes of head-scratching and consulting with a supervisor, they concluded that "it does not say 100ml" (it had "10cl" cast into the glass) and "even then, that is just the size of the bottle, not the liquid inside it." What an incredible demonstration of intelligence there.
They gave us a receipt and said we could have it shipped. We checked when we got home. 130 GBP with shipping. Ended up just buying a 700ml bottle from an importer, cost about half as much.