TSA Tightens Policies -- After Bombing Suspect Slipped Through

Terrorists are creative; security agencies need to be as well

Little old ladies, families with toddlers and harried road warriors better be prepared for closer scrutiny by the Transportation Security Agency. After permitting Faisal Shahzad, who was charged with last Saturday's (fortunately) unsuccessful attempt to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square, screeners permitted him to pass through security at JFK International Airport on Monday evening, and Emirates Airlines let him on the plane.

Shahzad's name had been added to the no-fly list a few hours earlier, but it appears that no one (or at least no one with both responsibility and a functioning brain) at the agency or the airline had bothered to look at the list. He reportedly purchased his one-way ticket with cash in the last minute.Isn't that supposed to be brightest of all red flags? He could well have been winging his way to Dubai International Airport andthen on to Pakistan efore anyone looked at the list. Things changed fast after the close call.

Even though TSA personnel are supposed to match names on airline tickets with photo IDs before letting them proceed to the metal-detector and X-ray of carry-ons, airlines are responsible for monitoring the no-fly list. Everyone involed has gotten a wake-up call.

The government is now requiring airlines to check the no-fly list within two hours after being notified that the list had been updated. Until this new policy was instituted, airlines had had to check for updated every 24 hours. In 24 hours, a passenger boarding an international flight could be anywhere in the world. While TSA agents missed Shahzad at the security checkpoint and Emirates missed him when he checked in, Customs and Border Protection spotted his name on the passenger list and apprehended him before the plane took off for Dubai, Emirates' home base Meanwhile, since the incident,.Emirates, an enthusiastic proponent of Open Skies, does not mention a word of new alertness on its website.

According to a report in Travel Weekly, a travel trade publication, "The U.S. government's plan is to eventually take over the task of watch list matching. In 2009, the government began phasing in domestic flights. International flights aren’t covered by the government yet."

Like the Army is often accused of "fighting the last war," the TSA has been obsessed with the America's big airline incident, namely 9/11. The hijackers took over aircraft on domestic flights, so the security efforts have been directed there. A U.S.-bound Nigerian with explosives sewn into his underwear and a troubled Pakistani-American on the lam for a failed midtown Manhattan car bombing just wasn't on U.S. security's radar screen.

Good that someone was paying attention. And I hope that the TSA can keep its collective eyes and minds open, look for something else "unusual" and lay off little old ladies, families with toddlers and harried road warriors.

Fly the Arbitrary Skies

Monday, April 12, 2010 (times approximate)

7:40 a.m. - Arrived at Denver International Airport and printed out boarding pass to San Francisco.
7:50 a.m. - Got into long but fast-moving security line. Carried on overhead-size roll-aboard, thin laptop case and small purse. No problem, even though the limit is now supposedly two pieces.
9:00 a.m. - United Flight 498 scheduled for departure.
9:30 a.m. - Captain announced that airplane had "issues" and he wasn't taking it anywhere until maintenance had looked at it.
9:50 a.m. - Maintenance looked. Airplane "issues" had not been resolved, so PAX asked to take their belongs and proceed to Gate 48.
10:10 a.m. - Gate 48 turned out to be Gate 45 (or vice versa), where (fortunately) the same type of aircraft was waiting -- fortunate because all seat assignments were still valid. To its credit, the airline was trying to expedite transit for PAX heading from SFO to Asia.
1:00 p.m. - Arrived at SFO something like two hours late, wondering whether United would give PAX vouchers for, say, $25 or $50 off future flights. Silly me.

Friday, April 16, 2010 (times approximate)

1:05 p.m. - Arrived at SFO for United Flight 720, departing for Denver at 2:26. Printed out boarding pass.
1:15 p.m. - No line at nearby security. Carried on same overhead-size roll-aboard, thin laptop case and small purse. TSA gatekeeper told me that I had to check the roll-aboard because I had three pieces while only two were permitted.
1:16 p.m. - Paid UAL $25 to check the same piece of luggage that I had been permitted to carry on a few days earlier. Guy who tagged the bag asked, "How are you today?" I replied, "I was better before the TSA told me that I had to check this." "That's because it's too bulky to fit into the overhead," said he. Huh!
2:15 p.m.: Along with all the other instructions, flight attendant announced that heavy bags must be stored on the sides of the overhead bins and lighter ones in the middle. That was a new one on me.
3:00 p.m.: Requested Diet Coke during beverage service. Flight attendant gave me one of those squishy plastic cups that spill over when the slightest pressure is applied. It was like an iceberg, with 90 percent of the ice below the rim and the rest mounded above it. I asked her to please dump half of the ice. "What's wrong with it?" she all but snarled. I explained. She said that since I already had taken possession of it, she couldn't take it back and would have to give me another one. Ferchissakes, she was standing right there with her beverage cart. I did not view this as an imposition, but her demeanor implied that it was. I thanked her anyway.
5:35 p.m. - Flight landed -- half an hour early. Great! All was forgiven. Even though I was seated back in Row 33, I figured I could still make th 6:20 p.m. SkyRide to Boulder.
5:55 p.m. - Waiting at baggage carousel. No luggage.
6:00 p.m. - Still waiting.
6:10 p.m. - A few bags arrived. Then nothing, except an announcement that there was a bag jam below and the rest of the bags would be arriving soon.
6:20 p.m. - Still waiting. Some bags had come up, but not mine.
6:30 - My bag arrived, so the TSA checker's refusal to let me carry on exactly the same three items I had carried on earlier in the week cost me $25 and an hour of my time.

Sigh!

Bad Air Year

The year 2008 has not been kind to airlines -- or passengers

The Colorado media has, of course, been reporting extensively on the crash-and-burn of Continental Flight 1404, which had just taken off from Denver International Airport bound for Houston International. "DIA Crash Injures 38," the Sunday Denver Post page-one headline trumpeted. "Plane Mishap Hurts 38," wrote the kinder, gentler Boulder Camera. The Boeing 737 airliner accident was all over the airwaves all weekend long. The plane veered off the runway, shed an engine somewhere along the way, burst into flames and came to battered and bruised rest near an airport fire station.

It got me thinking about how cavalier many of us travelers tend to be about reading the safety in instruction card that shows where emergency exits are located, and whether or not we are the best passengers to wrestle with the emergency door, should the plane need to be evacuated. It also got me thinking about what a tough year 2008 has been for air travelers. Here are just a few of the incidents and accidents I've blogged about this year:

• With uncharacteristic snow and ice this week in the Pacific Northwest, service has just about come to a halt at Sea-Tac International Airport, with the most flight cancellations in 30 years, according to tonight's "ABC News." On the other side of the country, New York airports were reporting delays of up to five hours, as well as dozens of flight cancelations, as was Chicago's O'Hare, which is a chronic winter mess.
• Close to home, Denver International Airport became less international when United dropped its Denver-London nonstop just seven months after inaugurating it, and Lufthansa halted its Denver-Munich nonstop after 1 1/2 years of service.
• Elsewhere just this year, America's skies are no longer plied by TED (United's low-fare airline), Mesa Airlines (a Delta commuter partner), SkyBus (based in Ohio), Aloha Airlines (based in Hawaii) and ATA (based in Indiana). Denver-based Frontier is still flying, but under Chapter XI bankruptcy protection.
• As aviation fuel prices rose over the spring and summer and the recession of 2008 began taking hold, other airlines trimmed flights, mothballed aircraft. bumped more passengers than ever and began charging (or charging more) for checked luggage, curbside check-in, inflight food and even soft drinks, more desirable seats, flight changes and other formerly included services. Av-gas is down, but these add-on fees largely remain in place.
• The Transportation Security Agency has reportedly terminated 465 screeners for pilferage since May 2003. The TSA has demonstrated ineptitude, even wehen there is no malfeasance. you can read some terrible but true TSA tales here and here. The agency also introduced an intrusive full-body scanner at some US airports.
• Violent an anti-government protests in once peaceful Thailand resulted in the closure of airports in Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi and elsewhere for more than a week in late November and early December. Protestors belonging to a group called the People's Alliance for Democracy took over Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport , using the electricity and water and stranding more than 300,000 would-be air travelers, including 240,000 foreign tourists.
• Heathrow's highly anticipated Terminal 5 had such fatal computer problems that instead of a grand opening, it was a grand fiasco. At least 250 British Airways flights were canceled, stranding thousands of passengers and separating 15,000 or 20,000 pieces of luggage from their owners.
• XL Travel and its charter airline went out of business. XL had been a major player in Britain's tourism industry.

P.S. on December 24 - More Air Travel Woes

The Christmas Eve travel news on cnn.com's home page included:

• 18 passengers treated at scene after exposure to de-icing fluid, and fumes send seven Alaska Airlines crew members to the hospital [in Seattle]
• AirTran jetliner skids off runway in Moline, Illinois, TV station reports
• Weather delays Christmas Eve flights across country

P.S. II on December 26 - Still More Air Travel Woes

Now it was Southwest Airlines' turn to do an airport slide. Southwest Flight 688 leaving snowy Chicago's Midway Airport for snowfree Los Angeles slid off a slick taxiway today (Friday) and got stuck snow along the shoulder. Ninety-eight people were aboard, and there were no injuries.

P.S. III on December 27 - Partial Blackout at DIA

A power outage on Saturday, December 27, affected Denver Interational Airport, not the three concourses (or, as they are now called, gate terminals) and not the control tower -- but, you guessed it: the security area, which lost power. The Transportation Security Administration screeners had to do manual security checks, meaning that everyone was patted down or wanded, and all carry-ons were opened. The delay to pass through security was reported to be about 45 minutes. The airport estimated that 155,000 travelers were expected to pass through DIA on Saturday. Oh, the humanity!

P.S. IV on December 31 - The Year's Airline Casualty List

The Cranky Flyer has helpfully posted a list of all the airlines that he knew to have gone out of business in 2008. As a wrote initially, it has been a bad air year.

Carry-Ons in the Overhead? Spirit Charges $45

Nudist resorts jump on this lousy new policy to promote the "Nakation" concept

Spirit Airlines has positioned itself as a low-fare airline, further dangling the carrot of attractive MasterCard benefits in front of passengers. But now they've added a cruel new stick, if you'll excuse the scrambled metaphor, by charging $45 (yes, forty-five dollars) for each carry-on that goes into the overhead bin, beginning August 1. What a wretched idea, paying $90 roundtrip for luggage that passengers themselves handle  -- one that I hope doesn't catch on.

Miami is their hub, and they fly to/from several other South Florida airports too. From/to points north, flights serve Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angles, Myrtle Beach New York (LGA), To the south, they fly to/from a bunch of Caribbean islands, Cancun in Mexico, several Central American cities, Columbia and even Lima, Peru.

Arthur Frommer, who has been helping travelers save money since he wrote "Europe on $5 A Day" decades ago, too Spirit to task for this terrible policy. In a blog post, he noted, "According to USA Today, Spirit receives three times the number of complaints made each year about the much larger Southwest Airlines. Its policies of customer service (or lack of it) have been widely discussed and condemned.[Then he wrote about the $45 bag fee]...Since Spirit also charges for suitcases checked aboard such a flight (it was the first airline to do so), a passenger can avoid such expense only by traveling without any luggage at all. It's hard to imagine a more inflammatory action."

"Nakationers" Save Luggage Fees

I have to hand it to the American Association of Nude Recreation for responding quickly to Spirit's new baggage-on fees by pointing out that, "Traveling with luggage is an ever-increasing inconvenience and expense - even if you don’t check your bag." The association points out that for a "Nakation" – a vacation in one of its 250 members -- the all of the necessities for a week (sunscreen, cap, sunglasses, shoes and toiletries) can go in a small carry-on that will fit under the seat, avoiding even Spirit's crappy carry-on bag fees. To avoid one last hassles involving security screening, don't bring one large sunscreen but rather two or three that are 3 ounces or less, Put them in a one-quart, clear plastic zip bag along with such optional toiletries as deodorant (well, maybe that should be optional), lip balm, contact lens solution, etc.

I've often joked (not within any official's earshot) that if the Transporation Security Agency screening becomes any more intrusive, we'll all have to go through the checkpoints butt-nekkid. Call it a pre-Nakation.

State Department Warnings: What's in a Name?

Decoding US government warnings to international travelers from the US

Unrest and violence cause travelers -- especially Americans -- to reconsider international travel plans. Ten percent more Americans visited India in 2007 than in 2006, but with the recent terrorist attacks in Mombai (aka, Bombay) in which six Americans were among the 170 people killed, that number is likely to drop. Ditto travel to Greece, which welcomed 12 percent more international visitors in '07 than in '06 but has recently been plagued by riots in Athens, the capital, and concurrent strikes by workers at the Acropolis and other popular tourist sites.

Violence, of course, is volatile, and the US State Department doesn't always get it right. There were periods when visitors shunned London (Irish Republican Army attacks), central Europe (in the era of Germany's Bader-Meinhoff faction and other far-left terrorist groups) and parts of Spain (Basque separatist violence), as well as countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America when when wars, political unrest, assorted insurgencies and government policies made them unwelcoming. Consider that under Augusto Pinochet, Chile was not a desirable or safe tourist destination, now it is, while up north, not too many Americans visit Venezuela under Hugo Chavez or neighboring Colombia with its drug cartel-related violence. And US citizens have been forbidden or discouraged from visiting Cuba for nearly half-a-century, yet those who have visited report Cubans to be warm and welcoming -- and their visits to be incident-free.

The US State Department updates and issues travel advisories ranging from subtle warnings to outright recommendations to stay away from certain nations. When deciding on your risk-tolerance in light of these advisories, consider that the US government has also been telling air travelers in this country that the threat level is at "orange" just about since the color coding system was unveiled in 2002. That annoying Department of Homeland Security recording has played so incessantly since then that it has become just so much airport background noise -- and I don't think too many travelers pay much attention.

So it is with some skepticism that I share the State Department's definition of its country-specific evaluations for Americans contemplating travel abroad. These are updated on the department's website. Country-by-country evaluations are useful because they are not as simplistic as the "Department of Homeland Security's terror alert is orange" that we hear at airports.

• Travel Advisory - This is the general category of perceived threats that could affect Americans traveling to specific regions, countries or cities.
• Travel Alert - A threat that the State Department believes is of relatively short-term duration, including upcoming elections, hurricane or typhoon threat or other short-term situation.
• Travel Warning - Chronic violence, including such obvious destinations as Afghanistan and Iraq, where the situation so inflammatory and "potentially dangerous for Americans that we want them to know about that," Michelle Bernier-Toth, director of the Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management, recently told Gannett News Services. Well, duh!

Bernier-Toth also explained that assessing situations is a "very collaborative process between our embassy and consulate, between various bureaus and offices within the department. . . Sometimes we tell people to consider the risk of traveling, sometimes we say you should defer nonessential travel or all but essential travel and sometimes we just recommend you don't go. The best way to figure out what kind of danger you're facing is to read the specifics of the alert."

I am scheduled to visit Egypt with the Society of American Travel Writers in February, and have read the State Department's assessment, I'm willing to accept the risk

Billions Spent to Annoy Travelers

Transportation Security Agency's multi-billion-dollar budget mostly spent on passenger screening

Just a few days ago, I wrote a post on an inexplicable lapse in the TSA screening process that I personally experienced at Denver International Airport, the world's 10th busiest airport and the fifth busiest in the US, and the overzealous screening at tiny Telluride Regional Airport just three days later. This morning, I began to wonder how much this inconsistency is costing taxpayers.

The TSA's 2007 budget was $5.3 billion, 80 percent of which went to passenger screening (and annoying) at the nation's airports. In no other country that I have visited recently are passengers required to remove their shoes, toss bottled water, take laptops out of briefcases, limit carry-on toiletries to 100 ML or less and display said toiletries in a clear plastic, zip bag of a particular size (one quart).

Admittedly, $5.3 billion (or maybe more by now) is a fraction of what we have spent to invade and occupy Iraq ($500 billion or so since 2003), bail out insurer AIG ($85 billion) or on the proposed bail-out (thus far) for the Big 3 auto companies ($15 billion, but that's supposed to be repaid). It's also an awful lot less that the National Park Service allotment of $2.4 billion to preserve, protect and revitalize our great national treasures or the pathetic $145 million with federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

When Congress reconvenes in 2009, write to your Senators and Representatives -- whether continuing in office or newly elected -- if you think these priorities are as lopsided as I do.

True TSA Tale: Read It to Believe It

Does TSA stand for Transportation Security Agency - or for Totally Screwed "Ap"?

A few weeks ago, I posted my experience of having a mostly used-up tube of sunscreen confiscated because a Transportation Security Agency screener said that a 100-milliliter container is the limit for a carry-on item, not the 110 ML I had with me -- even though there was nowhere near 110 ML of lotion in it. That was only irritating. My more recent experience was amusing, astonishing or horrifying, depending on how you view the entire process of airport security.

Early on Thursday afternoon, I checked in at the Great Lakes Aviation counter at Denver International Airport for a flight to Telluride. I didn't really look at my boarding pass, and neither, evidently, did the TSA agent charged with comparing boarding passes with picture IDs. Because of heavy regional snow, I was eventually switched from the cancelled Telluride flight to one going to Cortez. In the process of changing flights, one of the several podium agents who looked at my original boarding pass finally noticed something odd and asked, "Who is Christopher Weber?" I had no idea who he was other than being an alphabetic neighbor, coincidentally with the same initials. Mostly, I was astonished that I had passed TSA's so-called security procedures and a couple of gate agents before anyone noticed that I could not possibly be Christopher Weber.

After that DIA underperformance, the screeners at Telluride Regional Airport (TEX, right), from which I flew yesterday, made up for it with excessive zeal. At this time of year, the only commercial service is Great Lakes' two daily flights using 19-passenger Beech 1800 aircraft. Four (4) TSA screeners were on duty for a daily passenger count that cannot possibly exceed 38. Of the 11 or 12 of us on my flight, three of us were "selected" for extra screening. Our checked bags were opened and riffled through, as were our carry-ons. Many items removed from our luggage were swabbed for explosives or some other lethal substance. We were all patted down. I guess that quartet had to justify their underworked existence at TEX at this time of year.

After we were all cleared and were waiting to board the Denver-bound flight, I started telling someone about the Christopher Weber mix-up at DIA. A fellow sitting within earshot said, "Was that on Thursday? I'm Christopher Weber, and when I got to the airport, Great Lakes told me that I had already checked in."

United Brings Paperless Boarding Passes to DIA

A SmartPhone and other smart phone is required

I don't have a SmartPhone or iPhone or PDA. I have a SimplePhone, also known as CheapPhone with a CheapCallingPlan, so this news doesn't apply to me. But for others, United's introduction of paperless boarding passes at Denver International Airport is relevant. United isn't the only airline and DIA isn't the only airport, but DIA is my airport and I fly United a lot.

It works like this: Passengers can check in at an electronic kiosk that rather than spewing out a paper boarding pass, sends a message to the one will be sent to Internet-enabled cell phones. The message includes a bar code that security screeners and gate attendants are able to scan -- in theory anyway, unless or until there's a bug.

This system doesn't get around the Transportation Security Agency requirement of showing an actual government-issued photo ID to the screener. United intentionally introduced this innovation at spring break time, when many young people who live and breathe by their cell phones are traveling. Click here for a list of 43 other US airports (plus Frankfurt, Germany) where paperless boarding passes were being used before they came to DIA; others will surely follow. Alaska Airlines, Continental, Delta and others offer paperless boarding passes too. Some see it as a convenience or at least an inevitable technological advance, but I see it as substituting one impersonal boarding-pass procedure for another. And unless they're working while flying, passengers will probably pull out their Kindlesor other paperless books and do some inflight reading.

FYI: 110 ML > 3 ounces

Dear Diary: experienced Transportation Stupidity Agency actions -- again

6:10 a.m. - Left home. Husband dropped me off at Boulder's Walnut Street bus station.

6:19 a.m. - AB bus to Denver International Airport left on time.

7:35 a.m. - AB arrived at DIA a few minutes early

7:37 a.m.- No line at American Airlines check-in. Got boarding passes for Denver-Dallas, Dallas-Mexico City and Mexico City-Huatulco flights. Carry-on only.

7:42 a.m. - No lines at security. Hooray! Took off shoes and jacket. Removed laptop from case. Sent small roll-aboard, laptop case and two bins, one with one-quart plastic bag with small liquids/gels, through Xray. Security screener squinted through clear plastic at small container of contact lens solution, lipstick, small bottle of liquid makeup, small stick of deodorant and small tube of toothpaste and small tube of sunscreen.

7:43 a.m. - Screener removed tube of sunscreen, purchased in some country that is on the metric system, examined it more closely and declared quietly but triumphantly (and ungrammatically). "This is 110 milliliters. Three ounces is 100 milliliters." I didn't know that before, but now I do -- and you do too. You're welcome.

7:44 a.m. - Supervisor confiscated my 110 ML tube of sunscreen that probably had 30 ML of liquid left. He helpfully suggested that I could mail the offending object home if I chose (the post office at the airport, of course, was not yet open) or return to the airline counter and check my bag with the leftover sunscreen in it.

7:45 a.m. - Grabbed my stuff, my previous good mood dampened by Transportation Security Agency nonsense -- again.

7:55 a.m. - Arrived at the gate with enough time to write this post, courtesy of the much-appreciated free WiFi at DIA.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, don't you feel safer knowing that this agency of the Department of Homeland Security is on the job?

Dear President-Elect Obama......

Oklahoma City Meets 9/11

Disgruntled Texan crashes private plane into Austin building housing government offices

While the TSA and Department of Homeland Security continue to hassle commercial flyers, anyone with a private plane can wreak 9/11-style havoc. The damage was less but the motivations similar to anti-government domestic terrorism asTimothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, their explosives-packed rental truck and the Murragh Building in Oklahoma City. According to a newsflash minutes ago on MSNBC.com, Texas software entrepreneur Josph Stack, who had long-running issues with the Internal Revenus Service, crashed his private plane into an office building housing that other other federal agencies.

Luggage Pilferage

No valuables taken, but petty theft is annoying and (again) shows travelers' vulnerability

Yesterday afternoon, I flew from Houston to Denver. Two bright red TSA-approved locks were on my checked bag’s two biggest zipper compartments when I checked in. When I got home, I saw that the bag sported only one lock.

Is it possible that I didn’t snap one lock completely, and that it opened and fell off in transit? Yes, of course. Is it possible that the small bottle of tequila in a sturdy little cardboard box given to all somehow fell out of the middle of my bag? Unlikely. It could have been either a TSA screener or perhaps a baggage handler, or for all I know, a space alien who likes tequila and used its super powers to find mine.

According to Aero-News, a TSA screener at Newark International reportedly was recently arrested for trying to sell pilfered items on eBay. I’m not saying that my little tequila, given to all convention attendees, will end up in an on-line auction, but I’ll bet it ends up in someone’s drink -- or simply as a straight-from-the-bottle nip for the needy to make a boring job tolerable.

Newsday reported that TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding had said that 465 TSA officers (0.4 percent of the agency's workers) have been terminated for theft since May 1, 2003. The odds are pretty good that nothing will be swiped from checked bags or from carry-ons during the shoes off/jackets off/laptop out/X-ray/metal detector pre-flight gauntlet passengers endure, but when it happens, it's annoying at best and devastating at worst. When expensive electronics (including laptops and other communication devices with private information) or jewelry is taken, it can be be more than the loss of something as inconsequential as a small bottle of tequila.

Am I going to report it? No. It's not worth the bother. The TSA and/or airline baggage-handling operations seem to be the gift that keeps on taking.

TSA "Joker" Seeds Traveler's Bag with White Powder

Expect the worst from the TSA? Here's more validation

Here's an unbelievable report from USA Today: The headline reads, TSA worker accused of slipping powder-filled baggie into flier's bag ... as a joke." The story goes on to report of TSA worked who "jokingly pretended to plant a plastic bag of white powder in the carry-on luggage of a passenger at Philadelphia International Airport" on Jan. 5, according to an earlier report in the Philadelphia Inquirer."

Ha. Ha Ha. Except for the passenger, a 22-year-old University of Michigan student, who for a few scary minutes thought that she had been set up to carry explosives or perhaps heroin through secuity. The Inquirer column is worth reading. The worker reportedly no longer works for the TSA but the tale is enough to further tarnish the reputation of this agency.

Fallout from Failed/Foiled 12/25 Airliner Attack

Privacy versus security in the air seem to be tilting toward full-body scan technology

More full-body scanners that "see" through clothing. Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, from which the would-be bomber departed for Detroit, reportedly immediately is beginning to use 15 L-3 Communications' booth-like ProVision scanners (right) that it previously purchased. These scanners are supposed to detect explosives and other non-metallic objects that a metal detector would miss. ProVision uses "active millimeter wave imaging technology" to penetrate clothing and packaging to reveal and pinpoint hidden weapons, explosives, drugs and other contraband. It has the potential over screening more than 400 people per hour.

Changes in attitude. Just last year, the European Parliament voted against using such anatomically explicit devices on privacy issues, but Europeans now seem to be leaning toward their use. Peter van Dalen, vice chairman of the Parliament's transport committee, said that newer technology does not appear to violate travelers' privacy and  urged the installation of the equipment across the 27-nation European Union.

Improved software technology. New devices rather than human screeners looking at the images as as passengers pass through the machines to detect suspicious objects while allaying invasion-of-privacy concerns. Interestingly, it was the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union that initially objected to the scanners' "virtual strip search," but it is now a Republican Representative, Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who sponsored a successful measure prohibiting whole-body imaging for the primary screening. The bill now goes to the Senate, so as Europeans are poised to increase the use of these scanners, the US might not be following  -- even though aircraft from or bound for the US are thought to be at greater risk. Meanwhile, the ACLU's position advocates "effective security that respects privacy.

Boom times for Rapiscan. The Transportation Security Agency has purchased 150 of its scanners in addition to the 40 now in use at 19 US airports. The company's WaveScan 200 "is composed of a real-time Radiometric Scanner that images electromagnetic millimeter wave energy, an integrated full-motion video camera, on-board computer, and sophisticated, intelligent video detection engine." according to the company's website.Current TSA rules require that images are not visible in a public location, that TSA officers "assisting" passengers is unable to view images and officers who evaluate the images never see the passengers. Passengers may opt for a pat-down rather than a body scan. It depends on which option individuals consider less invasive. At most airports, the scanning machines are for secondary screenings after passengers have cleared pass through a metal detector, they are being used in place of of metal detectors at Albuquerque, Las Vegas; Miami; San Francisco; Salt Lake City; and Tulsa.

Super-sensitive "sniffers" coming. SpectraFluidics has developed sensors can detect minuscule traces of explosives by detecting molecules from a passenger or from luggage. In a test, Spectrafluidics' devices were able to detect PETN, RDX, TNT and ammonium nitrate. PETN has been confirmed as the explosive material involved in the attempted bombing of the Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day. the explosive This is a faster, more efficient alternative to the current swabbing. SpectraFluidics plans to release the system in 2010. It can be a handheld device or a portal like the current metal detectors. The company says that it will be able to retrofit Existing scanning and screening systems. ill balso plans units for retrofitting existing airport scanners and other screening hardware already installed in the market. The goal is real-time detection of trace amounts of explosives in either vapor or solid phase, with minimal user interaction.

Timing is Everything. The people behind Verified  Identity Pass Inc's Clear program, a pre-clearing process that charged customers for a faster approach to TSA security checkpoints, probably regret the timo,g of their enterprise. Clear was launched with great fanfare in 2005 and closed abruptly in June 2009, as I wrote about here. I'm guessing that the principals behind Clear wish that they could have held out until the end of the year, when increased security and longer delays would have provided a new market for their service.

Department of Homeland Security Subpoenas Travel Bloggers

First Ammendment rights versus security concerns

Chris Elliott of elliott.org and Steven Frischling of FlyingWithFish.com got hold of and published Transportation Security directives following the failed terrorist incident on a Detroit-bound plane. You know the story. I don't need to recap it here. The Department of Homeland Security wants to know how these two bloggers obtained these confidential documents and have subpoenaed them to find out. No one is diminishing the need for vigilence and security when it comes to air travel, but IMO, Homeland Security is barking up the wrong tree when their concern is with who leaked these documents rather than paying full attention to plugging the holes in the security system.

In the old world of traditional news, reporters, their editor bosses and their publisher bosses stood firm to protect their First Ammendment rights (that's the Freedom of the Press one). Think Watergate. Now independent bloggers in many cases have become watchdogs since the mainstream media is crumbling and/or becoming a vehicle for info-tainment and so-called "reality TV." For journalists, it doesn't get more real than the need to protect sources and maintain freedom to publish -- no less online than in print or broadcast. They don't have powerful corporations and squadrons of lawyers behind them. They should have all of us behind them. When they break news like this that affects us, they are on our side as travelers (and as travel journalists). Let's be on their side.

Read Chris Elliott's report of the subpoena here, Steve Frischling's here and travel writer/blogger (and until recently USA Today travel reporter) Chris Gray Faust's commentary here.

The Cow Is Gone.TSA Closes the Barn Door.

Thwarted terrorist attempt "inspires" new TSA regulations that border on the ridiculous

Scroll to the bottom of this post for update.
According to conventional wisdom, generals are always fighting the last war. A corollary might be that security officias are always responding to the last terrorist incident. After Robert Reid was arrested for trying to ignite explosives in his shoes, every airline passenger was required to remove his/her shoes, send them through the X-ray machine and shuffle through the metal detector. Now, following a thwarted terrorist attempt on a plane bound for Detroit, new security measures have been instituted -- perhaps at least partly as a tactic to divert public attention from the fact that the the government ignored alerts by the father of Abdul Mudallad, the 23-year-old Nigerian who tried to blow up the plane using leg bomb and a syringe, had warned. New regulations that we can all find logical reasons to debate:

•  US-bound passengers are being physically patted down during the boarding process in addition to passing through metal detectors, removing their shoes, discarding water and beverages and being restricted to 3-ounce or smaller containers of liquids in carry-ons.
•  US-bound passengers will be permitted only one carry-on and will not have access to it, either throughout the flight or during the last hour.
•  Passengers on international flights to the United States must remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any latptops or other personal items, blankets or pillows on their laps. (Anyone who has to use the lavatory must be escorted by a crew member.)
•  Airliner entertainment systems will no longer display real-time route maps that would indicate when the plane enters US airspace or where it is.

 The new regs remind me of parochial school (hands on your desks) or old college dorm rules when boys were permitted to visit girls' dorms (door open, all four feet on the floor). The net result of all this security zeal, in addition casing delays and ticking off passengers, is that people will be increasingly reluctant to fly. Business travelers unable to use their laptops? Parents who will not be able to hold a sleeping baby wrapped in a blanket? Cold-sensitive travelers or underdressed vacationers returning from tropical resorts who could become chilled in refrigerated aircraft cabins? There unlikely to be eager to fly again in the near future. I know I'm not, and I'm scheduled for two (domestic) trips in January.

Beyond personal inconvenience will be theimpact on the airline industry, already heard-hit by unpredictable fuel prices, the global recession and weathter-related delays.

Dec. 28 update: According to an Associated Press report called "Passengers again free to move about the cabin"on MSNBC.com, the TSA has relaxed some of the strict rules in the wake of the failed bomb attempt and given captains discretion about instituting some of them. "it was now up to captains on each flight to decide whether passengers can have blankets and other items on their laps or can move around during the final phase of flight," the report said. "Confused? So were scores of passengers who flew Monday on one of the busiest travel days of the year. On some flights, passengers were told to keep their hands visible and not to listen to iPods. Even babies were frisked. But on other planes, security appeared no tighter than usual.The Transportation Security Administration did little to explain the rules. And that inconsistency might well have been deliberate: What's confusing to passengers is also confusing to potential terrorists."

'Parade' Cites Flaws in Airport Security

Sunday supplement piece on America's wasteful and ineffective airport security system

When bloggers write, thousands read. When Parade, the Sunday supplement, publishes a story, it reaches millions. Today's issue contained a piece called "The Wrong Way Protect Airports?", with a title phrased as a rhetorical question to which many of us answered "yes" even before it was asked.

Writer Lyric Wallwork Winik compared Transportation Security procedures, which since the agency was established have involved an increasing amount of technology (X-rays, metal detectors, chemical sniffers, "puff portals" and such, with the Israeli system. She wrote:

"Israel, home to many of the world’s most devastating terror attacks, has a
different approach to security. Liquid sizes are restricted, but first-class
passengers are given steak knives. Travelers in Israel are interviewed by highly
trained security experts.

In the U.S., billions are spent instead on scanning machines and other
technology to detect weapons. 'The Israelis ask questions, and they profile the
situation, not the person,' explains Seth Cropsey, a former Defense Department
official. 'It’s often a much more thorough approach to
security.'”

The TSA, she writes, "is rolling out new procedures that it says will keep us safer when we fly... Some specifics? New shirts and headsets for checkpoint workers, plus two days of specialized training in how to keep passengers calm."

Winik reported that the agency stationed placed "more than 2,000 behavior-detection experts at airports across the country,' but critics say U.S. security strategy still focuses too much on finding bombs rather than bombers." Israel is certainly a far smaller country than the US and it has a small fraction of the total number of America's airports and airplanes, but it also has a far smaller popular from whom to draw security personnel and train them in "behavior detection" -- and I'm willing to bet that the training takes longer than two days or even the length of time US agents are trained in these skills.

TSA defenders claim that the near seven-year period between 9/11 and now proves that the agency's policies have been effective. Others of us would argue that international terrorism has gone after non-US targets to keep everyone guessing -- or that the US government, with the support of sensationalist mainstream media, has fomented such a climate of fear that no further attacks on "the homeland" are necessary.

Seth Cropsey, whom Winik identifies as "Seth Cropsey, a former Defense Department official," told her, that we really don’t know if “the massive amount of technology that we have thrown at the problem actually works or whether it has been intelligence and other methods overseas that have prevented another air attack. I hate to speculate on that answer, because I fly.”

Whatever the reality, I glad that a mass-market publication has introduced this topic to the general public. Is the public buying the TSA line? Perhaps not. Parade included a reader poll asking the question, "Does America have the right approach to airline security?" As of now, 94 percent of the respondents replied "no" with only 6 percent replying "yes."

Boarding Passes: Printed or Not

Paperless boarding passes: the way of the future?

Once upon a time, airline boarding passes were booklets (often hand-written multi-pagers for connecting or roundtrip flights). They had built-in carbon bars and pages of lengthy small-print legalese about airline and government policies and, if I remember correctly, passengers' rights. They were inserted into a sleeve with the baggage claim checks stapled onto them. Then came machine-printed cards, the envelopes went away (not a bad thing, because it did represent a lot of wasted paper), and now checked-bag receipts are usually stick 'em stubs still attached to the backing that I always hope I don't misplace in case my bag doesn't get off the same plane that I do.

Now, I am reading in "Upgrade: Travel Better" that "Paperless Boarding Passes Increasingly Widespread: Have You Used Them?" They are reportedly in greater use overseas than in the US, where only Continental is using them for inbound flights from Frankfurt and San Juan. According to Upgrade's Mark Ashley, "In lieu of a printed boarding pass, paperless passes are sent to your mobile phone. (Standard text message rates apply…) The pass contains both a barcode and text, identifying the passenger and flight. The square barcode gets scanned twice, once at security, and once at the gate." The TSA must enable security screening operations to accept this technology.

I have the cheapest, simplest cell phone on the planet, with a T-Mobile pay-in-advance plan, and I'm not about to pay for the privilege of having my boarding pass appear on that cell phone. Bad enough for passengers to pay for inflight food, checked bags, preferred seating and assorted surcharges that escalate even the most economical ticket. But I'm probably the Luddite minority here, and people who bond with their Blackberrys and iPhones and all that will jump on this as soon as it becomes available.

Fewer Airplane Seats + Overbooking = More Bumps

Nearly 350,000 passengers bumped in the first half of 2008. That carries a cost for airlines -- and ultimately for the flying public

Put these random thoughts together any way you choose, and draw your own conclusions of the sort of mess American air travel is in:

• According to "More Flights Are Overbooked, but Payoffs Are Rising" in today's New York Times business section, "about 343,000 passengers were denied seats on planes...out of 282 million passengers. Most of those people volunteered to give up their seats in return for some form of compensation, like a voucher for a free flight. But statistics also show about 1.16 of every 10,000 passengers had their seats taken away outright because of overbooking — which may sound like a low rate, until your name is called."
• The article continued, "Back when most tickets were refundable or easy to change, and the airlines offered multiple daily flights to many cities, carriers used to routinely overbook about 15 percent of their seats. Passengers who missed their plane could simply catch a later flight. Rules are tighter now, and passengers with nonrefundable tickets can only expect a credit for an unused ticket, often minus a hefty fee, if they change their flight. That means they have more incentive to show up. But airlines still overbook."
• Compensation to bumped passengers is up. Times reporters Micheline Maynard and Michelle Higgins wrote, "Travelers can now receive up to $400 if they are involuntarily bumped and rebooked on another flight within two hours after their original domestic flight time and within four hours for international. They are eligible for up to $800 in cash if they are not rerouted by then. The final amount depends on the length of the flight and the price paid for the ticket....Compensation must be paid immediately in cash, or with a voucher if the passenger accepts it, and the airline must offer a choice of a refund, a return flight to their departure city or an alternative flight. Volunteers also receive compensation, which they negotiate with the airline. Passengers are learning, however, that if an airline does not get enough volunteers at a lower figure, they might be able to bid up the offer, and also obtain sweeteners that include vouchers for meals, hotels, transportation and even plane tickets."
• Passengers flying free or using a voucher are cutting into airlines' direct revenue streams.
• US carriers have announced plans to cut routes they claim are unprofitable. Airlines have imposed fuel surcharges and miscellaneous other fees. Despite these additional charges along with service reductions, planes are quite full and will be fuller come fall.
• The annoying, arbitrary and ever-changing Transportation Security Agency screenings add to the unpleasantness of domestic air travel today.
• With frequent-flier awards increasingly difficult to redeem (and now costly to redeem), miles have stacked up, adding to the liability on airlines' balance sheets.
• The recession in which the US finds itself, but is loathe to call by that name, is cramping many Americans' travel styles. Like it or not, "staycation" has become a word in the travel vocabulary.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 let airlines chart their own operational courses and set (and change) air fares at will. Three decades later, in a very different world in terms of fuel costs, technology, sheer numbers of flyers and travelers' expectations, the airline industry in the US has broken, and no one seems to be taking much interest in fixing it.

Terror Watch List Hits One Million!

Travel impacted by a list containing the names of one out of every 300 Americans

According to the American Civil Liberties Union's Watch List Counter, the Department of Homeland Security's Terror Watch list passed the million-name mark a few days ago. Click on that link and you can see the counter spinning around as fast as the dollar counter on a gas pump. The ACLU website further reports:

"September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that
the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that
consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over
700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 - and that the list was growing
by an average of over 20,000 records per month. (See also this new March 2008
report.)

"By those numbers, the list now has over one million names on it. Terrorist
watch lists must be tightly focused on true terrorists who pose a genuine
threat. Bloated lists are bad because they ensnare many innocent travelers
as suspected terrorists, and because they waste screeners' time and divert their
energies from looking for true terrorists. Small, focused watch lists
are better for civil liberties and for security."

At this rate, the only people who won't be on the Department of Justice's Watch List are those wearing American flag pins in their lapels. These days, the Justice Department doesn't seem much more concerned with justice than the Department of Defense is with war. IMO, such shifts in policy and procedures have a lot to do with Americans' travel experiences -- whether we are experienced hassles and delays when we fly or whether we feel "liked" when we travel abroad. For words like this, I'm probably going to end up on the list myself!

Help Me Rediscover the Joy of Travel

Have my posts become too whiny -- or has travel simply become a chore rather than a joy?

I like to travel. I really do. Or at least I used to. You'd never know it from my recent posts on this blog though. I seem to be on a roll writing about things that I find annoying: Rising air fares and declining airline service. Airline surcharges and costly hotel "extras" (not just the mini-bar but WiFi, parking, usurious telephone charges, etc.). The Transportation Security Agency's policies that affront travelers. Highway delays. Hotels that waste electricity and water in the name of "luxury." Or, on the other end of the scale, accommodations have been allowed to go to seed.

Believe it or not, I have exercised some self-restraint. I really haven't written the price of gas that has skyrocketed the cost of a road trip. Nor did I regale you with the tale of the speeding motorcyclist who broadsided my car while I was on Colorado's Western Slope ( biker landed in the hospital; I'm OK, and I have a new car).

Other blogs and websites (The Cranky Flier, Christopher Elliott's ombudsman-ish site called simply Elliott, Frugal Travel Guy, Upgrade: Travel Better among others) keep the traveler (aka, the customer) in mind.

Commuting Doctor Repeatedly Delayed

Whenever I think I've been too grouchy, along comes another example of why travel has become so frustrating and joyless -- and in the following case, that puts my inconveniences into perspective. Al Lewis, whose syndicated column appears in the Denver Post, wrote about Dr. Joel Schwartz, an obstetrician specializing in high-risk pregnancies, who flies once a week from Denver to Las Vegas. "If he's not in the office on time, he has a packed waiting room. His partners must pick up his caseload. And his anxious patients may end up with a doctor they do not know.

"Schwartz, who commutes from Denver to Las Vegas every week, doesn't like
to roll the dice when it comes to air travel. After Denver- based Frontier
Airlines filed bankruptcy earlier this year, he said he bought five months'
worth of tickets on United Airlines. His first United flight was canceled. His
second was nearly two hours late.

"A consummate traveler, he said he found the airline's employees unusually
grumpy. When he called customer support, he said he could only reach people in
exotic locales who seemed scantly empowered to help him. So Schwartz bought
backup tickets on Southwest Airlines to ensure he'd be on time for his patients
each week.

Schwartz said once he's burned through his nonrefundable United
tickets, he's going back to Frontier or Southwest, or anywhere else....

"'You would have to cut my arm off before I'd ever go back to United,'" he
said. At this point, it's hard to say what might be worse. United's service? Or
a one-armed obstetrician who can't always get to his Las Vegas office on
time?"

Dr. Schwartz has clearly had it with United, and so, according to Lewis, have pilots. "They [the pilots' union] are demanding that CEO Glenn Tilton resign. They are hanging out their dirty cabin blankets on a website called Glenn Tilton Must Go. As airlines drown in rising jet fuel bills, the pilots union says Tilton's performance is among the worst....Tilton is a former oilman who took Texaco through bankruptcy and helped merge it with Chevron Corp. before joining United in September 2002. He and his crew earned tens of millions taking United through Chapter 11, hacking away at airline workers and their benefits. Along the way, they leased a shiny new headquarters on Chicago's Wacker Drive. Then they sharpened their knives again to get through an unprecedented spike in fuel prices."

It is difficult to adopt an upbeat attitude toward travel providers that not only take advantage of customers by cutting costs and downsizing their workforces but are enriching themselves in the prcoess.

Blogger Reports Bizarre TSA Agent's Treatment of Disabled Passenger

Dr. Schwartz, even if delayed, certainly can fend for himself at the airport. Denver blogger James, Future Gringo, with a pass to accompany his mother to her gate at Denver International Airport, witnessed a TSA's downright bizarre action when clearing a developmentally disabled passenger through security.

He reported, "This agent was visually inspecting the wheelchair and probing around some cushions as expected, but then she did something that I would never expect: She took an ETD (Explosive Trace Detection) Swab, and repeatedly rubbed the child’s face with the swab. She did this a few times with the swab attached to the plastic forceps. I don’t recall her putting the swab IN the machine, but after finishing she gently caressed the child’s face a few times with her hand - which I thought was equally as strange." Strange indeed.

James also commented, "Now this TSA officer was not being forceful or rude, and was actually quite gentle and friendly with the child. However the act of rubbing a child’s face with a substance bothered me. A fully able bodied person would never consent to having their FACE rubbed with a dabber or swabber. A person in a wheelchair who is cognizant and articulate would not allow this. Why should a wheelchair bound child who can’t speak for themself be subjected to this? Granted this only lasted about 15 seconds, but I didn’t think it was right or appropriate on the part of the TSA."

Prices, airline policies, arbitrary TSA procedures and all the rest nothwithstanding, I'll try to be more positive, because I like to travel. I really do.