I am a frequent flyer. I am through the TSA security lines at least 60 times a year. 

On one occasion, I discovered I was standing in line with my US Congressman who happens to sit on the commetee that has oversite of the TSA. We had a great conversation about TSA proceedures. After we cleared the Porno scanner, I noticed they pulled a bag from the x-ray machine with a 14 inch embrordred “US Congress” seal with his name on it. He replied that it was his. They began to search the bag and pulled a 4 to 5 ounce bottle of contact lens solution and began to question him on it’s contents. This is where I screw up. I looked at the TSA officer and said” For God sakes, he’s a US Congressman” The officer then called over 2 more TSA guys and they pulled my 2 bags and directed me a table for a pat down and a detailed search of my belongings. A “We’ll teach you to open your mouth” move.

We both cleared about the same time and were both sitting on the TSA $1K bench putting our shoes back on.  I looked at him and said” What the hell was that?” He shruged his shoulders and said “What can you do?” He really didn’t want to discuss it.

Even Congressmen take their lick from these numb skulls.

By: Mike

TSA agents can be very rude, but they’re worse when you’re not an american citizen, I’m mexican, and I’ve traveled a lot around the world and to USA, therefore I know how they behave and the rules you have to follow in order to board your plane as fast as possible and problems free click here for more info.

We were traveling to Boston for the holidays, my mom was sick with the flu, so she prepared her medicines (she’s a homeopathic doctor) and the recipe and everything in case an agent asked her what those were, she had 3 bottles of 40 ml in a ziploc bag in her purse, so everything was in order, as it should be, then we got to the checking point, it was cold, we had boots on, sweaters, jackets, and we had to take them off to go through the metal detectors, our bags were on the band so they could scan them, all of our bags went through without a problem, until they reached my mom’s purse, they hold it, opened it and started to take her things out, they found the plastic bag with the medicines in it, and the agent opened the bag and read the tags (they were in spanish so he didn’t understand) and my mom told him they were homeopathic medicines, I pointed out they were on the plastic bag, they were under 100 ml and we had a recipe, that she was a certified doctor, but he just kept looking at them, inspectioning them, and he said: this can’t go on the plane, and I repeated all my speech, and he just kept saying he was going to throw them in the trash, my mom asked him to let her take the medicines a last time and he said no, so he took the bag and threw it in the trash… 

We were soooo angry! so frustrated, I just wanted to call him names, hit him, but I knew that would just made things worse, so I just looked him in the eye and told him: you’re a very very bad person, merry christmas…and walked away

The sad thing is that this is just ONE of all the bad experiences my family has endured with the TSA agents

By: Sophie Leon

My husband, son & I flew from Sioux Falls to Florida in May 2013. At the Sioux Falls airport, I went through the scanner and a young female TSA agent asked me, as I exited the scanner, to step over toward her. She said she needed to check my knees. I said “Excuse me??” She repeated that she needed to check my knees. I should point out that my knees are my own original knees, not replacements made of metal or whatever. She then proceeded to run her hands up and down the INSIDES OF MY THIGHS a few times, and came nowhere NEAR my knees. I didn’t complain about this, but I wish that I had. I felt really creeped out by what she did. But I felt so harassed by the whole TSA process in general that at the time, all I wanted to do was get out of that area and on toward the gate.

By: Mary Clausen

I travel a lot and I’ve never had much hassle from the TSA. I’ve even managed to unintentionally slide “prohibited items” like exacto knives and un-ziplocked toothpaste past the scanners. That was before I went to Toronto. I was flying last Valentines day to see my boyfriend and had a layover in Toronto. I was a small 25-year-old girl in a pink frilly dress. Apparantly this is cause for great suspicion.

Now I said I travel a lot, and that includes international. Layovers in different countries are par for the course but what I’d never seen before was having to go through a security checkpoint twice in one trip. So I was completely baffeled when I realized there was no way to get to my gate without going through customs, exiting the terminal, and going back in through the security checkpoint. Panic set in as I realized I might miss my connecting flight.

When I got toward the front of the line I noticed something strange. They had good old metal detectors and many people weren’t taking their shoes off. Two full-body scanners lurked ominously in the background, unused. I asked the agent if I needed to take my shoes off (I had flats, nowhere to hide anything) and the agent glanced at my feet and told me no. “Hooray, what a low-hassle airport!” I thought. I stepped forward…BEEP BEEP BEEP!! Suddenly I realized I had small metal buckles on the sides of my shoes that probably set it off. Feeling like an idiot, I stepped back to take off my shoes…but too late. The security lady called me forward and had me stand to the side and take off my shoes. An agent was by now rifling through my backpack. He pulled out a bottle of water I’d forgotten, not expecting the checkpoint, and threw it away. The woman patted me down and waved one of those small metal detectors over my body. People in line were staring. The metal detector beeped near my chest and the woman poked at my bra. “Do you have an underwire bra?” she asked. “Yes” I muttered, certain my face was bright red. “That’ll set it off,” she explained.

Thinking that was the end of it, I moved to reclaim by carry-on when she told me to wait. She spoke breifly to her coworkers then told me “you just need to go through the body scanner now.” I froze. I had been through 2 metal detectors, a pat down, and now I had to do THAT? Mind, I’m not one of those people that fears the radiation or invasion of privacy, they have rows and rows of these things at my home airport, hell I’d been through one just that morning. But by this time I was really concerned about missing my flight and I just wanted to get on the freaking plane to see my freaking boyfriend.

And then something awful happened. I started to cry. The agent stared at me in horror. People in the security lines were awkwardly trying not to stare. The woman pulled over a coworker “I think she’s crying” she said quietly. To be fair their attitude changed then, they actually tried to be nice to me. They asked me if I was concerened about missing my flight and when I told them when it left they assured me I’d make it. She led me to the scanner, arms above my head, hold still, and that was it. I was trying to wipe my running mascera off my cheeks. I was mostly just super embarrased, but also upset at the ridiculousness of going through metal detector, pat down, and a full-body scanner right in a row, when I’d already sailed through secuirty at my home airport only hours ago. When I picked up my bag an agent asked me why I was so upset. “I’ve just never been hassled by the TSA before, I guess it freaked me out,” I explained. “Oh, we didn’t mean to hassle you ma’am” he assured me.

On the return trip I actually had even more hassle, permanantly sealing my vendetta with the Toronto airport, but that tiff was with the airport itself as well as customs, so another post for another blog I suppose.

By: oriana

Traveling and especially dealing with TSA can be difficult experience. I have a book you might all enjoy! It’s called TSA and Me: A Light-Hearted Look at Travel Today — it is collection of stories following one passenger’s experience with TSA. The good, the bad and the ugly. http://amzn.to/14dIs69

By: Larissa Schultz

Before this week, I had never experienced any complications with air travel. All my encounters with the TSA were completely acceptable. No harassment, no theft, no groping. But I had, until this week, gone through the x-ray machine without complaint (I don’t see them as a health risk). However, I was curious, after reading stories across the internet about TSA’s abuses of power, to see if these situations were really that common. I feel that I should point out that I’m 18 (an agent refers to me as “kid” at point).

I was returning home from Minneapolis on Thursday and arrived at the Minneapolis Airport about two-and-a-half hours before my flight was set to board. With all that time, I decided to opt-out of the x-ray machine and see what happened.

When I reached the front of the security line, I requested not to go through the machine. Here is how the conversation progressed:

Me: I would rather not go through the x-ray machine. Is there an alternative process?
TSA: The x-rays are mandatory.
Me: No, they aren’t.
TSA: All passengers are required to go through the screening.
Me: I can opt out of the x-rays if I want. There has to be an alternative process.
TSA: Stand over there, sir. (She indicated an area about ten feet away.)

The TSA lady called over another agent and had a rather long (probably about a minute-long) conversation with him, after which they come over to me:

TSA (man): Sir, the screening process is mandatory.
Me: Okay, but I don’t want to go through the x-rays.
TSA (woman): Stay here, please, sir.

They both left again and moved back over to the woman’s podium, where they called over a man who looked like a supervisor. This supervisor came over:

Supervisor: Please come this way, sir. (He leads me to a side area of the checkpoint.)
TSA (woman): It’ll be a minute before an agent can pat you down.
Me: Okay.

After about seven-ish minutes, I walked over to the woman TSA agent:

Me: Excuse, me? How long will this take?
TSA: Please stand back, sir.
Me: I’ve been waiting for an agent for more than five minutes. How much longer?
TSA: Go back over there, sir. He’ll be here soon.

I went back to the “designated area” to continue waiting. After ten more minutes, I went back up to the podium, where the original woman had been replaced by a man:

Me: Excuse me, sir. I’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes for a pat down over there.
TSA: What?
Me: I’ve been waiting for a patdown for fifteen minutes.
TSA: Why?
Me: I opted out of the x-rays. Another agent took me over there and told me to wait. That was fifteen minutes ago.
TSA: Just a minute. (He got up and walked over to another agent and I went back to the side area.)
TSA: (a minute later): Why don’t you want to go through the screening?
Me: I just would rather not.
TSA: You don’t have a reason?
Me: Excuse me? I don’t think that’s any of your business.
TSA: You need to give a reason.
Me: No, I actually don’t. You need to provide an alternate option if I don’t want to go through the x-ray.
TSA: Stay here. We’ll get to you eventually.

The agent walked away after saying that last bit in the most condescending, rude tone I’d ever heard from a TSA agent. I was taken aback by how he said it and didn’t reply. After ten more minutes, I went up to the same male agent and asked for a supervisor, to which he replied “He’s busy.”

Me: What did you just say?
TSA: He’s busy.
Me: I’ve been waiting for half an hour. That is unacceptable. I want to speak with a supervisor.
TSA: Just go back over there. I’ll call an agent over.
Me: And what exactly have you been doing for the past fifteen minutes?
TSA: Sir, you need to go back over there now.
Me: I want to talk to your supervisor now.
TSA: Whatever.

After this, I went back to the side area of the checkpoint. I was considering just going through the x-ray machine, but I felt like that would be like giving up, so I just stood there and waited. After a few minutes, two agents came over to me:

TSA: You were yelling at the agent over there?
Me: No.
TSA: Disrupting the screening process is a federal offense. When is your flight?
Me (I actually laughed I was so frustrated): Hardly. Why? So you can make me miss it?
TSA: Kid, lay off the attitude.
Me: “Kid”? Did you actually just say that? Where is your supervisor?
TSA: Busy.
Me (this kind of just slipped out): Doing what? Groping a few six year-olds? I’ve been waiting almost forty-five minutes! I want to speak with him now.
TSA: Do you want to miss your flight?

I don’t know how long this could have gone on, but the manager miraculously appeared just after I loudly mentioned groping six year-olds. He seemed much more ready to assist me than the other agents and listened to all my complaints and frustrations calmly. After explaining that all I did was opt out of the machines, he asked one of the agents to go get another agent for a patdown and that agent arrived in less than thirty seconds (wasn’t that difficult?). The patdown (which was entirely non-intrusive or inappropriate) took less than thirty seconds with the manager observing.

I then watched as the manager disciplined three of the agents involved for “abusing a passenger” (me). One of them even apologized. I filed a complaint online, with a complaint card and over the phone. Except for that manager, I have lost a great deal of my respect for the TSA. I think that this whole ordeal may have been in part because the agents considered me a “kid” and so didn’t take me as seriously as they would an older man or woman, but that excuse is pathetic.

I’m still not sure if I’ll opt out in the future, was it worth the effort and frustration?
By: Cole S.

We were set to fly back to our country after my grandfather suffered a stroke rendering his left side paralyzed, to seek cheaper medical treatment/rehab. My grandma, not thinking about the possibility of theft, stored her jewelry inside her ‘padlocked’ check in baggage. She planned to sell her remaining jewelry back home to help pay for my grandpa’s future medical bills. It was worth around 10,000 US dollars. Long story short, when we arrived at our destination we found out that the bag was  forcibly opened and the jewelry nowhere to be found (it was stored inside the bag’s concealed safety pocket), and a note from the TSA explaining how they examined the contents of the bag, without any mention of the missing jewelry. 

I know my grandma made an error in judgement, but to the TSA official responsible for the theft, I hope that you will someday realize the error of your ways and save someone else from further  burden and suffering. My grandpa didn’t get adequate therapy because of that setback. That money would have paid for a year worth of therapy. And we had no choice but to return to the US with hardly any improvement in his physical condition. 

By: Joseph