For some, hassles dim the appeal of air travel

For some, hassles dim the appeal of air travel
Usually I just kick the USA Today into my room and go on with my business, but this article today struck me because it's what many of us have been saying for a while. I had only flown a handful of times before 9/11/01 and I'd never left the country before then so my experiences don't reflect back to the "good old days" before TSA too much. I did start frequent flying before the August 2006 liquids fiasco so I do reminisce back to those days. I love my job, but I'd love it more if I had a teleporter or if I could use NetJets or something like that.

Do I need a passport to fly domestically?

I've been trolling yahoo answers quite a bit recently and this question comes up so much it is very sad.

There was a time a couple years ago when RealID was a hot issue where this was rumored to be true. States were voting to not enact RealID due to the cost of implementation and not enough federal funding. DHS/TSA struck back by saying people from states not RealID compliant (which was pretty much every state except NC) would not allow those licenses/IDs for travel. All states were quickly issued a waiver to prevent mass chaos. RealID still rears its ugly head, but there is no requirement from TSA or otherwise for US domestic travelers to need a passport. Presenting a photo ID as listed on the TSA website does help one get through the checkpoint without getting their stuff searched automatically, but photo ID is not *required*. This means if you are traveling and your wallet gets stolen your main concern should be getting your credit cards canceled and such NOT how you will get on your flight home.

So in summary: No passport needed for domestic US travel. Valid photo ID with name, gender, date of birth, expiration date is good, but with a search it is possible to go through without it.

I'll take basic toiletries for 100...

Today was my first day traveling since the Christmas attack. Some on flyertalk had reported issues with generic bottles at checkpoints so in addition to that I made sure stop using my 4 oz (shh!) generic bottles and clean out various old boarding passes and other junk from my bag to prevent too many reasons for a bag check. I also considered checking my bag, but I was on a 2 airline 3 leg trip so I didn't want to risk checking it and carried on. It helped that the lines were fairly short due to this being the post-holiday travel lull and many other business travelers didn't seem to be traveling today.

I got to the checkpoint, prepared my stuff in the bins (first bin: coat, shoes, liquids baggie second bin laptop, then backpack, then rollerbag). The x-ray operator had called a bag check on the person in front of me because he didn't take his laptop out. That one was resolved fairly quickly. Then the x-ray operator got to my rollerbag and called a bag check on me. I watched that person and the 2 striper who came over about 3 minutes later for the bag check while they were looking at the x-ray. They seemed fairly fixated on my hair straightener. I thought that was ironic because I had just told someone on Yahoo Answers that hair straighteners are just fine in carry on bags. Even though the spot they kept pointing to was obviously my straightener, it turns out it was my toothbrush they were suspicious of.

This is the second time my toothbrush has resulted in a bag check. It kinda makes you wonder about the people TSA hires if they don't know what a toothbrush looks like. It was just the cheap Oral-B sonic toothbrush with charger. the stupid thing stopped working anyway so maybe I just need to toss it at my destination after I get a manual one.

Man arrested for failing to show ID at TSA checkpoint

I know to most of you out there won't understand the significance of this. You may be thinking "Just show your ID and get it over with." Since TSA came into existence after 9/11 we have been frogs in boiling water. I didn't travel more than once a year pre-9/11, but just in the almost 4 years I've been a weekly traveler the changes are extensive with no real benefit. They've just been charging us $2.50/flight for the privilege of being harassed.

• It started with mainly requiring a ticket to enter the secured area. This was OK because that weeded out the families welcoming home people and blocking your ability to deplane. It also got rid of *some* of the pickpockets and other scammers past security. Most of the people who posted on the Flyertalk thread recently seemed to agree with this move.
  
• After the shoe bomber we were all required to get shoes x-rayed. This has caused me to get athlete's foot several times even though I always wear socks through the checkpoint. I just realized I have a case again!
• then in August 2006 (nb this was NOT September 2001!) the liquids plot resulted in a complete ban on in cabin liquids for a couple months followed by the current 3.4 fl oz (100 mL) container in a 1 qt/1L baggie. This limit is arbitrary and a joke. I think it's just a plot to increase concession sales and travel sized items. I flew on that day and due to TSA wait times (over an hour in STL) and the lack of being able to bring a lot of things through security the few places to eat in STL's A concourse were out of food/beverage.
• One of the newer things is the list of approved IDs and the loupes and blacklights. Before 9/11 ID checking was done at the gate to prevent people transferring nontransferable tickets. It had nothing to do with security and Australia does not check IDs for domestic flights nor to many other countries. They also seem to forget that the 9/11 hijackers all had valid IDs.
  
• The State Department began issuing passport cards which are a valid form of ID for anything except international air travel. Many TSA officers will not accept them because they haven't studied the list of acceptable IDs.
  
• Last time I was at the DMV there were 4 other people waiting in line with me (3 of them over 65) who were needing to get a new state ID or license just because they were about to fly.
• There are virtual strip machines. Child pornography is illegal, but it's perfectly legal for TSA to look at your child naked. No parent should ever let their child in one of the virtual strip search macines.
  
• Now there is this Secure Flight garbage requiring full name, date of birth, and gender. When does it end? Will I need a chip implanted in me to verify I can fly across my own country? So much for the right to travel freely.
  

So back to my buddy Phil. While the rest of us are frogs getting boiled he decided to jump out of the hot water and try to do something. Props to you and I wish I had the guts to do the same. I read his story right before I boarded my flight in LAS. Two TSA officers talked to the gate agent and then stood in the jet bridge during boarding. They didn't have gloves so I knew they couldn't be doing bag searches, but I feared they might be doing the random ID checks at the gate. I thought very hard about declining if this is what they were doing, but they just stood there for a reason I did not determine before boarding.