Everyone Hates Airport Security.
You shelled out 80 bucks and got approved for the TSA Pre-check, but so did most of the people flying today. In fact, it seems as though there are more people in the pre-check line than in the one for everyone else.
And either line is stressful. There are people behind you and they’re all in a hurry. That causes you to hurry and that’s when you screw up and leave something on the belt.
It’s also when the makes-no-sense incidents occur. That’s when, for example, the guy in front of you has his shave cream confiscated because it’s a 12-ounce container and eight ounces is the maximum permitted.
“But,” says the fellow, shaking the container, “there’s only a couple of ounces left in there.”
The TSA guy is unmoved and the container of shaving gel is unceremoniously tossed into a bin filled with aerosol cans of shaving foam, antiperspirants and bottles of water.
On one of my recent trips, the TSA machine spotted a jar of guava jam I had in my carry-on bag as a gift for my sister-in-law in Illinois. It was confiscated and tossed into a big plastic bin. Once inside the terminal, just a hundred feet or so from the security line, I bought another jar of guava jam, identical to the first one, except that it cost almost half again as much.
All that said, working for the TSA has got to be a terrible, thankless job. Everything is rush-rush, everybody resents what you’re doing, and you’re under pressure every minute of every day not to miss something.
It’s certainly no surprise that when I’m in a discussion with people about train travel, they almost always cite not having to go through security as one of the big pluses. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make up for cut backs in food service.
