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TSA: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE GROUNDED
By Joe Brancatelli
August 15, 2012 --Before damning the TSA with faint praise, honest columnizing requires me to draw an obvious conclusion from several new data points about the czars of the airport checkpoint: Average Americans, including a majority of business flyers, simply don't hate the TSA as much as its most vociferous critics would have you believe.

+ Do we think the TSA is doing its job? Yes, according to a Gallup poll released last week. Overall, 54 percent thought the TSA was doing an "excellent" or "good" job at the airport. And as Gallup pointedly noted, "The fact that Americans who fly have a slightly more positive opinion of the agency than those who haven't flown recently suggests that experience with the TSA at airports does not detract from this image and may enhance it."

+ Do we have complaints about the TSA? Not as many as you'd think, according to the Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report. Released last week, it recorded 1,502 complaints against the TSA in June, when nearly 58 million passengers traveled. Just 26 complaints were about TSA screening procedures. By comparison, more than a third of the gripes were about comparatively minor indiscretions such as the courtesy shown by screeners or the time it took them to handle the process.

+ Are we even up in arms when the TSA is clearly violating court orders? Apparently not. More than a year ago, a federal appeals court demanded the agency review its policy of using full-body scanners at security checkpoints and open up the process to public comment. The TSA has ignored the court. An attempt by the Cato Institute last month to force the TSA to respond using the White House's online petition process failed when it didn't garner the required 25,000 signatures in 30 days.

None of which is to say that we should be satisfied with the TSA's activities. There is a laundry list of problems at the agency formed in haste and fear after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Too many of its 50,000 screeners have been accused of everything from luggage larceny to child abuse. TSA Administrator John Pistole repeatedly ignores Congressional mandates and the law as well as those pesky federal court orders. And last week dozens of TSA screeners at Boston's Logan Airport claimed that a key agency initiative has become an excuse for racial profiling.

It's the same arrogance and infuriatingly cavalier attitude toward the flying public that is threatening the rollout of the TSA's PreCheck program, the one substantial benefit the agency has offered the nation's overscreened and unnecessarily hassled frequent business flyers.

I've been skeptical about PreCheck since the beginning. For all of PreCheck's promises of expedited screening for frequent flyers, the TSA has always left itself a bureaucratic out: Because we don't want to tip off terrorists, we won't tell you if you are chosen for a PreCheck line even if you're enrolled in the program, and we won't tell you what benefits PreCheck offers if you do get to use a special line.

To be fair, on that last bit—what "benefits" you receive if you are chosen at the airport for a PreCheck line—the TSA has been terrific. Travelers who've used a PreCheck line rave about the speed and are thrilled with its convenience. As far as I can tell, the TSA has stringently adhered to its non-promise of allowing you to leave your shoes, belt, and jackets on and to keep a toiletries kit and laptop stowed in your carry-on bag.

"It's like security used to be before 9/11," one frequent flyer said a few weeks back. "It's dignified. It's fast. And you feel as if you aren't being judged a terrorist until you can prove otherwise."

But now that the TSA has added PreCheck at about two dozen airports--the latest is Indianapolis, opened last week--the agency's refusal to explain how and why you're chosen for a PreCheck lane is causing noticeable blowback. And it all goes back to the incredibly irritating TSA policy of refusing to grant flyers blanket access to PreCheck facilities even after you've been approved for the program, thanks to their elite status with an airline or membership in Global Entry, a bypass scheme operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"I have never been directed to a fast lane even though I have 3.3 million flight miles on United Airlines alone, have Global Entry, and have [been accepted into] PreCheck," a lawyer based in Chicago told me on Monday. "There's no one to talk to or appeal to. Everyone claims ignorance or says, 'well, you're not guaranteed admittance.'"

A consultant in Dallas tells me he'd been chosen to pass through the PreCheck lanes "about 50 times at various airports without incident." Then his access abruptly stopped last month. "I called the TSA hotline and got a bunch of mumbo jumbo about not being guaranteed access. I sent a complaint email to Global Entry and got back boilerplate on how PreCheck works."

The lack of access to PreCheck lines is so severe at Chicago's O'Hare Airport—the nation's second busiest airport and home to hubs of both United and American airlines—that the Chicago Tribune on Monday went head to head with the TSA about the problem. The TSA admitted to a few glitches, but essentially continued to spout the mantra that frequent flyers need to understand that being accepted into PreCheck doesn't mean you can actually use the service.

Besides being an answer only a bureaucrat could love, the TSA's attitude doesn't help business travelers speed up their time at the airport. Not to mention the fact that if travelers who meet the security criteria for PreCheck are still being forced to queue with the madding crowds at the general security lines, PreCheck isn't helping the TSA in its stated goal of separating low-risk flyers from higher-risk travelers.

Is there any way to ensure you get access to PreCheck lanes if you've been approved to use the program? Not really. Without the right to appeal to an ombudsman or advocate, you're options are extremely limited. But there are a few proactive steps worth taking:

+ Examine your customer, frequent-flyer, and security-information profiles at your airline's website. Be sure all of the entries—name, address, age, gender, contact information—match exactly, down to the period of your middle initial and the salutation. Do the same for your profile at Global Entry.

+ Don't print duplicate boarding passes. If you've printed one before you arrive at the airport, do not reprint it at an airport kiosk. Since your right to use a PreCheck line is embedded into the bar code of the boarding pass, any changes may trip up the system.

+ Don't use mobile boarding passes on your tablet or smartphone. There seems to be evidence, admittedly anecdotal, that mobile boarding passes tend not to be approved for PreCheck lines.

Of course, the TSA isn't alone in its high-handed silliness. Lots of business travelers who thought the Global Entry program was a fast, non-airline specific back door into PreCheck are learning a hard lesson: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates Global Entry, is just as picayune as the Transportation Security Administration.

One JoeSentMe.com member says that he was denied Global Entry membership because he once volunteered the fact that he was carrying Cuban cigars when he returned to the United States. Cuban cigars are considered contraband, of course, and even this tiny infraction counts as a disqualification for Global Entry.

Another JoeSentMe member explains that she was denied a Global Entry membership because of a long-forgotten, decades-old DUI rap. The Global Entry applications asks if you were ever convicted on a crime and, in good faith, she answered no. When Global Entry's screening team dredged up the ancient DUI, she was disqualified for providing incomplete information on her application.

Thankfully, Customs is somewhat more enlightened than the TSA. The agency at least has an appeals process and an internal ombudsman. If you are turned down for Global Entry membership, surf here for assistance.
ABOUT JOE BRANCATELLI Joe Brancatelli is a publication consultant, which means that he helps media companies start, fix and reposition newspapers, magazines and Web sites. He's also the former executive editor of Frequent Flyer and has been a consultant to or columnist for more business-travel and leisure-travel publishing operations than he can remember. He started his career as a business journalist and created JoeSentMe in the dark days after 9/11 while he was stranded in a hotel room in San Francisco. He lives on the Hudson River in the tourist town of Cold Spring.

THE FINE PRINT This column is Copyright © 2012 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. JoeSentMe.com is Copyright © 2012 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.