May 2, 2015: Those of you lucky enough to receive the TSA Pre-check designation on your boarding pass know how easy and convenient that little check makes it to go through airport security. A special line, get to keep most of your clothes and shoes on, electronic gear stays secure in your carry on, painless -easy and quick!
Well that is if you get through the United Airlines TSA contractor staffed security checkpoints before 11:00 pm. After that, the Pre-check section is closed until early am the next day. No matter how long the lines—my experience was on a recent Friday night (and it was crowded with Red Eye travelers heading for a variety of flights)—the section was closed—no matter what it said on the boarding pass. It would seem for their own convenience and passenger flow the TSA contractor staff would keep the line open—moving late night travelers into their crowded gate holding area quicker.
The TSA crews at SFO, and a few other U.S. Airports, aren’t really official U.S. federal Government employees—for various reasons to be explained in a future post—this crew is a private security group—Covenant Aviation Security—a TSA contracted out source to “provide baggage and passenger screening at SFO”.
And with the recent news these days highlighting not only the lack of consistency with TSA operations at many U.S. Airports and substantial security breeches, should the agency be completely privatized or maybe taken over by some like Disney who at least know how to manage crowds and make waiting in lines entertaining?
