Home Stretch

[paulpomes]

Alanna and I are on our way - her to visit us in San Diego and I'm returning home there. She asked what the bold SSSS on her bolding pass meant.
"Means it sucks to be you. You're now a selectee eligible for enhanced searching of your person and belongings."
"Thrills."
It's another five minutes before she meets me in the gate area

Comments

[drcruel]

It is all theater. Why the hell do I have to take off my shoes? Is there anything I could possibly stick in my shoe that I couldn't stick in my underwear?

[macula_densa]

Damnit, Paul, I have a hard enough time flying as it is. I don't like thinking about this sh*t! I want to live in my stupid little bubble and believe that things are more secure, and you're shattering my world! ;-P

[jlindquist]

With Photoshop Heather Johnson can fly on a ticket issued to Mary Smith. The electronic boarding pass is edited to use Heather's name and printed. At the main security checkpoint there's no verification of the bar code, that Heather Johnson is on that flight, or even that the flight exists. All they check for is the quality of the ID and that it matches the name on the boarding pass.

Not always true, they seem to be working on it. The last time I flew home on United, the TSA droids at O'Hare had these roll-away carts with a 2D barcode reader and a small LCD character display. It showed name, date, and flight information on it.

Which of course raises the question, is that beatable?