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Why are people opting out of the scanner? Is there something I don't know? 
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Dec 17, 2012 15:03
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:18 |
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Shbobdb posted:Why are people opting out of the scanner? Is there something I don't know? There's a few of reasons. Some folks have health/safety concerns, for others it's a privacy issue and some others see it as a complete waste of time and would rather make going through security as difficult as possible for the TSA while still following the rules (this is mostly where I fall). I'm sure folks can come up with additional reasons but those are typically the big 3 that I see.
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Dec 17, 2012 15:07
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My understanding is that the health concerns on those things are about as valid as chemtrails. Privacy and gumming up the works makes sense though.
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Dec 17, 2012 15:27
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There are no health concerns on mmWave radar. There might possibly be health concerns on the backscatter devices, but all the airports I have been to recently have stopped using them. The real concern with backscatter was that they never had visible dosimetric information available to the public or employees from on-site tests. This is normally required for x-ray emitting devices, but somehow backscatter x-ray were exempted. This was a huge safety concern for TSA employees, since if there is some stray radiation or some stuck emitter, they would be exposed all day while standing there. A trip once a week or once a month is trivial for a single traveller. Regardless, there is no reason to be exposed to any dose of x-ray radiation if it is not necessary. With the mmWave technology, there was never any valid reason to have the backscatter devices. I don't understand the hatred regarding the TSA. It seems in a large part to be people's grumpiness that they, upper class white males, should have to suffer through the indignity of being searched. Sure, some of the security policies we have are stupid. But I've never heard a coherent argument as to why abolishing the TSA and, presumably, moving back to private security firms would be any better. You know who have private security firms? Malls. And mall-cops are a running joke about entitled, smug, and ineffectual security staff. There were abuses and huge flaws in the private security system before the TSA. Hiring criminals, theft of luggage, and the lapses in security that led to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Are there flaws in the TSA system? Yes. But I don't see how contracting out to a private or military contractor would make the system better. Do you think you'd be happier with Blackwater doing the security screenings?
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Dec 17, 2012 16:37
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I really don't know enough about the technology to have an informed opinion on the health matters either way. I know early on they were using one type of machine that had people up in arms, which was likely compounded with the fact that there was a change at all, but that technology has since been retired and they've moved on to something supposedly safer. My beef is more that it's a complete waste of time and if they're going to waste my time I'm going to waste theirs. I'm pleasant and cordial but it's the best way I know of that I allows me to say, "This poo poo sucks, please change it" that won't get me on a no fly list. edit because I'm slow: The beef with TSA strikes me as more political than anything. Even if the TSA hadn't been established the Fed likely would have still put into place the same requirements we have now and we'd still be going through the same circus we do now. Regardless of who is running the lines the procedures that are currently in place are unnecessarily slow and invasive. That's probably the biggest complaint the frequent flyers in here have. TouchyMcFeely fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 16:38
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I see no reason to waste the time of people who are supposed to be catching criminals when I have better things to do, like go have a beer or get on an airplane. You're wasting your own time getting patted down, and you seem to take some perverse pleasure in being molested. edit: quote:That's probably the biggest complaint the frequent flyers in here have. I'm PM on DL with 100K+ MQM this year. 80 or so segments. Please don't pull the "I'm a frequent flyer, you don't understand how it is" argument. what is this fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 16:47
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TouchyMcFeely posted:My beef is more that it's a complete waste of time and if they're going to waste my time I'm going to waste theirs. I'm pleasant and cordial but it's the best way I know of that I allows me to say, "This poo poo sucks, please change it" that won't get me on a no fly list. Basically this.
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Dec 17, 2012 16:59
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EDIT: deleted, the guy below me has the right idea.
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Dec 17, 2012 17:13
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what is this posted:I'm PM on DL with 100K+ MQM this year. 80 or so segments. Please don't pull the "I'm a frequent flyer, you don't understand how it is" argument. People have different opinions, news at 11. Can you stop trying to turn this into a D&D thread on the TSA? Thoguh fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 17:13
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Lonely Wizard posted:Took me 3 months from application to interview for Nexus at a large hub. I hear the wait times are significantly smaller if you want to go really far out of your way, though. I've had coworkers wait up to 6 months to get one in Toronto. It took me 3 weeks to get an application approved and the soonest interview timeslot in the Vancouver area was 2 months away. However I checked the scheduling site every few days. Within a week of being approved I sniped an interview spot someone canceled out of and got right in. My boss and I were approved at the same time and he was able to snag a canceled spot a week after I did, so it's worth it to keep checking often. Edit: I got my pass 3.5 years ago (it's valid for 5 years) so the wait time could well be much longer now. The advice about looking for cancelations still stands. kitten smoothie fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 17:47
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kitten smoothie posted:It took me 3 weeks to get an application approved and the soonest interview timeslot in the Vancouver area was 2 months away. When I did mine Detroit had them open within a 1.5 - 2 week wait.
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Dec 17, 2012 17:55
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Ive got company shut down, but the trips are piling up already for next year. I dislike the TSA because Ll of that ridiculous poo poo and how many times have they nabbed someone versus the times someone got nabbed at the boarding door. Bleh
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Dec 17, 2012 17:55
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Emergency landing, multi hour delay, making the next morning's trip be a trip in vain. Woo! Oh, and all causes because I was greedy and took the standby flight an hour earlier to try to give myself an extra hour on an already tight timeline between itineraries. I cannot imagine explaining the situation to a normal reservations customer service agent. I was tired and it about halfway through until they basically said "whatever you want we will do it".
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Dec 17, 2012 17:58
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I'm so excited - I might actually have my travel budget cut. This would be amazing because flying 4x/wk every week for the last 3 months has been wearing me down. Please continue with austerity measures, job!
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Dec 17, 2012 18:22
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what is this posted:I see no reason to waste the time of people who are supposed to be catching criminals when I have better things to do, like go have a beer or get on an airplane. Any time sitting at an airport is wasted time regardless of whether you're being patted down or drinking a beer. I really wasn't trying to pull a "if only you knew how hard it is if you were me" argument. If anything I feel sorrier for the folks who don't deal with it frequently who get caught up the whole thing. If I weren't a regular flyer I probably wouldn't be brave enough to opt out since I wouldn't know what to expect. Honestly, I don't get enjoyment out of the pat down. I treat it much the same way as going to the doctor and having him squeeze my scrotum. I do find morbid humor in the whole thing but that's about as far as it goes. For all you lucky bastards who are travel free for the next week or two I hope you'll take a minute of silence for all those brave souls subjected to holiday air travel. I've had to fly up to Bozeman twice in the last month, will likely have to go back again on Wed and then fly up again on Christmas. Seems like it always happens this time of year because I am just that lucky!
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Dec 17, 2012 22:08
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Don't worry, it's not just commuter airports. Oh, no; I meant it as in "they don't even need to open security early." My airport only has routes to LAX and they can process an entire flight's worth of people in about five minutes.
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Dec 18, 2012 17:35
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Any time sitting at an airport is wasted time regardless of whether you're being patted down or drinking a beer.
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Dec 18, 2012 22:18
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Gail Wynand posted:Somewhat agreed, but I've found I can be quite productive when sitting in a lounge so I generally try to get to the airport a bit early if I know there's a good lounge I can access. Lounges are for drinking free drinks while scanning receipts.
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Dec 19, 2012 05:05
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Shbobdb posted:Lounges are for drinking free drinks while scanning receipts. Free drinks while doing any fun computer activity: surprising your UK coworkers by being up at ungodly hours of the morning (6am est), yosposting (made the RIM death pool thread from the sky club at MIA), delegating short-fuse client stuff to coworkers, and so on.
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Dec 19, 2012 15:05
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Bastards and your lounges. I bet you don't have to mostly fly on regional jets either.
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Dec 19, 2012 15:32
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I'll trade your regional jets for DASH-8 and Q400 any day of the week. I don't even do that much travel, but drat, I hate those things.
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Dec 19, 2012 15:46
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FrozenVent posted:I'll trade your regional jets for DASH-8 and Q400 any day of the week. Oh they're not that bad, especially the Q400.
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Dec 19, 2012 23:03
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Thoguh posted:Bastards and your lounges. I bet you don't have to mostly fly on regional jets either. Nope, 90% of my flights are 4+ hours.
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Dec 20, 2012 00:28
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Belldandy posted:Oh they're not that bad, especially the Q400. You've never had a four hour flight in one, have you? Admittedly that was a DASH-8, and we landed a few times to pick up and drop off people, but drat did I hate my life that day. (Only had to do that once, thank God. I don't fly enough to be bitching in this thread, really) They're a hell of a lot better than the Air Canada Express Beechcrafts 1900D, I'll give you that.
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Dec 20, 2012 01:59
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FrozenVent posted:You've never had a four hour flight in one, have you? Admittedly that was a DASH-8, and we landed a few times to pick up and drop off people, but drat did I hate my life that day. (Only had to do that once, thank God. I don't fly enough to be bitching in this thread, really) I sure have, a Porter Air flight out of YTZ, so at least it had good food and booze.
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Dec 20, 2012 02:24
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FrozenVent posted:You've never had a four hour flight in one, have you? Admittedly that was a DASH-8, and we landed a few times to pick up and drop off people, but drat did I hate my life that day. (Only had to do that once, thank God. I don't fly enough to be bitching in this thread, really) Yeah, one leg of my flights are on EMB-120s but I'd much rather eat the 23 minute flight on one of those than deal with a larger airport.
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Dec 20, 2012 04:54
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Uncle Jam posted:Nope, 90% of my flights are 4+ hours. 90% of my flights are 1-2 hours and I intentionally plan my itineraries around getting a mainline jet rather than an RJ for my hub to destination flights. No choice but an RJ for my home city to hub flights. My only longer flights are Minneapolis or Atlanta to Orange County and back. I try to do Atlanta when possible because it's a longer flight so more miles plus the planes Delta uses for that route have inflight TV, the Minneapolis route doesn't.
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Dec 20, 2012 05:01
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Belldandy posted:I sure have, a Porter Air flight out of YTZ, so at least it had good food and booze. Porter's planes are Q400 set for 70 seats instead of 78. Also it's Porter, where they have things like service and food. My funtime 3.5 hour flight (preceded by a different two hours Dash-8 flight) was in a Dash-8-100, the 37 seater. On of those mofos:  God I hate those things. That said, I'll take a Porter Q400 over an Air Canada anything any day of the week. drat I love Porter, it's the best thing ever if you have anything to do in downtown Toronto.
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Dec 20, 2012 05:09
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FrozenVent posted:Porter's planes are Q400 set for 70 seats instead of 78. Also it's Porter, where they have things like service and food. My funtime 3.5 hour flight (preceded by a different two hours Dash-8 flight) was in a Dash-8-100, the 37 seater. Yeah, Porter is absolutely how every airline should be run. They are awesome. Plus YTZ is leagues better than YYZ.
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Dec 20, 2012 06:07
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I actually really like Porter. Granted, it is very "in Soviet Russia, plane flies you!" but that is part of the appeal. I feel like I am my grandparents, either riding on a plane dropping bombs or me as a paratrooper or my grandparents, flying across the sea with a baby on board to make sure it isn't a bastard. You can't beat classics like that. That is experience.
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Dec 20, 2012 06:18
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Just got an upside of all this travel. I was able to do a Diamond "force" with Hilton so I could book 4 nights in Munich during Oktoberfest next year using only points. Super cheap too, only 136,000 points for all four nights when the best available rate for the room was 399 Euro a night.
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Dec 26, 2012 22:54
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Non-Q Dash-8s are pretty bad, but the Q400 is nice as all hell. Porter rules hard core.
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Dec 27, 2012 22:21
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Non-Q Dash-8s are pretty bad, but the Q400 is nice as all hell. Porter is the most consistently good flying experience outside of, like, Cathay, Emirates, and Singapore Business/First cabins. I'd become Canadian to use them always.
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Dec 27, 2012 23:25
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You'd have to stay in Ontario and points east, though. Unfortunately in my new location I can't access Porter anymore (North Carolina).
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Dec 27, 2012 23:38
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You'd have to stay in Ontario and points east, though. There are places in Canada that aren't Toronto?
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Dec 27, 2012 23:39
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You'd have to stay in Ontario and points east, though. Oh poo poo. USAir?
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Dec 27, 2012 23:39
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Midjack posted:Oh poo poo. USAir? gently caress no, skyteam 4 lyfe I'm at a smaller regional airport so no matter what my first segment is to a hub.
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Dec 28, 2012 00:21
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What do you guys use to charge your phones/laptops on planes?
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Dec 28, 2012 00:46
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Morby posted:What do you guys use to charge your phones/laptops on planes? The battery? Most domestic planes on Delta are woefully short on plugs. Occasionally I'll luck out and they'll be some in first class if I get an upgrade. But even that is rare. I carry a spare battery for my phone and have an extended battery in my laptop's CD Drive slot.
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Dec 28, 2012 00:54
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 10:18 |
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When they exist, they frequently don't work. I have a Lenovo with a six-hour battery; in reality, I probably get about five hours to a charge. There is no case in which I need to work for more than that on the plane. Preemptively charge everything. I also use the SkyClub since there are tons of outlets.
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Dec 28, 2012 00:58
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