Posted by Marshall Jackson on March 19, 2010 under Delta Air Lines, Safety and Security, Travel Tips | 
Word to the wise. Flew Delta out of DCA this morning on the 6:40am launch to Memphis. At 5:30am, the security line was backed a quarter of the way to the next concourse, and by the time I got close to security, I’d say the line was well on it’s way to being much further down DCA’s beautiful National Hall. I haven’t seen lines like these at DCA in years. Word was that it was like that the morning before as well. Anyone know what gives? Spring Breakers? Just that much more business since NWA’s operations joined Delta at DCA? Comment to the blog if you know the scoop.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on January 7, 2010 under Safety and Security |
Always love to hear what Mr. Crandall has to say.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on January 3, 2010 under Safety and Security |
Received a New York Times news alert a few minutes ago detailing changes to screening procedures. Long story short, if you are a citizen of traveling from our through certain countries suspected to be sponsors of terrorism, you can expect a full pat down and bag search before you board a flight to the United States. However, if you are an American Citizen, you will no longer be automatically subjected to a pat down (and whatever else they were throwing at us) before boarding a flight heading to the US from other countries. But don’t be surprised if you are randomly subjected to extra scrutiny. You can review the New York Times article here for more details. Here is TSA’s press release on the change.
I doubt very many people realize it, but citizens of certain countries have been subject to extra security for about as long as I can remember, even pre-dating 9/11.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on under Delta Air Lines, Random Musings, Safety and Security, Southwest Airlines |
Yay, a New Year!
As much as I love the year-end holidays, especially Christmas, I’m always happy to see the first full week of a brand new year. While I worked through the holidays, with the exception of the actual Christmas and New Year’s holidays themselves, many of my colleagues have been on vacation since the middle of December. Many more were out last week. Nothing wrong with that at all, but I can’t pretend that it didn’t impact production for me. I did get a lot of random administrative work accomplished though, and that makes me happy. But beginning Monday, everyone suddenly reappears, and we press on into the new year. I’m anxious to get going.
I have quite a bit of work travel in the pipeline, but my travel year actually begins with a personal trip. On Friday, Mrs MJonTravel and I wing our way to Tampa for a long weekend with her parents. Tampa should be a heck of a lot warmer than DC! We are flying Southwest nonstop from BWI, and I’ll post a trip report when I return.
Delta – Northwest Receive Single Operating Certificate
Delta and Northwest received clearance to merge operating certificates on New Year’s Eve. That means that when you see a former NWA jet in Delta colors, it will really be a Delta flight. For example, all those shots of a Delta painted airplane from the foiled Christmas Day crotch bomb attempt were actually of a Northwest airplane wearing Delta colors and operated by Northwest Airlines. When the operating certificates merge, NWA will be a memory, and all flights will be Delta flights.
I’m sure Delta would love to combine flight attendant groups, but they can’t proceed pending an election. The former NWA flight attendants are represented by AFA while Delta’s attendants are non-union. AFA has been slow to call for an election pending some changes to National Mediation Board rules that might make it easier for them to win the election. I may be wrong, but I would bet 5 bucks that AFA would not win the election under current rules, and they know it. Note: that’s not an endorsement or indictment of unions in general or AFA in particular. Just stating what I think would happen if the election were held today under current rules.
TSA – What Next?
I predict TSA gets a permanent adminstrator soon after the Senate gets back to work. The nomination for President Obama’s choice to lead the agency, Erroll Southers, is being held up by South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. Senator DeMint put a hold on the nomination because he wasn’t satisfied that Mr. Southers was well enough opposed to unionization of the TSA screener workforce. Mr. Southers got some mildly bad press over the weekend in a Washington Post article detailing his admitted misuse of federal databases many years ago. I won’t weigh in one way or the other on my opinion of screener unionization, Senator DeMint, or Erroll Southers. But I have to wonder how politically palatable it is to stand in the way of the nomination given the Christmas Day events when the nominee appears to be very well qualified, and the Agency has been without permanent leadership for nearly a year. It’s time to move on this one or find a new nominee. I expect Mr. Southers gets confirmed soon.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on December 30, 2009 under Safety and Security |
Words fail me. “Wow” is about the best I can come up with. Elliott and Fish, I’m sending good thoughts your way.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on under Safety and Security |
I always enjoy Gordon Bethune’s commentary.
Effectiveness of Airline Security – CNBC.com.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on December 29, 2009 under Commentary / General Info, Safety and Security |
Yes, that’s right. I am going to defend the TSA. Shocking I know. While it’s obvious that I don’t agree with some of the things TSA pulled in the immediate aftermath of DL/NW 253, I have to acknowlege that TSA is in a damned if you do/damned if you don’t situation. They had to do something. And I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt.
This happened on a holiday weekend, and I can’t help but think that the pincipals were out of town on holiday. Yes, I know that no one is truly out of touch anymore, but I’m just sayin’….. Couple that with the fact that TSA remains without a permanent leader, and I can paint a mental picture of well-intentioned people going a little overboard and implementing certain processes that proved unworkable in the end. Thankfully, TSA seems to have recognized its error.
I support the idea of TSA, and I really do think that the overwhelming majority of TSA employees have the best interests of all travelers at heart. I also happen to believe that we as a country need to rethink our approach to transportation security. Our focus remains far too dedicated to finding objects and not finding people. We expend untold security resources on taking Barney Fife’s belt buckle shaped like a gun (seriously, I saw TSA take a belt buckle from someone because it had a shape of a gun on it) while some jackhole that we knew was a bad seed waltzes onto an airplane unimpeded? Come on!
TSA needs to proceed full throttle with deploying the latest screening technology that would’ve spotted the explosives our new terrorist friend was packing in his underwear. Privacy freaks are going to have to let it go…just a tiny bit. We can’t hope to make flying 100 percent free from potential terror attacks, but we surely can do a better job. I support sensible security and I know TSA can provide it. We as a country have to muster the will to insist that our elected leaders find a way to help TSA meet its mission of keeping the skies as sensibly secure as possible.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on December 27, 2009 under Safety and Security |
Silver lining? I must be drinking. No, I’m quite serious. There is a silver lining in the Christmas Day security incident on NW 253. How so? Frankly, it’s been a while since 2001, the shoe bomber, and whatever else. We’ve had a pretty good run of luck with terrorist activity and aviation. And I think that has made many of us who fly somewhat complacent. With this, I think we have all been reminded that there are still some very bad people out there who don’t like us very much, and would love nothing more than to be successful in bringing down an airliner. Look at the events of the last few days as a wakeup call. Keep your eyes open, and if you see something suspicious, do us all a favor and let someone know.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on under Safety and Security |
Fellow Boardingarea.com blogger Steve Frischling over at Flying with Fish has posted details of the TSA Security Directive issued in the aftermath of NW 253. These directives aren’t “classified” and the information is are considered security sensitive information, but this one appears pretty generic. One thing did pop out at me, there is no additional limit on the amount of carry on luggage. It would seem that those airlines which have posted limits took it upon themselves to do so. The TSA did not direct those airlines to do this, they are doing it because of the requirement in the directive to physically inspect every piece of carry on luggage. Fewer bags to inspect means less time spent digging through bags and gets everyone on the airplane quicker. Not a bad idea, but the airlines that are implementing this restriction need to be honest about why they are doing so.
The requirement to disable live television programming and internet access is an especially huge blow to those carriers that have invested in such systems, not to mention companies like LiveTV, Row 44, and the rest. We can only hope that this is relaxed in the coming weeks. One other item of interest, the directive has an expiration date of December 30th. We’ll see what happens after that.
I know it can sometimes seem like one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing at TSA. And no, the actions taken that I am aware of do not impress me as all that helpful when it comes to real enhancements in security, but I have to hope that there are other more useful things going on behind the scenes. That said, I’ll wait and see what happens in the next few days before getting too exercised about these changes. Hopefully, things will settle down as the folks in charge at TSA get a handle on what they really need to do. Hint: the stupid no pee rule isn’t useful.
Posted by Marshall Jackson on under Commentary / General Info, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, Safety and Security |
Even I don’t believe everything I read on the internet (unless it comes from this blog), but if only 1/4 of what I’m reading is true, the entire travel industry is at risk. Why? The security “enhancements” enacted over the weekend after NW 253 are getting out of hand. Let me offer a small selection of choice items for your purusal:
- Gate searches of all passengers and their carry ons
- Passengers must remain in their seats for the final hour of flight
- No lavatory access for the final hour of flight
- No access to carry on luggage
- Nothing in your lap the final hour of flight
- No inflight entertainment the final hour of flight (apparently this is up for debate as I’ve seen a few blurbs about IFE being shut down entirely)
That’s a short list and it is apparently supposed to apply to international flights to the United States only. However, there is anecdotal evidence that some airlines (or perhaps certain flight crews) are employing these practices on domestic flights. There’s an extensive thread on Flyertalk.com which indicates that United has turned off its IFE entirely on international flights leaving its passengers to twiddle their thumbs for 12 hours.
I know that folks in charge want to give the appearance of doing something. However, all of this is questionable as to its real effectiveness, and I can’t imagine that any of it would’ve prevented our latest terrorist attacker from boarding NW 253. Seriously, the airlines and TSA need to figure out what the hell is going on quickly. Travelers are not going to tolerate this crap for very long, especially if its being applied on shorter domestic flights. Having been privy to security directives in the past, I know they can sometimes be confusing and the first day or two of implementation is subject to missteps. I hope that’s the case here, and we can get ourselves on firmer footing with exactly what is and is not required to meet TSA’s wishes for enhanced security. If things remain as they are, the negative impact on travel is going to be far-reaching.
All this said, I have no doubt that we’ll figure things out. But until then, things could get cute. Take my advice and pack a little patience in your one and only carry on.
