Breaking news courtesy of The Washington Post.

“The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions.”

Full article here.

This little gem arrived in my inbox this afternoon:

Dear Marshall,

CLEAR is back! As new owners, we are thrilled to offer former CLEARmembers a complimentary 45-day membership.

Click Here to set up a new login and password – it’s easy. Once reactivated, your existing CLEARcard will work.

If you need to order a replacement card go to Your Account after you reactivate.

The CLEARlanes open in Denver October 31st, Orlando in November, and additional airports will be announced in the coming months.

We look forward to seeing you back in the CLEARlane.

Best,
The CLEARteam

Not sure what to think about this.  It appears they will be setting up shop in Denver first, and Orlando soon after that.  I’ve posted previously that I certainly appreciated Clear when I had it.  I found the service especially useful in Atlanta, where security lines can be highly unpredictable.  Having had time to reflect (and having discovered the first class security line in Atlanta), I just don’t see what Clear will get me that elite status on 2 airlines won’t.  Something tells me that the majority of Clear’s former members probably feel the same way.  I’ll certainly watch development of the second incarnation of Clear with some interest, but I don’t think I’ll bite this time.  I just don’t think it’s worth the $179 dollar annual fee.

This Gadling post rang very true with me.  My last 2 mobile boarding pass experiences haven’t gone that well, and I thought I’d make a brief mention of it here on the blog.  I love the idea of checking in via my iPhone, receiving a link to my e-boarding pass, and cruising to the gate.  And that’s just how my first few experiences with mobile boarding passes went.

However, my last 2 experiences lead me to question whether the 2 biggest stakeholders in the process, airlines, and TSA are ready to make the move….not to mention customers.  Several weeks ago, I checked in with my iPhone and cruised from the Atlanta Airport Marta stop straight to the First Class security line.  The gatekeepers by the door saw my mobile boarding pass and waived me through.  I worked my way through the rather lengthy line, and when I finally got to the TSA ID checker guess what?  Their electronic reader was down.  Heck, it wasn’t just down, it was nowhere in sight!  The agent asked if I had a paper backup, which I did not.  She was just about to send me back to the ticket counter when I asked if the other reader (on the other side of the checkpoint) was working.  I was reluctantly sent over, where I successfully scanned and went through security.  As I was walking away from TSA agent # 1, I very pleasantly commented that the folks checking boarding passes out front should alert those of us with mobile boarding passes that the reader was missing in action, or direct us to the other side.  The response:  “that’s not their job sir.”  OK…I digress.

Last Friday, same scenario, except that I was entering Atlanta through the regular checkpoint.  No reader in sight.  But this time I’d brought a paper backup, which defeats the whole purpose of mobile boarding passes.  As it turns out, they had one reader about 40 feet away, but I would’ve needed to wait for someone to walk me over.  No thanks.

I’m not going to let just 2 bad experiences deter me from trying to force the issue at every opportunity.  Where it’s offered, yours truly will be using a mobile boarding pass.  But unfortunately, I will have a paper copy in my back pocket just in case, and that’s the way I will travel until the airlines and TSA get their acts together on this.  What have your experiences with mobile boarding passess been?

Always love to hear what Mr. Crandall has to say.

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.

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.

I always enjoy Gordon Bethune’s commentary.

Effectiveness of Airline Security – CNBC.com.

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.

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. 

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.