Travel WTF

[madamesilverspurs]

A friend just posted her present situation on facebook. I'll paraphrase it here:

She's mid-20s, rather striking in appearance, some would say she's statuesque. Her father is Saudi, her mother is from New England. Born in the Middle East, she's lived here ever since she was a toddler; we became acquainted while working on a congressional campaign a couple years back. She presently lives on the west coast, works weeks-long stints in Alaska. In her off-time she loves to travel, her favorite travel attire being a slacks and a light sweater. She and her boyfriend are in the process of returning from a trip to Europe, and spent a day visiting friends in Chicago before heading home.

At O'Hare they were in line preparing to board when she was pulled out of line and subjected to a full "inspection" in front of everyone in the boarding area; since this was a last-minute thing and the airline did not want to inconvenience the other travellers, their seats were made available to stand-by passengers. As she put it, she stood there getting publicly groped while their plane left the gate. When she asked why this was happening, she was told only that it was "at the discretion of the airline"; no other explanation. She and her boyfriend were given stand-by tickets for the next flight that had seating available; adding insult to injury, the step-down to stand-by status took away the upscale airport lounge access that had come with the original tickets.

She's boiling, and I don't blame her. I had no idea this sort of thing happened, much less to anyone who had already passed through security.

Has anyone here ever witnessed this kind of thing?

[yeoman6987]

1. Happens all the time

Sometimes it is old ladies. It is much of the draw.

[madamesilverspurs]

2. Well, this old lady

is probably next, then, seeing as how I use a cane and require oxygen.

Security I understand, the rudeness is unnecessary and incomprehensible.

[yeoman6987]

6. Well you put a bunch of uneducated workers In the job

And then give them authority. It goes to their head quickly. It is called the god complex.

[Hoppy]

9. Whatdahellrutalkingabout? Some of them have earned their G.E.D. A few more are taking the courses.

[yeoman6987]

11. True. What was I thinking.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Well, I do remember years ago when I flew a lot...

a man who might have been Middle Eastern, or maybe Indian, or Pakistani..., was pulled out of the line and we never saw him again.

It is at the discretion of the airline or any security force that has an itch up their ass that if they make a mistake they will be blamed, so they err on the "safe" side.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Shameful. Ashamed of America allowing this crap to happen.

"discretion of the airline" They make that up. They don't have to tell you ANYTHING about why yhou can't fly. Like the 'no fly list' is super secret and they won't tell you if you are or aren't on it. Fuckers. We let this happen.

[etherealtruth]

5. My daughter is "randomly" selected almost everytime she flies

.... of course (coincidentally) she has an Arabic name (her father is not Arabic, but he is Muslim and from the Indian subcontinent) .... funny how I (Gaelic/ Celtic heritage) with a common British Isle kinda name .... have NEVER been randomly selected pre or post screening.

Yes, yes it does happen

[madamesilverspurs]

8. Good thing on that self-delete.

The comment was utterly crass and unwarranted.

[Old Codger]

10. Which Airline??? N/T

[madamesilverspurs]

12. Don't know.

I have a suspicion, but not willing to give what might be wrong info.

[Downwinder]

13. She might contact EFF and see if she is on a watch list.

https://www.eff.org/

[dhol82]

14. Well, just have to say

that this 60+ white, blonde, zaftig grandmother gets pulled over more times than i care to admit.

Don't have an arabic name, think i am a good person, just don't understand why i am the one being groped and my carry on getting the full search.

Is it something in my karma?

[madamesilverspurs]

16. For the record

I get xrayed and felt up going through security. And they dismantle my oxygen machine to inspect it while someone else goes through my purse.

I travel exactly once a year, and I've never been pulled out of the boarding line nor missed a flight because of it. I can't imagine what that must feel like.

[jberryhill]

15. They were groped for a half hour?

From the start of boarding to gate rollout takes about a half hour to forty-five minutes, depending on the size of the aircraft (if its a small plane like an ERJ70, it might be a little less than that).

Sometimes there are secondary inspections of carry-ons in the jetway, but I've never seen a pat down under those circumstances and not in the boarding area.

It sounds highly unusual.

[madamesilverspurs]

17. "She" was groped. Her boyfriend was not.

Don't have any idea how long the 'groping' took. All I have to go on is her report that the boarding process was underway when she was pulled out of line.

[CaptainTruth]

18. "They hate our freedom." Remember that?

But who has taken away our freedom to travel without being subjected to this kind of mistreatment? Was it those freedom-hating terrorists? No. It was our own government.

Every time I fly & I have to take my shoes off I say the terrorists have won. If all Americans have to take their shoes off every damn time they get on a plane ... the terrorists have won. They have made our government cower in fear at tennis shoes ... I'm sure they're all extremely pleased.

[UTUSN]

19. Well, after a heart/stress test I was pulled out of line (from "radiation"?) embarrassingly

[UTUSN]

20. Otoh, a TSA (male) groped the tall dude in front of me, then told me

to get on by (without groping)

[MiniMe]

21. I got pulled out of line once in the 90's in England

I am a fat white woman, but my surname is greek. I got asked a lot of questions about did I have contact with anybody from Greece while I was traveling in England. I still don't know what it was about, but they went through my carry ons with a fine tooth comb, and they went through my traveling partners things too. And our suitcases got extra x-rays. And all of that was after we went through the initial security screen.

[treestar]

22. There's no way to get both sides of this story