Friday, May 9, 2008

Unsuccesful at MDW, TSA suggests I lie instead to fly without ID

Airport: Chicago Midway (MDW)
Date: February 28, 2008
Reason given: want to fly as a selectee, without ID
Reference: personal
Airline: Southwest
Result: Unsuccessful
Description: I told the TSA ID checker that I was flying without ID as a selectee. She told me I couldn't designate myself as a selectee, and handed me over to another agent who asked me if I had ID, and I told him politely I was flying without ID as a selectee. He said I couldn't fly without ID, that it was a security measure, and that they were protecting me . I mumbled something about the supreme court saying it was okay. He left and went and got a third agent, who told me that there was no I way I was getting on a plane or past that point without showing my ID. I quickly said, "yes sir, I'm sorry sir", showed him my ID, which he looked at, and then he sent me on my way.
After the metal detector, I went up to the TSA desk and asked to file a complaint. The TSA agent there got someone who seemed to be the manager, who gave me the form and asked what the problem was. I told him that I had tried to fly without ID, but had been denied. He agreed that I should have been able to fly without ID, but told me that if I had used different "verbage" I wouldn't have had a problem. After I questioned him on this further, I realized that he was implying that I should have told the agent that I lost my ID. and I told him that I certainly wasn't going to lie. He agreed that it seemed like a training issue, and I suggested he give his agents more careful training.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I work for tsa, the airport that you went threw must not have known that their is a different what to handle passengers with no source of idea. If your wallet was stolen and you had no source of identification ie credit cards, birth certificate, old school id, work id, ect. then they could have had you fill out a form, one of the tso or agents working with call a number which basically hooks them up the people in the HIGH UP offices which then can identify your identity then they should have had you go as an selectee. The other problem with that story was you had identification with you, so techniquely you lied to an officer. and if an officer told you to lie about something then you should have taken their name and wrote what they told you on the comment card so they can weed out people like that who dont know how to perform their job.