We're flying out of SFO to Zurich and then onto Rome. A dear friend of ours (thanks Dana!) was kind enough to drop us off at the airport. That's pretty convenient since it means we don't have to leave our car at the airport and pay $20 per day.
Getting to the Swiss Air checkin counter was pretty easy and there was no one in the economy line in front of us. We thought it would be a breeze. Unfortunately, the person who was checking in the economy passengers left after finishing with the person in front of us. The other lines, for web checkin, business and first class all had customer service people and the folks were moving through there at a pretty reasonable clip. We waited. And waited. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, only about 10 minutes before we were called up and were able to checkin. That went slow but pretty smoothly. Though we only received our boarding pass for the flight to Zurich, only it wasn't a boarding pass. We'll have to check in again at the gate to get a seat assignment for the first flight and to get the boarding pass to Rome.
Next up was the security screening, also know as the TSA security theatre. They're now using the new x-ray full body scanners and I really don't want to go through them. When the woman security person directed me to go through, I told her I refuse. She looked at me a moment and then called on her radio for a male security person to come and pat me down. While waiting for him to arrive, I watched as she purposefully directed 2 people with children around the body scanner and through the standard metal detector, saying to them that they can't go through the scanner with a child. And it seemed to be a bit arbitrary who was directed into the scanner and who was let around and just through the metal detector. Mostly guys were directed into the scanner though there were some women. Lots of people were directed around.
Once the male security person arrived, he asked why I didn't want to be scanned. I told him that I didn't want to be exposed to the x-rays. He wrote something on a clipboard, hopefully this is an indication that the TSA is trying to listen to people. But who knows.
He collected my things and walked me over to an area on the side but in the open. He carefully explained what was going to happen, that he would touch me an various places to ensure that I didn't have any hidden items. He explained that are this part of my body he'd use the inside of his hands and on that area he'd use the outside. He explained that he would be reaching up the inside of my leg and touch personal areas. He asked if I wanted to go to a private room. I refused, if they were going to go through this much theatre, at least everyone else going through the checkin point should be able to enjoy the show.
The pat down itself was pretty quick but not very thorough. He had me turn and face my belongings which were in the grey plastic bins on the floor and walked behind me to begin. He patted my back down, checked the cuffs of my shirt sleeves, check my waistband by pulling it away from my body and running his hands around the inside. He felt down my left leg and then the other. On standing up again, he moved around front and again told me that he would be feeling my private areas. He raised his hands up my leg but didn't make it all the way up to my groin. If there had been something hidden, he wouldn't have found it. He then asked me to sit down and proceeded to wipe down the outside of his gloves with a white pad. The pad was fed into a machine and a moment later he said I can go, that I should enjoy my flight. I'm assuming that I passed the test for trace explosives. Yea.
The entire time he was courteous, and explained everything before he did it, asked if I had any questions. I don't think that the pat down was all that thorough but I do think that there are a lot of people who would be offended that a stranger put his hands on private parts of their body.
I really found it interesting that the full body scanners were optional and that opting out was as simple as saying no. It took me a few minutes extra to proceed through the security check but it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. While I was there, I was the only person I saw who opted out of the scanner. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens next Friday (11/29) when large numbers of people opt out in protest to this farce of a security check. I think that it's going to make for long delays and missed flights but hopefully the TSA will listen and that the general public doesn't agree with this, that they should perhaps implement a better security process. I know that I don't feel any safer with the theatre they're putting on.
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