Any of you fukks flying commercial the next few weeks?

[smackaholic]

Could get interesting at the TSA checkpoints.

As some of you know, I service TSA xray and trace detection equipment. Probably about 75% of my work. As of tomorrow, Leidos, the contractor that we work through, is out of a job. Another gubmint contractor, Peraton takes over.

Trouble is, in many parts of the country, they don't have the techs. Where they do, they aren't yet badged/vetted to work on the stuff. They are working with my company and others to provide service, but so far, it seems like it is gonna be one ginormous chinese firedrill.

I could see the lines at some airports, which already suck, raising to a whole new level of suck.

Maybe in this next week, they'll get the OEM service organizations more involved with actual signed contracts. But for now, we treat them like any other customer. We'll show up....after you generate a purchase order, time and materials. Gonna be a fukking paperwork nightmare for me.

[Wolfman]

Not planning on it. Flying sucks but it beats driving a couple thousand miles.

[BSmack]

I'm going to be flying in about a month. Any new information 'holic?

[Mikey]

Gonna be a fukking paperwork nightmare for me.

Yeah, but do you get overtime?

[atmdad]

Global Entry/TSA Pre - What me worry?

[Left Seater]

Commercial flights later today, Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Friday.

I have Global Entry which gets me PreCheck. The problem with that is you still have to wait in the line for the ID checker to draw all over your paper boarding pass and stick your ID under the black light thing. I tend to use the boarding pass on my phone which speeds us the process since they don't scribble all over it, but to Holic's point if some of the machines go down, you still are in a line.

To avoid that I use Clear. I don't wait in the PreCheck line for TSA to stare at my license or ID. I walk up to the Clear kiosk and put my index and middle fingers on the fingerprint reader. This brings up my ID info. Then I scan my boarding pass and the Clear agent escorts me past the TSA ID checker and all of the people in line waiting for their ID to be checked. Meanwhile another Clear agent has forechecked a space in line for me and is holding a space at the x-ray machine for my bags. My usual time thru security is about 2 minutes where Clear is available.

Granted Clear isn't free, but at $99 per year, it is well worth it. Especially in places like LA, Denver, Las Vegas where even the PreCheck wait can be 20 plus minutes.

A few times a year I get referral codes that will get someone three free months, so if you want one hit me up.

[Imus]

Not planning on it. Flying sucks but it beats driving a couple thousand miles.

Fuk yeah, plus my arms get pretty tired flying that far.

[Left Seater]

Fuk yeah, plus my arms get pretty tired flying that far.

Damn man, trim out the aircraft and give your arms a break. No one wants to deal with 30-50 lbs of pressure on the yoke for any longer than you have too.

[Rooster]

Global Entry/TSA Pre - What me worry?

This.
Smart man, that atmdad.

[smackaholic]

Somebody somewhere realized the shit was gonna hit the fan tomorrow and just granted Leidos a 2 month extension. There is also rumors that TSA may just open the bidding back up on the contract.

Peraton is looking like idiots right about now.

They apparently made a few assumptions that didn’t work out for them.

Assumption one was that all the OEM techs would be out of a job and they’d have a fully trained work force day one.

That is not the case. We were already woefully undermanned so my company had enough commercial/other gubmint work to keep both of us in New England

They have been pretty adamant about doing this with very little OEM help. And now they’re fuct.




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[smackaholic]

Turns out it isn't 2 months.

It's 5 days. :?

Likely to become a few weeks. Likely to become a year extension and Leidos has sent their lawyers to DC to convince TSA and congress that Peraton simply doesn't have the ability to do the yob.

They already tried this and failed.

This time they can make a pretty serious case that Peraton bit off more than it can chew.

After dealing with the TSA for over 4 years, my advice to Peraton would be "Run, Forrest...errrrr Peraton, run!!!!! Dealing with TSA is like dealing with any other federal clusterfukk, but worse.

[Left Seater]

My question about the TSA and government in general is how does the TSA’s failures compare with the rest of government? We can keep it to the Feds for this discussion.

The TSA has repeatedly failed at their job. Something like 80+% of test items make it thru security yet no changes are made. TSA hires criminals and has agents steal from people and yet nothing changes. Are other areas of government this poor at doing their job? If so why do we continue to tolerate the complete waste of our money?

[Goober McTuber]

My question about the TSA and government in general is how does the TSA’s failures compare with the rest of government? We can keep it to the Feds for this discussion.

The TSA has repeatedly failed at their job. Something like 80+% of test items make it thru security yet no changes are made. TSA hires criminals and has agents steal from people and yet nothing changes. Are other areas of government this poor at doing their job?

Yes.

[smackaholic]

The trouble is, they are tasked with a stupid task and are handcuffed by PC bullshit. Every fukking day I watch them molest 92 year old women in wheelchairs and just shake my head. And you can't blame the people there in the blue shirts with badges. The problem lies with assholes in 2K dollar suits in DC.

And yes, the rest of the government is equally fukked up.

Too big. No accountability.

[smackaholic]

My question about the TSA and government in general is how does the TSA’s failures compare with the rest of government? We can keep it to the Feds for this discussion.

The TSA has repeatedly failed at their job. Something like 80+% of test items make it thru security yet no changes are made. TSA hires criminals and has agents steal from people and yet nothing changes. Are other areas of government this poor at doing their job?

Yes.

Goobs, you need to zoom out a bit on that pic. It should include the Capitol. Hell, it should include pretty much everything inside the beltway.

The underlying problem is not that the current group of idiots are incompetent. The problem is the fact that there are voters that think it's simply a matter of getting the right group of people in DC to do the job.

There is a simple solution. Follow the fukking Constitution. All matters of governance ought to be held at the lowest level possible, where there is the greatest degree of accountability. How seemingly intelligent people can't understand this, escapes me.

[Goober McTuber]

I'll be flying to Florida in a couple of weeks. Due to the knee replacement, I sometimes get patted down. As they're running their hands around the inside of my waistband and up my inseams, I always point out that I pay good money for the same service downtown.

[Joe in PB]

I'll be flying to Florida in a couple of weeks. Due to the knee replacement, I sometimes get patted down. As they're running their hands around the inside of my waistband and up my inseams, I always point out that I pay good money for the same service downtown.

After being busted for DUI?

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[Goober McTuber]

Super old fuckups get knee replacements.

High school football injury, snowflake.

[Goober McTuber]

I'll be flying to Florida in a couple of weeks. Due to the knee replacement, I sometimes get patted down. As they're running their hands around the inside of my waistband and up my inseams, I always point out that I pay good money for the same service downtown.

After being busted for DUI?

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Only idiots get drunk and then drive.

[Left Seater]

Super old fuckups get knee replacements.

High school football injury, snowflake.

What, did you also score four TDs in a game for Polk High?

[smackaholic]

My TSA dude at BDL texted me today. He was told that Peraton has been sacked. Leidos extended for 14 months and they are going to put it back out to bid.

88, Precheck is awesome, but if the precheck lane xray is down, you are SOL.

Fortunately, the xrays are pretty much bulletproof. Trace detection machines on the other hand.......

[Goober McTuber]

Super old fuckups get knee replacements.

High school football injury, snowflake.

Nice red X. Probably due to the Stupidity Filter.

[smackaholic]

The stupidity filter was turned off in this dump years ago.

He prolly just fat fingered it, or in his case, morbidly obese fingered.