I fully respect the position of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers to safeguard our airports, but do they have to act like such asses? On my flight out of Orlando, the TSA officer that was overseeing the security line ran into me with a cart filled with trays. She saw me standing there with my son and literally pushed the cart into me without an apology. Then, she proceeded to chew me out about my car seat having a GoGo Kidz Travelmate attachment so it would not fit through the x-ray machine. I conducted my due diligence and knew that TSA could hand inspect my car seat with the attachment or I could simply remove the wheels and place everything intact through the machine, yet she insisted that I completely remove the entire attachment. To be honest, I didn’t mind complying, I was more annoyed with her bad attitude.
She proceeded to tell me that I should have waited until I was through security to attach the Travelmate, and I kindly told her it was none of her business and that I am traveling with a toddler. I didn’t owe her any sort of explanation nor did I ask for her opinion. Even though my car seat fit through the x-ray machine perfectly without the attachment, she still decided to hand inspect it anyway. Her inspection took almost 8 minutes and trust me, I know from experience that it doesn’t take that long to inspect a car seat. What ever happened to customer service?
On our return flight out of Dulles, my family was directed to an empty security line and we began putting all our belongings on the screening conveyer belt. We opted to remove the GoGo Kidz Travelmate car seat attachment completely to avoid the chaos we experienced at Orlando. The TSA officer asked me if I had any food or drink for my baby. I knew the jar of food I brought would need to be tested, but based on previous experiences at Dulles, I knew it would only take a few seconds. Well, the TSA officer over-reacted and told me that I was going to delay the security process because I didn’t go to the Family line. He said he’d have to run the jar down to the Family line for testing which would take several minutes. After he proceeded to give me an ear full, I casually walked over to the trash can and discarded the jar of baby food. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but he made it out to be one. First of all, I was directed to that particular line by the previous TSA officer and secondly, there was NO ONE behind us in line.
Once we made it through the security line, I noticed the liquid testing machine was right beside of the area we had just gone through. Unbelievable! I am certain TSA deals with some real winners every day, but is it really necessary to give such attitude?
Have you had an unpleasant experience with TSA? Perhaps being rude is a job requirement? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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