TSA troubles could spell a long summer for travelers; here’s how to lessen the pain

Travelers caught in the headline-making long lines at airport TSA security checkpoints in recent weeks spilled their frustration and anger all over social media.

From L.A. to New York, emotions ran hot and high through the hashtag #iHatetheWait.

Left with hordes of angry travelers, some airports brought in clowns and chamber musicians to entertain people cooling their heels in lines.

San Diego International Airport hired circus entertainers to perform. Fliers in Seattle and Atlanta got free snacks and listened to live music.

At Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport officials brought in miniature therapy horses - no joke - to relax agitated travelers.

Delays have caused thousands of people to miss flights, though for various reasons Kansas City International Airport has been immune to the problems.

During one week in mid-March, American Airlines alone had 6,800 passengers miss flights because of security screening delays. Airports where major waits were reported included Chicago’s O'Hare, Phoenix Sky Harbor, LAX, and JFK.

Last week about 450 American Airlines passengers trying to fly out of O'Hare International Airport missed flights and were offered cots to sleep on overnight.

Heads have rolled in the messy aftermath. On Monday the Transportation Security Administration fired Kelly Hoggan, the man responsible for day-to-day security operations.

But what’s going to happen during the busy summer travel season?

Though the three-hour wait times seem to have subsided, travelers in general are spending more time at security checkpoints. The average maximum wait times at JFK International Airport's security lines, for instance, have shot up 82 percent compared with 2015, according to NPR.

Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, told NPR that even though additional TSA screeners are being hired to speed things up, long lines are expected to continue during the busy summer season.

After American Airlines set out cots for its stranded passengers last weekend, spokesman Ross Feinstein considered the long, hot summer ahead.

“This weekend was probably the worst since spring break,’’ Feinstein told The New York Post. “Our concern is the summer, which is spring break every day from June till September.’’

So what created this current mess of long lines?

Think of it as a trifecta of trouble. For one thing, more people than ever are flying, Business Insider reports.

Airlines for America projects an all-time high of 231 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31.

Domestic air travel in the United States went up 5.5 percent last year. Individual airports have seen even heavier increases - 10 percent at O’Hare, 6 percent at Los Angeles International.

Last year traffic went up 10 percent at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which became the first airport to host more than 100 million passengers in a year. Traffic there is already up 14 percent this year.

More people are flying at the same time TSA says it’s understaffed. The New York Times reported that the current number of TSA screeners - 41,928 - is 12 percent fewer than in 2011.

TSA blames its personnel shortage on Congressional budget cuts. This month Congress gave the TSA an additional $34 million - $8 million of which will be used to hire nearly 800 new screeners by mid-June. The rest will pay for additional part-time hours and overtime.

The union that represents TSA officers argues that more than 800 new screeners are needed; they’ve called for 6,000 additional workers.

Lastly, there’s the grand-experiment-that-has-largely failed: The TSA’s PreCheck program.

Business Insider says the TSA “gambled on a campaign to enroll 25 million people” in the program.

Passengers can pay an $85 fee that lets them use special expedited security lines, for five years, where they don’t have to remove shoes or belts or coats.

The perk is huge. The TSA reported that 75 percent of PreCheck lanes moved travelers through in less than 10 minutes on Monday.

But only 9 million people have enrolled in the program so far, leaving the TSA hoping it can meet its goal by 2019.

“All major hubs are sitting ducks for outrageous lines at any given moment in time,’’ a federal source told The New York Post.

What’s being done to avoid future problems?

▪ Starting today, the TSA will officially begin trying out new passenger lanes designed to speed up security screening at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, according to CNN.

Bins with suspicious bags will automatically be rerouted to a separate conveyor belt to keep lanes moving. The lanes will also have an area where passengers can take off their shoes at their own speed which keeps slower passengers from holding up the lines.

The TSA will compare the speed of the new lanes to current ones. If they are adopted, it could be as long as five years before they are used in other airports, TSA officials said.

▪ A revamped My TSA app will launch toward the middle of June, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told USA Today. The app will post nearly up-to-the-minute wait times at the nation’s largest airports. Travelers themselves currently report the wait times, sometimes inaccurately. Now the TSA will report them.

▪ The TSA has sent additional bomb-sniffing dogs to O’Hare and Midway airports in Chicago to help clear travelers to use the faster-moving PreCheck lanes, CNN reported. That means some travelers will be able to use the lanes without the required background checks.

The move is expected to keep lines moving smoothly since the dogs can typically screen 1,000 passengers a day. American Airlines said it is looking for money to help pay for more canine teams.

What can I do to make my summer travel easier?

▪ Don’t travel on a Friday afternoon. Security lines between 4 and 8 p.m. on Friday afternoons tend to be the slowest, with wait times often doubling, according to data analyzed for Market Watch by WhatsBusy.com, a site that tracks airport security wait times for consumers.

“That’s the tail-end of business travel for the week and the start of a lot of personal travel,” said WhatsBusy president and co-founder Jordan Thaeler.

▪ Use the PreCheck program. Passengers have complained that signing up can be slowed by delays. But the possible trade-off?

PBS Newshour reports that the average wait time at regular security lines is about 30 minutes compared to five minutes in the expedited PreCheck lines.

▪ If you plan to travel abroad, get Global Entry. For a $100 fee, it offers perks similar to the TSA’s PreCheck status, plus makes getting back into the country from overseas quicker and easier, according to Market Watch.

Instead of standing in long customs lines, passengers pass through automatic kiosks that scan passports and fingerprints.

▪ Before you get to the airport check your bags and make sure you don’t have forbidden items that will delay you at security.

In a recent demonstration at Chicago’s Midway, TSA volunteers pretended to be part of the agency’s PreCheck program.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the volunteers - most carrying just one bag or personal item - went through security twice. The first time, they had no restricted items; the next, they carried various forbidden items, including a water bottle and a firearm.

It took the group more than six minutes to go through the line with the prohibited items and less than two minutes when they carried no prohibited items.

“There are so many intricacies as to why lines are long,” TSA regional spokesman Mark Howell told the Tribune.

“We’re not blaming passengers, but we are asking you to please, five minutes before you go to the airport, go through your bags and make sure you don't have bottles of water, or knives or a gun. That's going to help.”

▪ Fly out of one of the 22 U.S. airports - including KCI - that use private contractors instead of TSA screeners to handle security, advises Travel and Leisure which offers a list of those airports here.

“While privatization in transportation remains controversial, the 22 airports in the country that currently use private contractors to handle security are more immune to internal changes within the TSA - meaning that, beyond accounting for seasonal crowds, it’s generally been business as usual at these airports,” writes the travel magazine.

“Travelers flying through to (these) hubs won’t need to alter their typical routines.”

▪ Check the airport’s website and social media channels for updates and alerts about the lines at security, suggests Travel and Leisure.

Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, for example, posts real-time wait times for all of its checkpoints online, and its Trak-a-Line program emails any changes in wait time to passengers.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has been very active on Twitter where it posts updates, responds to individual questions and tells people about less-crowded checkpoints.

You can tweet at the TSA - @AskTSA - to find out about general high-traffic times. And use flight-focused forums such as FlyerTalk to swap information with other travelers or post your own information.

▪ Choose your security line carefully. It can be a waste of time if you automatically get into the line closest to your airline’s check-in area, which is likely also the busiest. Check a map of the airport or tools such as the GateGuru app to find others that could be less crowded.

▪ TSA and airport officials recommended arriving three hours before your flight, especially if you’re flying out of a major hub where long lines have been a nightmare. Four that passengers probably wished they had avoided in recent weeks: Chicago O'Hare, Phoenix Sky Harbor, LAX, and JFK.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 7:57 AM with the headline "TSA troubles could spell a long summer for travelers; here’s how to lessen the pain."