I am on my way this Christmas Day to Dallas to see my son. I have an early flight, and not being sure what the crowds might be like I opted to hit the airport early as well. I hired a car to drop me off, and I came through the ticketing level security checkpoint by the Delta counters.
There were a few more people there than I had expected but it wasn’t too bad. I of course was directed to the full body scanner lane. I had to wait to tell the TSA guy there that I wanted to opt out because he was busy berating the other travelers. This guy was not polite, but that’s not the issue. I notified him of my opt out. He responded with “Okay, that’s your choice. But you’ll have to wait a while” and walked off radioing in my request.
After about five minutes another male TSA agent sauntered up with the tell-tale blue gloves on. I expected to get waved through the metal detector to get things rolling.
Instead the agent asked why I refused to go through the scanner. I said that I was concerned about the health implications and prefer the pat down. “Do you use a cell phone,” he asked? I said yes. “You get radiation from that.” He and the female TSA agent next to him then rattled off a bunch of sources of radiation.
I listened, nodded, and then again stated my preference to opt out.
The two of them kept going, then proceeded to tell me how the data is not personally identifiable and how it is reviewed. This was peculiar since I hadn’t even brought up my privacy concerns. I guess this wasn’t there first time at this rodeo.
Finally after about five to seven minutes of this I said, “I understand. But I would still prefer to opt out and have a pat down”.
The male TSA agent rolled his eyes, sighed, and then had the female agent wave me through the metal detector.
The pat down itself was only interesting in the firmness and aggressiveness of the pat down. There was no pussy footing about this pat down. He was professional though polite is not a word I would use. He swabbed, tested, and then told me I was all set.
Have you had similar experiences?
