Two weeks ago at McCarran flying home we were surprised to see an unusually long line upstairs. We were to depart at B Gate (usuallly go to C Gate for Southwest). No TSA line, "everybody is TSA today", said the agent. It moved really fast. Turns out they had what we presume is a new bag scanning system. All bags went on the same 'assembly line', then on through an automated scanner. Instead of the agents peering into a scanner at all bags and making decisions to hold certain ones up, this system automatically shifted certain scanned bags onto another 'exam' line, where agents looked through those bags for whatever forbidden or suspect item was flagged by the scanner. Mine came on through. Husband's bag was shifted over to the exam line. Turns out it was a dozen or so catalogs he had picked up at SEMA and put in his carryon. They were packed too closely to allow the scanner to check each catalog for explosives or whatever. The TSA agent had to flip through every catalog to clear them. Friend's bag was shifted over because she had a dozen or more chocolate bars in it. Guess she should have put them in a separate bin for scanning, but nothing had been said about that before arriving at the scanner point.
Is this new? As I said, we have usually been directed to C Gate. This was at B Gate. Is it new? An experiment?
Oh, and as far as I could tell everyone was allowed to go through the X-ray machine, nobody had to go through that evil scanner. I hate the scanner, as it always flags something, like a normal body part, that isn't anything at all. We have TSA Pre-check, but sometimes the charter airlines haven't implemented the Pre-Check system at some airports, so we get the scanner in those cases. Last time after I was 'patted down' I felt like I'd had a GYN exam and almost a colonoscopy. The lady said it was probably the fiber of the underpants I was wearing. Sheesh. Won't wear those again. I'm sure this is TMI for many of you reading this. Sorry. Rant over!
