Sick of inconsistant security standards

Arrrgh!  It’s week 8 here in San Jose.  Flying out this morning from SeaTac, I was asked to remove my sneakers.  Only about half the time at SeaTac am I asked to do this.  Never am I asked at SJC.  When I mentioned that I didn’t have to do it last week, the lady said “Oh, it’s required.  We always ask.”  As if I’d slap my forehead and say “Oh of course, I’d forgotten I was humiliated in a degrading manner last time I was here, silly me.”  Oh, on each trip, I wear the same Nike white tennis sneakers.

So, here’s my procedure when approaching the security screeners.

1. Put away boarding pass, but keep it handy, I’ll need to present it again.
2. Unclip cell phone, turn off and slip into carrying case.
3. Take off my Breitling watch, as its bulk tends to set off the machine.  Slip into jacket pocket and zip close.
4. Take loose change, slip in other jacket pocket and zip shut.
5. At the security table, I put my jacket in it’s own tray
6. Take laptop out of briefcase, sent briefcase down the line
7. Put laptop in tray, but don’t sent it until I’m reasonable sure I can meet it on the other side
8. Dash through gateway
9. Pick up laptop tray before it gets rattled by the rollers.

In the past, laptops would be cushioned.  Even after 9/11, you could put your laptop on top of your folded jacket in a tray.  No longer.  Now, all the jolts of the tray moving through the machine are being transmitted directly to the laptop case.  Having lost damaged two laptop hard drives while traveling; I know how fragile they can be.

I had seat 7C today on the 6:25am flight.  I noticed that coach flight attendant, a 30ish guy came forward and actively blocked the aisle at the First Class galley while the First Class flight attendant severed coffee to the pilots.  The few seconds the cockpit door was open, the guy leaned against the galley wall to the right of the aisle.  He put his arm out and gripped the partition between row 1 and exit door on the left side of the aisle.  The whole time he was looking into the cabin, which was good, since the other flight attendant had her back to the cabin while serving the coffee.

When the cockpit door was closed, he started to walk back up the aisle.  I motioned to him and asked if he had done that on purpose.  He said it was an Alaska Airlines policy.

Very interesting.