
$100 to Fly Through the Airport - lambtron
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303863404577281483630937016.html
======
danilocampos
Create a problem.

Sell a solution to that problem.

I'm so out of energy for this stupidity I can't finish my comment. Bye.

~~~
snikolov
I wonder how expensive background checks are and how much (if any) of the $100
they'd get to keep.

~~~
silencio
I very much doubt it's thorough at all and I wouldn't be surprised if that was
mostly profit, ignoring government inefficiencies.

I signed up for Global Entry (the "backdoor" for this program, presumably with
similar paperwork) sometime in early summer last year before this domestic
flight security thing was available. My interview was a joke. I don't think
they verified _anything_ I put down in my application. The CBP officer just
briefly glanced at my drivers license and papers and spent more time asking me
if I wrote Angry Birds ("what is your job?" "I write iPhone apps...") while
looking me up and down (it was a hot day, maybe a bad day to wear a low-cut
summer dress). I walked out of there in 5 minutes with my angry birds/cleavage
supported approval.

I fly domestic dozens of times a year and I consider this program to be utter
bullshit on the part of TSA. I'm not really providing any more information
than they can already discover by information they require you to enter for
purchasing a flight. I'm exchanging a false sense of security at a cost I find
stupid (even though my Global Entry app fee was free). I really don't know why
people can't rise up and try to get rid of TSA security theater instead of
being all excited that this kind of program exists.

~~~
seanp2k2
Because people still largely feel that the TSA and DHS are necessary, ignoring
the irony that wr're still living in a post-9/11 fear-driven society where Bin
Laden still literally terrorizes us.

TSA/DHS are a joke, and if you think they're honest and/or necessary, I
suggest you follow the money. I'd say start with the companies who make full
body scanners (millimeter wave, which uses ionizing radiation and causes
cancer (ref: <http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray> ), but that's
a whole other can of worms.)

~~~
polyfractal
I don't like the full body scanners either, but you take on a significantly
larger dose of radiation by simply looking out the window of the plane while
flying than you do walking through the scanner.

There are lots of things wrong with the scanner...radiation is a very small
part of it.

~~~
counterpunt
that's still up for debate - since the energy doesn't penetrate through the
body, it's concentrated on the skin.

------
notatoad
And every politican and airline regulator gets automatically entered into this
program, so that they never have to experience how the average person flies.

------
pmorici
"If a passenger is cleared for Precheck screening, a code is embedded in a
traveler's boarding pass."

I'd give it 50/50 odds that the embedded 'code' in the boarding pass can be
easily forged.

~~~
jkubicek
This is the TSA we're talking about. The 'code' is probably the words,
"Cleared for Precheck" printed on the boarding pass.

~~~
ecspike
I've gone through PreCheck at ATL. Nothing on my BP said PreCheck. Part of the
qualifications that the article didn't mention is that certain high level
elites are eligible, so it might be whatever designator determines that
status.

The TSA agent scanned the BP, there was a beep sequence similar to when you
have exit row and they directed me to the other line.

~~~
gcb
heh, most airports i fly locally the guy scans nothing.

all he has is a ultraviolet(?) lantern and latex gloves.

------
zdw
Great! Just impersonate one of these people and bring whatever you want
onboard!

Is there's still a huge hole between security and boarding - you can go
through security on one ticket (which could be totally fake) and fly out on
another, which could be used to get around the "code on the boarding pass"
protection...

~~~
politician
Unless you're Jason Bourne, what's the point of going through security with a
fake boarding pass if you also have a real one? The No-Fly List isn't
parameterized by destination.

~~~
schiffern
He's talking about holes in the "ID triangle."
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/the-
thin...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/the-things-he-
carried/7057/?single_page=true)

>The ID triangle: before a passenger boards a commercial flight, he interacts
with his airline or the government three times—when he purchases his ticket;
when he passes through airport security; and finally at the gate, when he
presents his boarding pass to an airline agent. It is at the first point of
contact, when the ticket is purchased, that a passenger’s name is checked
against the government’s no-fly list. It is not checked again, and for this
reason, Schnei­er argued, the process is merely another form of security
theater.

>To slip through the only check against the no-fly list, the terrorist uses a
stolen credit card to buy a ticket under a fake name. “Then you print a fake
boarding pass with your real name on it and go to the airport. You give your
real ID, and the fake boarding pass with your real name on it, to security.
They’re checking the documents against each other. They’re not checking your
name against the no-fly list—that was done on the airline’s computers. Once
you’re through security, you rip up the fake boarding pass, and use the real
boarding pass that has the name from the stolen credit card. Then you board
the plane, because they’re not checking your name against your ID at
boarding.”

------
geuis
So in essence, the TSA is now an extortion racket. Might as well rename it
MAFIA. I'm sure Congress can come up with an acronym to fit that

~~~
samstave
Militaristic Authoritarian Framework Invading America

------
HSO
I have a, possibly naive, question for Americans: Why isn't this a political
issue? From all I read, TSA seems to be universally loathed. Then it should be
easy to change in a democracy. Why is it so hard?

~~~
rrrazdan
Maybe because many Americans understand that in this changed security
environment, such kinds of check are necessary. America has been very
successful in preventing a repeat of 9/11. Surely TSA deserves some credit for
that? I may be the only one thinking like this, but as an Indian, we live in
constant fear of attacks. And I find these checks a necessity. Inconvenient,
yes. Humiliating, perhaps. But surely necessary?

~~~
drostie
While I agree that "America has been very successful in preventing a repeat of
9/11," the truth is that this is utterly separate from what the TSA is
involved in. The US has focused much more counterintelligence on al-Qaeda and
bombed the crap out of them and assassinated their leader, and US civilians
now know that they cannot tolerate being passive members in a hijacking and
will take down a hijacker even if it means their lives. (It _might_ be the
case that their Federal Air Marshals service also deserves some tiny bit of
credit, but I am hesitant to allow a Trusted Officer to board a plane with a
gun -- it introduces new vulnerabilities on how you verify that someone is
Trusted in the first place, either as a passenger or as an airport? and
perhaps the terrorists can now steal weapons from the Air Marshals or bribe
them).

The measures that we're upset about are due to some prominent _security
failures_ of the TSA, mostly to do with private individuals using plastic
explosives. The most prominent were the shoe bomber (thus now we take off our
shoes) and the underwear bomber (thus now you must either let them take a
naked picture of you, or else submit to the Freedom Fondling of your genitals
to look for such things). However, other intrusive regulations like "don't
take a bottle of Pepsi on-board, it will be confiscated" come from a failed
"liquid explosives" plan which we caught before they put it into action. The
underwear and shoe bombs got right through the TSA's security screening, and
were defeated by passengers noticing that people were trying to set weird
things on fire.

People have been upset about the stupidity of airport security since before
2001; George Carlin's rant on airport security was in 1999, you can find it on
YouTube easily. His ringing words, "Haven't found anything yet, haven't found
one bomb in one bag" still rings true, surprisingly enough. We even found
plastic explosive charges in cargo planes -- but only because
counterintelligence sources intercepted the information of the plan and told
us where to look. These guys digging around in your bags never did.

Let me tell you what's wrong here, in one brief statement. You know what
happened when I last went through a naked body scanner? It went off loudly.
You would _think_ that this means that I would be a very sorry person indeed.
No. They lazily took me aside, looked at where the computer software had drawn
a circle (around my head), decided that it was probably detecting my ponytail
as a false alarm, and whisked me on my way.

Wait, you say, you mean their alarms went off and they yawned? That's correct.
Your chance of being a real unidentified terrorist is probably smaller than
one in a hundred million. Their machine's false positive rate is probably
larger than one in a thousand. That means that even if their machine goes off,
there's only a one-in-a-hundred-thousand chance that you're a serious threat.
The officer who deals with you will be conditioned by the last hundred non-
threatening people he has very thoroughly investigated, and has started to
say, "okay, yeah, boring. This person looks as trustworthy as the last
hundred. I guess I'll let them pass."

I don't know how al-Qaeda feels about our new TSA policies, but it's probably
laughable when compared to their fear of our military drones. The TSA probably
doesn't make any terrorist afraid.

------
jrmg
I'm surprised no-one has yet brought up the issue of equality.

The US government has now decided that rich citizens get easier treatment than
poor citizens - isn't this a moral issue? Shouldn't all citizens be treated
equally?

~~~
cryptoz
They decided that a long time ago with healthcare. If you're rich, you get
better hospital service. If you're rich, airports are nicer.

~~~
TheFuture
If you're rich, you get a better car too. Not really the same thing.

You don't have a constitutional right to fly on an airplane.

You ARE supposed to be protected from unreasonable searches though. If $100
means that you no longer need to be frisked/scanned, when then that kinda
proves that those are unreasonable searches, they certainly are unnecessary.

------
idiot900
So all a terrorist organization needs to do is have some of its members who
have yet to commit any crimes sign up for this program. There is no way the
screening is 100% perfect - there will be some false negatives, and they can
be exploited.

This type of program is par for the course for the TSA: introducing yet
another layer of theatrics for no meaningful security benefit. The US civil
air system is still no safer than it was in 2001, and that's a crying shame.

~~~
Jach
Why go through all the trouble and risk a connection to the organization
showing up on a background check when they could just go after the hundreds of
far less secure systems around the world, causing far more damage (economic or
people) and terror? Oh wait they're incompetent.

I was only a kid in the 90s but I still remember the stark differences of
flying back then compared to now. These days the only joy I get from flying is
asking specifically for a can of soda and receiving a can instead of a cup
that only holds about a third of a can.

~~~
presidentender
I always get tonic water. Nobody else gets tonic water, so once the steward
offered me the entire can. Now I get tonic water and ask for the entire can.
They always give it to me.

Here I thought it was because I was so clever for drinking tonic water, and
they're giving out entire cans of Coke.

~~~
steve_b
On my flight last week, I asked for two cans of Coke, and I got them. It was
part of my rejection therapy, and I failed.

------
dmoy
While I agree that a lot of stuff the TSA does is incredibly stupid (and this
new deal isn't exactly a paragon of security), I'm seeing a lot of random
meta-FUD here. If you actually read the entire article, you will notice a few
things:

1) Domestic precheck clearance is free, not $100. 2) International precheck is
$100. 3) It is a slight return to 'normalcy' (for some definition of normal),
albeit for only a few people for now.

It is at least SOMEWHAT a step in a sort-of right direction (not #2, paying
$100 for this is bullshit), instead of the typical step in the complete wrong
direction we've been seeing from TSA.

I can hope, at least, that it will allow some of the people at TSA to see a
graceful exit from their strategy of pointless security theater, and a return
to cheaper, similarly effective screening.

There is a major creep factor with the application you have to fill out
though. It's essentially all the information you have to give for a basic
background check - 5 years of address and employment information, the works.
Also their website is unbelievably poorly formatted, slow, and seems to
randomly crash. Bleh.

------
mmvvaa
I can imagine how the meeting after this posting went:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3673462>

Boss: "Gentlemen: The $1B investment in TSA nude body scanners we made is
worthless. Suggestions?"

Tom: "We could monetize the old way, call it a fancy name, and pretend we
actually do something extra, so that people still feel safe."

Boss: "Good idea, Tom. Get to it."

------
polemic
Oh ho - so the TSA strategy comes to light, monetisation plans are
implemented.

~~~
bradleyland
If only it were as innocuous as monetization. This is far more nefarious.
Submit to their background checks and no more hassle. Just give up your
privacy in exchange for more security theater.

~~~
kaonashi
Naw, it's just so the 'right people' don't have to put up with the hassle that
the rest of the rabble do.

------
speleding
Amsterdam airport has had a system in place for years where you can bypass
immigration by looking into a retina scanner and have an express lane through
security. It takes a one-time thorough check and an annual fee of about
€70-€120 depending on additional services (parking place close by, family
plan, etc).

I am by no means a frequent traveller but only for a few flights a year that
€70 is totally worth it.

~~~
avar
Security at AMS has never taken me more than 15 minutes, including the time
spent standing in line. When I arrive I just walk on out of the airport
without any checks at all, that's for flights from Europe though.

~~~
dalke
Agreed! AMS is my favorite airport to fly into. When I arrive from outside of
Europe the line for border control is rarely more than 5 minutes. Unlike, say,
Heathrow.

------
SoftwareMaven
This is brilliant news. As more people get molested by TSA and watch others
getting to breeze through just because they paid some money (that will be how
most people look at it), there will be more uproar about how ridiculous these
policies are.

~~~
marshray
Watch for partitions going up so the privileged classes can breeze through
discreetly.

------
verelo
Based on this logic i dont see why i cant send an invoice to the TSA for my
time. They are probably so incompetent they'd actually pay it...

------
kristopolous
And so the apartheid security state begins. Here's the endgame:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_checkpoint>

~~~
sukuriant
but .. Israel is actually good at what they do O.o.

In fact, in previous HN discussions, we've cried out for a more Israeli style
airport security..

~~~
marshray
I wonder how many people wanting Israeli-style airport security really have
any idea just what they're asking for.

~~~
tricolon
They personally interview every single passenger, right?

~~~
darklajid
I gave my impression of that system here:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3285789>

------
callmeed
Ouch, sucks for Clear. They raised $100M+ and still are only available in 2
airports.

<http://www.crunchbase.com/company/clearme>

------
mmvvaa
I can imagine how the meeting after the scanners were proved worthless* went:

Boss: "Guys, the $1B investment in body scanners is worthless. Suggestions?"

Tom: "We could monetize the old way, call it another name, and pretend that we
would actually do some extra security check to keep people from panicking."

Boss: "Good job, Tom. Get it done."

* <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3673462>

------
redmondbarry
So not only <xyz protection racket comparisons>, you can't actually even bank
on it if you get it. '[..] says he's gotten Precheck screening on about 80% of
his trips so far [..]'

While I'd much rather sit in some miserable lobby than stand in line for two
hours, this means you save exactly zero time unless you're happy to miss X% of
your flights..

------
Rhapso
"At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments
were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces. Squealer, temporarily
stunned, was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern, a
paint-brush, and an overturned pot of white paint."

------
ilamont
"Background checks" are a major drag on the U.S. economy. I'm not only talking
the TSA mess at airports. Legal immigrants typically are held up years as
various agencies probe and prod and check to make sure they are not an Al-
Qaeda sleeper cell or some other baddie.

~~~
cheatercheater
Can you give an example of being "held up years"? I can't imagine such a
thing, but I'm not US-American.

------
staunch
I don't see a conspiracy theory or extortion here. To me it just looks like
run of the mill bureaucracy and the bureaucratic non-solution to every
problem: more bureaucracy.

------
firass
"We can reduce the size of the haystack when we are looking for that one-in-a-
billion terrorist," said TSA Administrator John Pistole.

------
stevewillows
Does anyone know if the check differs from Nexus?

------
illdave
This appears to be remarkably corrupt.

------
kenkam
This is capitalism gone wrong.

------
jjcm
So how can I sign up?

~~~
sharth
From the article, you are able to sign up if you are a member of CBP's Global
Entry, or if you are invited by Delta or American Airlines. To be invited, you
would likely need to fly out of one of their hubs frequently, and have a large
number of miles with them each year.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I'm already a Global Entry member and wasn't able to simply apply for this,
but as you said, there is additional criteria to meet.

------
cheatercheater
A positive view can be had by a skeptic like me, too. I think this is just the
TSA & Co. realizing the full on security cabaret will not work out in the long
term, and they are giving in. The first step is to allow the most pissed off
people with the biggest portfolios skip it. Soon they'll be forced by the 98%
to do the same for them.

------
shingen
Extortion, you're doing it right.

