Transportation Security Admin.
 

I'm looking for advice on how to deal with this situation in the future- I was denied entry into the terminal area by a TSA agent because my company does not leave from the terminal of the airline that I was trying to jump-seat on; she insisted that I go to the check-in counter and get a boarding pass for the flight. Being the busy travel time that it is, by the time I was able to get assistance from the customer service agent, I missed my flight. That's after being at the security check-point an hour before departure.

Does TSA have the right to do this?

I didn't realize that they could as I was in uniform and displaying a valid ID from a US air carrier.

Boo on TSA!

That is ridiculous.

What airport?

KFLL this time.

Some time ago they did it to me out of KMIA, but I was still able to catch my flight. It's happened rarely as most agents have the common-sense not to be such azzes.

I have had TSA tell me this exact same thing many times at Boston while trying to catch a jumpseat flight on US Airways.

I have even had a few TSA people tell me to go back to the ticket counter first to get a ticket... and i have always replyed with something along the lines of "I check in at the gate and pick up my ticket there". And they have always let me though...

A few times I had wondered if they had ever tried to make anyone turn around and you just answered my question...

No, they do not! By virtue of having an airline ID you are entitled to pass through security into the airport without need of any sort of boarding pass. However, if the PARTICULAR airport has a policy that requires folks to have some sort of pass then you're stuck. Generally, you will only find that in small airports that have a "holding pen" once through security where you would get your seat at the front counters anyway. It's in the TSA regs as such, or at least it was one year ago when I had this discussion with a TSA guy at an airport I worked out of. He pulled out their little TSA reg library and we looked it up (no, this was not while I was trying to travel somewhere, we were just sitting around waiting out wx and started talking about it).

I know it doesn't make sense that they should be able to do it, I called the carrier beforehand and they told me that they do not even list over the phone and that I should list and check-in at the gate. I explained this to the TSA agent to no avail.

I try my best to not create waves at the airport as I'm in uniform and don't want to reflect poorly on my company; however, in future I will have to be less passive.

There's a line between making someone/someplace look bad and being overly inconvenienced. When it comes down to them being wrong and causing me to miss a flight I need to catch, that's crossing the line. If the situation needs to be elevated then so be it, there's always a manager/supervisor. Many times the particular person just may not really know the correct policy. It happens.

Agreed.

If you had asked to speak to the supervisor you probably would have been allowed to go to the gate. If there was some weird reason you were not allowed to the gate... the supervisor would let you know and you could avoid it in the future.

I'm not sure if it's a TSA or airport rule, but several airports have done this to me, including SAN. If your airlines does not fly out of the terminal in question, this may happen to you.

The best thing to do when jumping offline is call and list yourself, and then print a security document at a kiosk or pick one up at the ticket counter.

One time I was jumping on a company that used carbon-copy JS passes...I had a few blanks in my flight bag so when TSA stopped me, I whipped one out, filled in the date, flight, and my name right in front of them and THEN they let me through :rolleyes: