[HN Gopher] TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are h...
___________________________________________________________________
TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-
sitters
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 99 points
Date : 2026-03-29 13:32 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| miyuru wrote:
| https://archive.ph/cwDaq (No account needed)
| arcza wrote:
| Doesn't this guy's server just DDoS some dude's blog with your
| own browser? Didn't click.
| javawizard wrote:
| Yes, and: If I recall correctly, cloudflare is sinking all
| the extra traffic for him, so it doesn't actually impact him.
|
| Last I heard it's a morally objectionable thing at this point
| rather than something that's having any practical impact.
|
| (Which of course doesn't make it ok... I'm just a little less
| inclined to judge people that still use archive links when
| needed.)
| gradientsrneat wrote:
| Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46843805
|
| The archive.today domains have also poisoned DNS lookups from
| some privacy-preserving DNS providers, and in rare cases have
| been caught tampering the archive data. Make of that what you
| will.
| Imustaskforhelp wrote:
| I have been kind of experimenting with using single archive
| pages for archive.is /.ph/.today links and then experimenting
| with either putting these on my github pages (and then
| archiving) just for more preservation purposes.
|
| Today I wanted to try something different so I used singlefile
| to make a html and then make pdf file from that html and
| uploaded it to archive.org
|
| https://archive.org/details/tsa-lines-are-so-out-of-control-...
|
| I don't wish to have news articles in my github as it clutters
| or I am not sure how these laws might follow (there is
| definitely a reason as to why archive.is creator is anonymous)
| and so I am looking for more anonymous ways to upload (my main
| intentions are that archive.ph can be nice but I feel like its
| not validated within wikipedia/all the controversies it has and
| I am just experimenting with things right now)
|
| I have also uploaded this on catbox.moe
| (https://files.catbox.moe/mt9sus.html) but it has plain/text
| content-type, does anyone know a more anonymous content-type
| plain/text -> html where I can upload things perhaps, I have
| thoughts about creating something like this (where people can
| give links to text .html files and I can then display the html)
| but I am also a bit worried that it might be used for nefarious
| purposes.
|
| I am not sure what I should do actually about it, I like
| thinking about archiving though, but anything other than
| archive.org like archive.is, can only function best if they are
| anonymous and I am not really anonymous/intend to be.
|
| This makes me sympathetic of them against the journalist who
| tried to dox them but also I kind of understand that journalist
| tried approaching first from a more curiosity, maybe a threat-
| actor model, I had done something like this once to a service
| because I wanted to know if govt.'s would be able to catch them
| or not (they had a reddit proxy) and I found that they had
| their opsec secure and I was really impressed but I sometimes
| wonder, if the journalist also did something like this and the
| archive.is owner felt like it was a threat to archive and
| decided to ddos and all the things that followed, I sort of
| understand both the perspectives, so it just makes me sad as
| how this ended up folding up.
|
| (This comment might've been more relevant within the archive.is
| drama hackernews thread but I think that its long gone and I
| was still forming my opinion on all of this which clearly has
| some nuance)
| porridgeraisin wrote:
| In Indian temples line-sitters are very common. Many queues are
| 5+ hours long.
| hellojesus wrote:
| Fascinating. Is there something specific about those temples
| that draws the crowds, like something akin to a famous
| cathedral? Must worship take place in a temple? I don't know
| how the religion works but did get to visit a local temple once
| with some coworkers and enjoyed the atmosphere.
| functional_dev wrote:
| maybe they are considered direct link between heaven and
| earth :)
| porridgeraisin wrote:
| Yeah each temple has its speciality.
|
| Every family has a "kuladeivam" which is basically a temple
| for that (patrilineal) lineage. Every family has one. Every
| temple has few families.
|
| Then it's special for people in the same town as the temple.
| Modern migration makes this a different set from the one
| above.
|
| Then each temple has special events on specific
| days/week/month/year.
|
| And then on top of that some few hundred temples are special
| in general and are crowded 365 days of the year with people
| from all over.
|
| Adds up.
|
| > Must worship take place in a temple?
|
| Just my understanding. You can worship anywhere even in your
| head, but temples are one thing which improve "quality" of
| worship by a lot. The logic roughly goes - since most people
| aren't capable of high (enuf) quality worship in their head
| or at home, temples help them. More of a magnitude thing
| rather than a binary thing.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Status symbols among certain tribes. I went to <x> place.
| Most (all?) religions don't prevent the poor from salvation,
| but humans like to make up hurdles to see who can overcome
| them.
|
| The status isn't even necessarily money related, but can just
| be to see who is more "devoted".
| deadbabe wrote:
| I keep hearing about these long lines but I literally went to a
| major airport the other day for a flight and got through security
| in minutes.
| fourside wrote:
| I've heard this is very airport dependent
| dawnerd wrote:
| It's really just a handful that have long lines part of the
| day. LAX for example hasn't has a line at all really. Takes
| longer for my bag to be secondary checked every time than it
| does to wait in line.
| amelius wrote:
| That's why anecdotal evidence doesn't mean much.
| groundzeros2015 wrote:
| They are both anecdotal
| kotaKat wrote:
| Essential Air Service travelers aren't seeing any major pain
| either traveling outbound. _Fortunately_ (though kind of sadly)
| the TSA folks only work a couple hours a day at the checkpoint
| for the single flight in and out so most of them are working
| side jobs anyways as their day job from what I hear. Our
| checkpoint doesn 't even open until ~45 minutes before boarding
| starts in the middle of the day.
| arjie wrote:
| It seems that SFO's policy of having an intermediate company that
| buffers salaries is working well because I flew through there to
| Taipei after this whole situation and there was no wait.
| nubg wrote:
| buffers salaries?
| Someone1234 wrote:
| A strange way of saying, not TSA at all, and handled by a
| private for-profit company instead.
| BobaFloutist wrote:
| No, it's accurate, because TSA (or at least the feds)
| ultimately pay for it, but the company has some runway it
| can spend to keep the employees working on the assumption
| it'll be paid later, I.E. a buffer.
| elromulous wrote:
| I _just_ went though the line. It wasn't too bad (5-10min,
| despite having bio ID), but it was by far the worst I've
| encountered at SFO in the decade I've been flying out of there.
| elromulous wrote:
| P.s. And as usual, TSA doesn't understand anything about
| queueing theory and doesn't implement round robin /
| starvation prevention. Global services and clear get absolute
| priority over other queues.
| ozi wrote:
| yeah SFO seems to be completely uneffected
| acdha wrote:
| It's an odd list of airports which contract their own security
| screeners. I'd bet a lot of places are going to consider
| joining that program:
|
| https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/21/us/airports-without-tsa
| oefrha wrote:
| From the last few paragraphs:
|
| > There is an official way for travelers to bypass long TSA waits
| if they're willing to spend: hiring concierge services to escort
| them through security.
|
| > Perq Soleil is an airport arrival and departure assistance
| service that can help travelers through TSA in about a minute
| flat by accessing alternative lines usually reserved for airport
| staff and airline personnel. The company -- which operates in
| more than 300 airports and 150 countries -- charges a base rate
| that varies by location.
|
| Talk about burying the lede. Apparently the airports "highly
| discourage" line-sitters, but if you use services that pre-bribed
| airports you can skip the lines entirely.
| PearlRiver wrote:
| The people arriving on private jets have always bypassed these
| bureaucratic procedures. Brotherhood and equality.
| hammock wrote:
| Why should private plane passengers be subject to TSA? TSA
| (paid for by you and me by the way, not for free) exists to
| protect the public from harm, on public flights by common
| carriers. It used to be contracted by airlines themselves.
| Unless you are the most extreme of pro-seatbelt law people,
| it would make little sense for TSA to screen anyone on a
| private plane manifest unless the client asked them to.
| frankbreetz wrote:
| The TSA was created because a plane crashed into a
| building. Private planes can crash into buildings. Why
| should they be exempt from TSA checks?
| hammock wrote:
| Lots of things can crash into buildings. Should they all
| be screened by TSA? Drones and their operators prior to
| every launch? 30 minute helicopter tours and high-rise
| HVAC drop offs? Private satellites?
|
| Or is licensing and registration (of pilots and aircraft
| and manifest and flight plan) enough?
| jdiff wrote:
| Commercial drones can't bring down buildings. And they're
| still subject to an awful lot of regulations.
| hammock wrote:
| So it's complete building destruction that is the
| protective mission here? Not loss of life or general
| terrorism or something else? I'm glad we are clarifying
|
| I wasn't aware that DJI drone with 60lb payload was
| subject to more regulations than a Citation leaving TEB
| but I guess I'm open to learning what those are.
| Gud wrote:
| Why are you spending so much effort helping the most
| privileged people on the planet? Makes no sense to be
| their white knight
| robocat wrote:
| Why are you wasting time here? Even a letter to the
| editor would be more effective than an HN comment.
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| Governments are reactive. So if any of these other things
| ever successfully destroy a building then you can
| absolutely count on new rules and laws that, at a
| minimum, will include screening.
| AzN1337c0d3r wrote:
| Were you born after 2001? Did you remember those planes
| that flew into the buildings?
|
| Private planes can do the same thing.
| kgermino wrote:
| And the TSA wouldn't do anything to stop that
|
| Hell the TSA doesn't do much to prevent that on
| commercial flights, but requiring private flights to
| start going through commercial security would be
| completely pointless
| joquarky wrote:
| Inconveniencing wealthy people might create motivation to
| fix the problem.
| caminante wrote:
| Doesn't work.
|
| If TSA were added, there still wouldn't be any lines at
| private terminals.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| No, the TSA exists because 19 people hijacked 4 flights and
| succeeded in crashing 3 of them into various important
| buildings in the US on 9/11/2001.
|
| Private planes are just as capable of crashing into
| buildings as commercial jets. The TSA has picked up some
| ancillary public safety functions over the years, but their
| raison d'etre is to prevent hijackings.
| schmookeeg wrote:
| In terms of menace potential, any private plane will lose
| to a van full of fertilizer and a baddie intent on
| causing destruction. It's a matter of scale.
|
| Little planes, like this one [1] just don't do damage on
| the same scale as airliners.
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Austin_suicide_attack
| woodruffw wrote:
| Most private planes taking off from commercial airports
| (the ones where TSA generally operates) are much larger
| than a Piper Dakota.
|
| (But regardless, it's not clear that the TSA is even
| performing that kind of calculus.)
| schmookeeg wrote:
| A G650 still loses to a motivated U-haul. :)
|
| No argument though, just saying it's a hard problem, and
| the scaling issue makes it somewhat awkward to deploy
| security resources in proportion to the threat.
|
| I don't have a solution. I'm not exactly thrilled with
| the current setup, but I try to stay quiet since I can't
| think of anything better.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Government building codes already anticipate the "van
| full of fertilizer" attack, as a result of the Oklahoma
| City bombing in 1995. Federal building security is a
| separate matter though, with its own agency called FPS
| that predates DHS and TSA by decades.
| paradox460 wrote:
| What about a private plane full of anfo
| garciasn wrote:
| No; the TSA exists because we needed a government jobs
| program that was easy to promote under the guise of
| terrorism.
| verall wrote:
| It's not nearly enough jobs to be a jobs program
| caminante wrote:
| By what standard?
|
| Federal civilian workforce (ex Postal Service and
| Military) is only 3 million.
|
| TSA has 60k employees.
|
| That's a lot of permanent jobs.
| thfuran wrote:
| No, the TSA exists because politicians felt they needed
| to be seen doing something after 9/11. If there were
| actually much political will for it to fulfill actual
| security purposes, it surely would've been reformed after
| it's continually abysmal performance on security audits.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| HN can always be counted on to have a good contingent of
| temporarily embarrassed billionaires ready to stick up for
| them at the slightest provocation.
| hammock wrote:
| You don't have to be a billionaire to fly out of an FBO
| and you don't have to fly out of an FBO to be interested
| in freedom of movement. No Kings.
| Simulacra wrote:
| This reminds me of when Steve Job's had his ninja throwing
| stars confiscated by (airport security) getting on his
| private jet.
|
| Edited to clarify NOT TSA
| tempodox wrote:
| The danger of Steve Jobs hijacking his own private plane
| was obviously quite high! We can only thank the dutiful
| TSA officers for their brave service. I'm sure they
| risked their lives averting this danger. Have they been
| awarded any medals yet?
| Simulacra wrote:
| https://techland.time.com/2010/09/14/steve-jobs-vows-to-
| neve...
|
| For reference
| noman-land wrote:
| "Update: Apple called Techland saying that the story is
| "pure fiction." According to the New York Post, Steve
| Jobs himself has told them the same."
| Gud wrote:
| It seems to me that the people flying private jets are the
| biggest threats to humanity.
| miki123211 wrote:
| As somebody who doesn't travel on private jets, I'm very,
| very happy that I'm not anywhere close to those people.
|
| Imagine the pandemonium that would ensue if Taylor Swift were
| to enter an airport terminal through the normal entrance.
| ryandrake wrote:
| It's true equality: The rich and poor alike are allowed to
| fly on private jets or hire a departure assistance service!
| ReptileMan wrote:
| Capitalism works quite well at solving problems.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| Efficiency is when you make a problem and then make people pay
| you to solve it. Or maybe that was some other word, I forget.
| otterley wrote:
| I don't even understand why this is an issue, because TSA
| screening is funded through user fees. There's a line item of
| $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that's separate from
| airfare and other fees. (https://www.tsa.gov/for-
| industry/security-fees)
|
| If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why
| not pass the funds through directly to the agency?
| gruez wrote:
| The same article you linked has a chart that shows that actual
| expenses are around 4x the fees that are collected.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| The question itself feels like it calls for "Schoolhouse Rock"
| level basics about how the federal government works.
|
| The federal government does not work like a private escrow
| account where a fee collected for X automatically goes to Y.
| Tax revenue comes in to the Treasury, and _Congress_ decides
| what agencies are allowed to spend. So even if TSA screening is
| funded in part by a per-ticket user fee, TSA still does not get
| to just collect that money and use it directly. Congress has to
| authorize and appropriate it.
|
| On a practical level, imagine the chaos if every federal
| department acted as its own tax collector and then set its own
| spending priorities. That is basically an argument for gutting
| Congress's oversight of TSA and treating it like an independent
| agency, just because Congress and the executive branch
| _invented_ the modern shutdown in the 1980s.
|
| Keep in mind shutdowns are a fairly _new_ concept, that nearly
| no other country has. The US also didn 't have it for most of
| its history. Congress could stop at any time it wanted.
| otterley wrote:
| You're right that that's the default state. However, Congress
| could have set things up such that the fees would pass
| through to TSA's budget (i.e. earmarked) but chose not to.
| ivewonyoung wrote:
| Many are run by user fees, such as USCIS that keeps operating
| during shutdowns.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| SFO doesn't use TSA for security and works like this with
| whatever contractor it hire. I wish all airports would just
| use private security funded via usage fees, then we would
| never be held hostage because some whacko wanted to use
| masked thugs to beat up and shoot Americans.
| brunoborges wrote:
| Where did you get the information that SFO doesn't use TSA?
| jhfdbkofdchk wrote:
| From like the way it is and has been for many years?
|
| From their website:
|
| Covenant Aviation Security, a private company under
| contract with the Transportation Security Administration
| (TSA), provides passenger and baggage screening at SFO.
|
| Visit Covenant Aviation Security to learn more about
| security screening at SFO.
|
| https://www.flysfo.com/about/airport-operations/safety-
| secur...
|
| More coverage here:
| https://www.npr.org/2026/03/26/nx-s1-5759273/not-all-
| airport...
| natebc wrote:
| https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/screening-partnerships
|
| > The Screening Partnership Program contracts security
| screening services at commercial airports to qualified
| private companies.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| I thought it was common knowledge, but anyone who has
| been through SFO in the last decade should know that they
| aren't using TSA for the checks to get to gates. Always
| seems fast.
| advisedwang wrote:
| Many government services do directly use fees to pay for
| operating the service. Those services can operate with no
| government appropriation, and the funds never leave the
| specific agencies' own accounts.
|
| Examples:
|
| * USCIS (source: https://www.aila.org/library/practice-alert-
| what-happens-if-...)
|
| * 1,823/7,001 Fish and Wildlife service staff (https://www.do
| i.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025-09/do...)
|
| * 38,252/74,210 of the FDA
| (https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy-2026-hhs-contingency-
| sta...)
|
| * USPS (although as a government owned corporation the
| separation of funding is more obvious)
|
| * Customs (the actual folks that process tariffs are paid for
| by the tariffs, unlike border patrol)
| cheschire wrote:
| https://www.gao.gov/products/b-167710-o.m.
|
| "Nonappropriated fund activities" are a thing though?
| mikkupikku wrote:
| AFAIC there's no good reason for airport security to be a
| federal jobs program in the first place. The airports and/or
| their contractors are perfectly capable of operating x-ray
| machines and metal detectors on their own, and from what I
| understand are even still permitted to but all choose to let
| the government do it and pay for it.
|
| What the fuck is the TSA even supposed to be doing? The 9/11
| guys supposedly used box cutters. Does anybody seriously think
| you can't get a little blade like that onto an airplane in your
| carry on luggage? I bring double sided razor blades with every
| time I fly and they have never flagged it. And more
| importantly, does anybody actually believe you could still
| hijack a plane with a pocket knife? All the other passengers
| now know the score, they all die unless they throw themselves
| on you _which they will and have done many times since._ What
| 's more, you won't get into the locked cockpit anyway. Airport
| security is _solved._ Basic bitch scanning for guns is all you
| need and we had that solved in the 90s which is the reason the
| hijackers used pocket knives, which no longer works. Disband
| the TSA.
| m348e912 wrote:
| I'm not the first to suggest this, but I think "fly at your
| own risk" airlines would be popular with some people. Keep
| the cockpit door reinforced, and maintain a gentleman's
| agreement among travellers on what to do if a passenger
| threatens a flight. Airport security is now reduced to 10
| seconds.
| daveoc64 wrote:
| As noted elsewhere, that approach doesn't stop someone
| flying the plane into a building.
| icegreentea2 wrote:
| If you scroll down on the page, it'll show that the user fees
| only offset ~20% of the overall security expenses.
|
| In addition, most fees (including most of the TSA fee)
| collected by the US Federal government isn't earmarked - it
| just goes into the general fund.
|
| More breakdown here: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/23/us/tsa-
| funding-security-fees-...
| otterley wrote:
| Thanks!
| jermaustin1 wrote:
| Because the fee revenue was created by congress, so the money
| goes 1/3 to Treasury to help pay national debt (doesn't really
| make a dent), about $1.6B goes to the government general fund.
| But FY24 collected $4.5B in fees, but the budget was almost
| $9.5B.
|
| So even if all the money went to TSA, less than half their
| budget is covered. There is inherently bloat in that, but that
| is for a different discussion.
|
| But bigger still, if Congress didn't reappropriate that money
| from TSA, they'd either have to spend less (less likely), raise
| taxes (not likely), or go deeper in debt (very likely) in order
| to cover whatever they are currently covering with their 70%
| share of the fee.
| m348e912 wrote:
| I'm going to go out on a limb and say the 5.60 per person per
| flight doesn't cover the cost of TSA airport security
| operations leaving congress responsible for the gap.
|
| If you are wondering how that could happen, it starts with no-
| bid contracts and ends with inefficiency and has been heavily
| influenced by a guy whose name sounds a lot like Schmical
| Schmertoff.
| jt2190 wrote:
| Only FOUR people actually used these services?
|
| Edit: Newspapers have a long history of using headline editors
| who add "spin" otherwise reasonable stories handed in by
| journalists. This story was built by talking to a few
| entrepreneurs who offer line-sitting to see if they'd served any
| customers for airport security waits. Only one had.
| mrtksn wrote:
| I wonder why Trump just doesn't sell this himself, like golden
| tickets that you can buy from ICE where they just push back the
| free-tier line enjoyers to insert the patriotic gold level
| travelers.
|
| In Turkey people with connections to the government get strobe
| lights permit to skip the traffic through the emergency line.
| There's so many opportunities both for monetization and loyalty
| rewarding.
|
| Due to lapses like that sometimes I question my theory that all
| those people(Erdogan, Trump, Putin etc) are in the same group
| chat.
| foolfoolz wrote:
| we already have this with TSA Pre
| mrtksn wrote:
| Where does the money go? With ICE implementation they can
| split the proceeds and the customers can enjoy seeing people
| pushed around on prem.
| squidsoup wrote:
| The TSA Pre lines are often as long as the standard lines.
| tartoran wrote:
| If some of his minions gave him this idea he'd probably do it.
| pjc50 wrote:
| The reverse applies: if you protest against the regime, your
| TSA pre can be revoked.
| https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic...
| alfanick wrote:
| I know it's bad, but yeah, I just hate waiting, it's stupid. So
| whenever I can I just go through "first class" security and
| nothing bad happens, just skipping the queue. Look decent, look
| busy, keep on walking and bam you're past the security in a
| minute compared to tens of minutes or hours. And don't ever
| remove that "short connection" or "priority" tag from your
| luggage, it indeed goes out first. Airports are so freaking
| annoying way to commute, take a bus/train/tram/taxi/car to the
| airport, figure out the maze, wait in queue, get bored after
| security (because you arrived to early not knowing how much
| you're going to wait in security), go to a gate, then a different
| gate, queue again, get inside, and wait again. Why did we do this
| to ourselves!?
| joquarky wrote:
| Some people are challenged by the choice whether to go without
| medication or food this week.
| api wrote:
| The basic competence of elected officials and they people they
| appoint matters.
| GaProgMan wrote:
| I flew out of SeaTac yesterday (March 28th), and the TSA there
| were pretty well staffed. Took me around 6 minutes, and that was
| only because the person in front of me was talking to the agent
| about the tote bag they got from Trader Joe's.
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