12 MORE DAYS

[jim]

What is a 10 year anny party? oh anniversary. el conteo regresivo sigue pa'lante.. nueve. 9.

[Freed Roger]

i predict trouble with Canadiens.

[jim]

You know me and Canadians. We just don't get along. End of story.

[heyzeus]

We need one of our GRB lawyers to be licensed in Mexico.

If anything goes wrong, and [expletive] goes down, just remember these words: Dont' call my ass.

[Michael]

We need one of our GRB lawyers to be licensed in Mexico.

If anything goes wrong, and [expletive] goes down, just remember these words: Dont' call my ass.

You live in Texas, right?

Close enough.

[jim]

I have now hit that OH [expletive] I HAVE TO FLY stage. God damn it I can't tell you how much I hate to pack and park and wait and dump stuff into containers and take shoes off and wait more and then get wedged into some too small seat for 3-4 hours. I hate it so bad that if it was just a little worse, I'd never go on vacation because it would outweigh the fun stuff.

6AM flight, leave the at 3:15 AM, hope there is no traffic which in Chicago you can't be completely sure of even at that hour, hope I get parking within 5 miles of the god damned terminal so that I can take a 30 minute train ride to arrive probably to a line out the door with 1 TSA agent.

Any guesses as how the airport lines will be? Spring breakish time which is bad, Tuesday which is probably good, 6AM I don't know that seems like maybe a little earlier than the rush out but maybe not.

ORD sucks donkey balls.

[Freed Roger]

almost assuredly the US - Mexico and Canadian relations are in peril by now.

[UK]

I have now hit that OH [expletive] I HAVE TO FLY stage. God damn it I can't tell you how much I hate to pack and park and wait and dump stuff into containers and take shoes off and wait more and then get wedged into some too small seat for 3-4 hours. I hate it so bad that if it was just a little worse, I'd never go on vacation because it would outweigh the fun stuff.

6AM flight, leave the at 3:15 AM, hope there is no traffic which in Chicago you can't be completely sure of even at that hour, hope I get parking within 5 miles of the god damned terminal so that I can take a 30 minute train ride to arrive probably to a line out the door with 1 TSA agent.

Any guesses as how the airport lines will be? Spring breakish time which is bad, Tuesday which is probably good, 6AM I don't know that seems like maybe a little earlier than the rush out but maybe not.

ORD sucks donkey balls.

It's worth the extra drive to leave from Milwaukee. Airport lines should be fine.

[Secret Weapon]

Apparenlty lines are getting much worse, the # of travelers is going up and the number of TSA workers is going down. Not a good combo...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/fl ... /81532494/

The Transportation Security Administration finds itself under increasing criticism for its airport staffing levels as the busy spring travel season begins to shift into high gear.

Already, Atlanta’s airport – the busiest in the world – publicly called out the agency last month for persistently long lines that it blamed primarily on staffing levels.

Now, some of the nation’s other top airports are joining the fray.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport became one of the latest. The airport warned fliers on Wednesday via Twitter they should “expect longer wait times” because TSA “staffing (is) not keeping pace (with) passenger volumes.” Seattle added a hashtag saying “#PackYourPatience.”

@AskTSA staffing not keeping pace w/ passenger volumes. Expect longer wait times & #PackYourPatience. pic.twitter.com/zoKInTWV4M

— Sea-Tac Airport (@SeaTacAirport) March 9, 2016

And it was just last week that officials at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) publicly aired their frustrations about growing security queues there.

Jeffrey Hamiel, CEO of the agency that operates MSP, fired off a letter to TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger decrying the TSA’s staffing. In his letter, Hamiel said passenger volume at MSP has jumped more than 10% since 2011 while the number of TSA screeners nationwide had dropped about 15% over that period.

"Those diverging trend lines — increasing passenger levels and declining numbers of federal screeners — are a recipe for unacceptable customer service. We have reached that point at MSP," Hamiel wrote in the March 3 letter to Neffenger, according to The Associated Press.

Hamiel says security checkpoint wait times of up to 40 minutes have become common at MSP.


Chicago O’Hare also has seen a spike in checkpoint wait times, with some airlines going so far as to post advisories on their websites warning Chicago fliers to arrive to the airport earlier than normal.

"We are doing the best we can with the resources that we have," TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers told AP in response to the complaints from MSP.

However, AP notes the TSA may have its hands tied when it comes to addressing staffing levels. The news agency writes “Congress has capped the number of uniformed screeners for budgetary reasons: About 42,800 screeners nationwide now, compared with a peak of about 50,000 a few years ago, (Dankers) said.”

Against that backdrop, the TSA has began conducting more thorough inspections “of people and carry-on luggage since last summer's revelation of startling security gaps at U.S. airports,” AP writes.

[thrill]

Apparenlty lines are getting much worse, the # of travelers is going up and the number of TSA workers is going down. Not a good combo...

Barely made my flight last month because of this. Got to security an hour before 10:10 take-off time. Boarded plane at 10:11.