Pack your common sense too

June 08, 2003|By Alfred Borcover. Special to the Tribune.

This is a heads-up for fliers this summer: Know what to expect from Transportation Security Administration screeners at the airport and know your rights. There are tens of thousands of travelers flying somewhere for their summer vacations who are not accustomed to today's airport security procedures and pitfalls.

As nearly everyone knows by now, the TSA keeps tabs on you and your luggage--both checked and carry-on--at 429 commercial airports throughout the U.S. Since Jan. 1, they are required by law to screen 100 percent of checked baggage as well as what you carry on the plane.

Passengers need to be mindful every step of the way. Things can go awry, even disappear. While screeners are federal employes, it doesn't mean that 100 percent of them are perfect--or even honest.

When Robert and Victoria Fesmire of Barrington checked in for a 6 p.m. Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta Hartsfeld International Airport to Ft. Myers on April 13, they had three large suitcases to check, not to mention their dog in a pet carrier. Fesmire, in a telephone interview, explained that while his wife was tending to their dog at a nearby counter, he was watching as a screener began to open and check the contents of one suitcase, which contained some irreplaceable Thai silk articles. At that point, Fesmire said he noticed that his briefcase, unattended, was still in the aisle. He said in the minute or so it took him to retrieve his briefcase and return to the bag being inspected, the screener was closing the case and putting a security seal on it.

Fesmire said that when he and his wife opened the suitcase in their Florida apartment, they found that the Thai silk dresses and costumes acquired in Thailand about 10 years ago were missing. He said they made calls to the Atlanta airport and finally to the TSA.

Victoria Fesmire, via a phone message, said, "TSA never answers their phone when you call to make a complaint. Instead you are told to leave your name and number and they'll call you back. Of course, they never have called back, they never send you anything, so there's no way to file a report."

Sad to say, but even with federal screeners on the job, stuff does does happen. Otherwise, the TSA wouldn't have a claim form (SF95) available on its Web site. Assistance is available by phoning the TSA Contact Center at 866-289-9673, but you get a recorded message that tells you what to do.

Complaints--about 4,600 between January and April--are backlogged so it takes about six months to process a claim, TSA spokeswoman Heather Rosenker said. The lag is due to a shortage of personnel, she said. "We're working out the kinks." Nevertheless, TSA has said it will lay off 6,000 screeners by September.

Best advice on checked bags: Do not--repeat do not--pack easily pilfered valuables or things you may need en route in your checked bags. That means your camera, film, treasured jewelry, travelers checks or cash, your passport, medications--well, you get the picture. This means you've got to do a little planning at home when you pack. You won't regret the time spent. As for valuable clothes, that's a problem. Pack those things in a way that they are not easily removed from a suitcase.

What's counterintuitive to passengers, however, is the TSA's advice not to lock your luggage. If screeners need to inspect bags, either in your presence or in the baggage areas out of sight, they prefer not to mess with locks, which they have to break.

As you prepare to travel, take a deep breath when you arrive at the airport. Allow yourself plenty of time. Ask your carrier just how early you should arrive before your flight. Before you start most of the security process, you check in at the ticket counter. Remember that you must have an identification card with your photo on it if you are 18 or older.

In the last six months, it's been my experience at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and airports in St. Louis, Albuquerque, Orange County (Calif.), San Diego and Charleston, S.C., none of them as bustling as O'Hare, that the federal security procedures work pretty smoothly. Lines have never been onerous. The TSA screeners have been polite, thorough, even obliging when I requested a shoehorn at O'Hare to put my shoes back on after an inspection.

Travelers can save themselves a lot of fumbling around if they remove metal objects from their bodies and pockets (coins, keys, pagers, cell phones, rings, earrings, metal barrettes, watches, jewelry, pens), put them in a plastic bag and stash them in their carry-on before sending them through the X-ray machine. Then, walk through the metal detector.