AA employees call for smarter, standardized security

[dbaker]

American Airlines Employees Visit Capitol Hill to Call for Smarter, Standardized Screening Procedures

FORT WORTH, Texas, June 26 /PRNewswire/ -- American Airlines employees called on Capitol Hill today to urge lawmakers to support universal ID cards and smarter, standardized screening procedures in the nation's airports for flight crews, agents and other airline ground employees.

• Create a universal identification card for aviation employees using "smart card" technologies and/or biometrics.
• Establish a centralized database to verify the identity of flight crewmembers and the employees who work in our airports every day.
• Establish screening portals for aviation employees separate from those used to screen passengers.

This reminds me of Monday when a Delta flight attendant breezed past a ~30min security line to just skip in front. She was behind me for a second and snuck by when I wasn't looking, so I had to agressively play the "I don't even see you" game to make her wait behind me.

If she had just told me that she was late for a flight or something, I would have just let her pass. Trying to just breeze by people and pretend that you're exempt from the lines is ridiculous. It may fly with some people who don't really care or know for sure if the FAs can skip the queue, but I wasn't going to let it fly.

It's very similar to when there was bad weather in SFO and all the passengers were at the gate for an on-time departure, but we had to wait ~30min for the Delta flight attendants to show up. Amazing that all the pax know that rain causes traffic delays, but the FAs didn't.