TSA follies, part 903

TSA follies, part 972: from the same folks who brought the global war on terrorism (GWOT) to the soles of your feet come more sparks of wisdom. Take for instance our experience the other morning when Virgin America had its very first flight out of Washington Dulles, a morning departure for San Francisco. Eager to explore the Virgin experience, we arrived early at Dulles, and in fact become the very first passenger to check in for the flight. And so we were the very first flyer to go through the Transportation Security Administration’s passenger screening and security lines. The response of TSA's front-liners was interesting, at least as we understood it, since the TSA employees who spoke to us spoke limited English. On being presented with a Virgin America boarding pass, the TSA’s first response was: “what is this being? Is this an airline?” To which we responded “yes, it’s an airline. They like airports.” Response: “You are waiting here. I call supervisor”. The supervisor soon arrived: “I do not know this. No one tells me nothing. I do not know this airlines.” We explained “it’s a boarding pass” and pointed to the printed words on the document that in fact say, BOARDING PASS. To which the supervisor responded, “You know, just because it say boarding pass, that does not mean it is boarding pass." We could not argue.