How often do you fly?

[Onlooker]

Poll question: How often do you fly?

I'm asking this because I wonder if most of the people who are making the patdowns into a big issue are people who never fly or almost never fly. Other than then them are the liberals who have civil liberties concerns and the conservatives who are so sexually repressed that a hand on their pants near the groin they regard as a sexual experience. I don't want someone to pat me down or look at an electronic image of my naked body, but if experts think it makes things safer than why not? What's the big deal?

[xultar]

1. I fly every week. I have to. So I'll do what I have to do to not get felt up.

[HipChick]

8. I fly weekly too...I've requested a male agent to do the the feeling up

The TSA have yet to oblige me..

[Lucinda]

30. :)

[xultar]

32. I'm gonna start asking!

[CrispyQ]

2. I never fly, and I strongly object to the patdowns AND intrusive scanning technology. --nt

[sally cat]

3. Other way around. It's the people who don't fly who might think it's no biggie, having not

experienced how it's gotten worse and worse, to this point of insanity we are now at.

[SoCalDem]

4. The last time we flew was in Oct 2003 LAX to Tahiti & back

If it had not been a free trip, we would not have flown anywhere:)

All our elderly out-of-state family has passed on, so there should be no need for us to fly anymore..thank goodness:)

[Arctic Dave]

5. I fly twice a month, every month, just for work.

Not including personal trips. The TSA can go fuck themselves. They are more worthless then tits on a boar.

[baldguy]

6. If they actually reduced the probability of a terrorist attack, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

The trouble is they don't.

[FreeState]

7. I fly about 6 times a year and have zero problems with pat downs or body scans

I really am scratching my head at all of this. No offense to anyone with concern but I don't see what the big deal is.

(I realise there are issues to be worked out, but if your an adult and have no reason (prior abuse etc) to not have a pat down I don't see what the problem is)

[Ghost Dog]

10. You have no problem with unnecessary extra X-Ray dosage

from body-scanners?

[sally cat]

17. Hey, extra x-ray dosage ain't cheap. This is a bargain.

[FreeState]

18. Not unless you can provide scientific evidence specific to the scanners that I should be worried n/t

[FreeJoe]

20. More fatalities

The big deal to me is that fliers will be dealing with this hassle and humiliation and it will probably result in more rather than fewer fatalities.

Years ago, the airlines recommended that children under two should have to purchase their owns seats for safety reasons. The FAA did a study and found that the added cost of buying infants seats would cause a significant number of families would drive instead of fly. Because driving results in far more fatalities per mile of travel then flying, the net result would actually be more fatalities with the rule than without it.

I think the same thing is going to occur now. I think that it is unlikely that this will result in any terrorists being stopped. I'm sure that it will result in a lot of people opting to drive instead of fly. I think that when you risk weight all the scenarios, more people will be dying with these rules than without them.

Sadly, the motivating factors don't line up. The TSA isn't worried about the auto fatalities that will occur. They are worried about the chance that a plane will be blown up. I think that even if the TSA leadership knew that 1,000 additional people would die in car accidents over the next decade but one plane crash killing 400 people would be prevented by the rules, they'd adopt the rules. No one will blame them for the 1,000 auto fatalities, but they'll get torched over the plane crash.

[awoke_in_2003]

26. Thinking like that...

brought us the patriot act.

[readmoreoften]

31. Yeah, well a lot of adults have prior abuse. And a lot of kids don't need it.

A lot of people are sick and traveling for treatments.
A lot of women don't want hands down their pants when they're menstruating.
A lot of pre-teen girls are going to be mortified if they're stared at while patted down.
A lot of cancer survivors don't want to risk the radiation.
All transgendered and transsexual persons are put at risk of assault, humiliation, and job loss (if they're stealth.)
A lot of sexual trauma survivors and those with PTSD are going to be retraumatized.


And for what? To fight "underwear bombers"?

[notesdev]

9. I never fly

and the security nonsense - not only the invasiveness but the huge waste of time involved - is why.

Thus, I drive where in the distant past I would have taken a plane. And if it's too far to drive, I don't go.

These 'security' policies have basically taken from me the option of air travel (if I want to retain my rights, I guess)

[bigwillq]

11. Don't fly.

I don't want to go through the hassle of airport security so I choose not to fly.
I think the patdowns and some of the security features shouldn't be allowed.

[Bill McBlueState]

12. Only two of your options are answers to the question in your subject line.

Those are the two that start "I never fly..."

The other four offer an opinion about flying, but say nothing about how often one flies. Someone who says "I fly only if I must" may fly twelve times a year or two.

[leftstreet]

13. Agree

I'd like to see actual numbers

The way this issue has dominated DU you'd think everyone was commuting daily by air

[Bill McBlueState]

15. I fly 3-5 times a year, typically

I think the feel-ups and the nude-o-scans are merely the latest in a series of worthless but invasive tactics designed to make sheeple *feel like* something is being done about security.

I felt this way about the dumbass shoe-removal requirement, the utterly senseless limit of 3.4 ounces for liquids, and this recent thing about printer ink, too. It bugs me that people are only now protesting Security Theatre in numbers of any significance.

whoops, this was supposed to be a response to the OP

[Individualist]

14. "Those who would give up essential liberty

to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

[AsahinaKimi]

16. I will not fly now..

not till this crap is over. If I need to travel I will find alternative ways to do it.

[Lucian]

19. I fly 5 - 10 times a year, on average.

And I hate that the next time I go I'll have to be radiated or felt up.

[Blue_In_AK]

21. I fly three or four times a year,

because here we have no choice if we want to go anywhere -- even our own capital (which takes four or five days by road and ferry). So far Ted Stevens International only uses the metal scanner and back-of-the-hand patdown if there's an issue, which I don't mind, but I'm not going to be too happy if I have to go through an airport with the more enhanced procedures. I'll take the scanner over the touch, but I still think it's wrong.

[Blue_In_AK]

22. Dupe - twitchy finger

[Skittles]

23. every month

never have any problems

[seabeyond]

24. i use to fly often and resented prison environment so stopped flying....

i stopped flying when i heard they were coming out with 9 naked scanners, hitting a couple airports i used.

dont really fit any of your options.

[mwooldri]

25. I do not fly often.

If the means for me to get to see family is to go through this process then I have to go through with it.

Experts can be wrong.

As I understand it these procedures were put in place to potentially catch an individual with explosives on their person. If this is the case, then why aren't we training a load of bomb sniffing dogs - or deploying this technology (I just found out about this after a google for "bomb sniffing dogs" - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101110113201.htm ) - then there is no need for shoe removal, nudie image scanners or grope-a-search.

Now if the device I found out about by googling for the canine version is up to snuff (pun 100% intended) then TSA agents can have a hand-held device to search people closely, and there can be a wider-range scanner that can tell TSA agents if there are explosives in the screening area - or even biochemical agents.

I feel this would be more effective and less intrusive than full body scans and intrusive body searches (i.e. beyond the regular "pat down" routine) - so why not this cheaper, easier, less harmful (physically and pyschologically) technology than what has been deployed?

[noamnety]

27. I stopped flying because the so-called security became insane.

I used to fly at least once a month.

I've flown one round trip in the last 5 years I think, and that only because it was my parents' 50th anniversary, scheduled at a time when I couldn't take an extended vacation to drive.

I stopped because of TSA exposing my chest in the middle of the airport with no warning while my arms were outspread.

[Contrary1]

28. I don't usually fly at all...

A fear I have. (not due to any terrorist BS), but once I am in the air; I figure it's not up to me anymore.

Anyway, the hubby wants to fly to Las Vegas. And; due to breast cancer, I have a couple faux boobs. I'm thinking this may be the time to conquer my fear of flying.

Should I just pull out my homemade birdseed breast prostheses and toss them on the conveyor belt; or should I opt for the feel up? Either way, I am no longer embarrassed or humiliated about my situation.

However; I am all for making as big a spectacle as possible.

Which way to go? What say you?

[Matariki]

29. I love travelling and I LOVE flying. The actual being in the air part of it.

Maybe that's why I'm especially upset about this. I see this as a very definite large hit in an ongoing process of chipping away at our privacy rights.

I cancelled my Thanksgiving flight, which I'm very sad to do. But if someone groped my genitals I would probably kick them and land myself in jail. Not good.

We're planning on taking a train across the country next spring instead. Get a sleeper car and all - and I'm actually very excited about that.

[TBF]

33. Used to fly for business frequently in the 90's -

now that I'm not working only a few times a year generally for vacation or visiting relatives. It has not been the same since 2001 of course, and our only hope when we go is that they have a "family" line. It's very hard with 2 small children to organize everything and keep them from running off at the same time. One time I got patted down for bringing infant formula along in bottles (sealed bottles which are permitted by the rules), but they used a wand and it was not intrusive. That was 2 years ago. Now we are planning to rent minivans for as many trips as we can rather than fly (it's hard though - we live pretty far from all our relatives).