I don't travel very often by air, on average about once a month. Anyway, I've never encountered a problem if you are reasonable... Know the rules an follow them.

After running my bag through a couple of times it keep kicking out... until I realized the quart baggie of liquids I was supposed to send through separately was in my bag. I told the TSA guy I think I know what was triggering the re-scan, told him it was a external part of the bag that I forgot to place separately that contains liquids, and went through security with no problem. No problem, no hassle.

It does [censored] me off when I know this myself, but see it confirmed by the GSA that the screening done by TSA is crap only finds about 25% of the illegal materials.

Typically, the people I see getting hassled by TSA are people who are one stupid about traveling by air or are obnoxious.

From your home airport: Item one, allow time to get through security... this includes you being dumb an forgetting to take a really good knife out of your pocket. Give yourself at least one hour to get through security. Actually this applies to all airports, with some requiring more lead times.

Simply put, you never argue with a figure of authority in the field...This can be TSA, The local deputy, the park service, or the state police, You say, yes sir, no sir, when asked a question. Being nice to the officer can often get you off with a warning. If you want to argue, consult a lawyer later and sue them.

-Tommy

Its not about friendliness. Its about clear, coherent rules, professionality, consistency in enforcing those rules, and having a reasonable way to contest a fine/violation. IMO, the absolute power wielded by undertrained, semi-educated, entry level employees in a system of infinite bureaucracy should warrant some concern. As for making it better, here's a thought. Boost the pay to about $100,000 a year, raise the application requirements and dramatically increase the level of training.

I had a fun one coming back from vacation this year. I carry a CPAP machine, and well, they get scanned seperately. Evidently some dried up hard water caused an issue - the part of NM I was in is well known for having some radioisotopes in the water/dust, and the humidifier must have tripped something. All sorts of tests, and then the guy goes to his supervisor, who laughed, waved me through, looked at the Jr guy and said "His first day" - kept my cool and all was good. The only reason I know it was something radioactive was overhearing the guys. I gather it was ULTRA low level

"...Boost the pay to about $100,000 a year...raise the application requirements..."

That might work, but the flying public and tax payers would never stand still for the pay boost. And without the pay increase, TSA, like all law enforcement agencies in this country, are being forced to LOWER standards, just to get warm bodies...