I should have posted this prior to Thanksgiving, but ... didn’t. The TSA thugs have really ramped up the unpleasantness.
This is a head’s up to all divorced dads who take their kids to the airport to go to the ex’s, and want to wait with them until the plane leaves: You WILL get strip searched. You WILL get hassled by the screenernazis even though you are not getting on the plane. You WILL be questioned as to why you do not have a “legitimate” ticket. You WILL be humiliated and degraded in front of your children, causing them additional anxiety during an already stressful situation. You PROBABLY WILL run into at least one screenernazi who wants to bar you from the gate area entirely because you do not have a “real” ticket. You MAY be searched again as you are leaving the area, even though you did not get on the plane and have been in a “secured” area.
And the airlines wonder why more people aren’t flying …