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New tech and a patchwork of policies and procedures mean complications for travelers on TSA lines

Airport security may be seamless and painless one day. But the process of reaching that goal is creating another headache for travelers.

Right now, you never know what you’re going to get. Will the TSA officer ask for your ID or ID and boarding pass, and maybe snap a photo for verification? Do you plop your bags on the conveyor belt or should everything go into a bin? Liquids and laptops OK in the carry-on bag even without TSA PreCheck?

It isn’t uncommon to have one set of rules on one leg of a trip and another on the return flight, or to even have different experiences at different checkpoints in the same airport. And that doesn’t even include new digital ID options for vetted Delta and United fliers and self-service screening being tested in Las Vegas.

I can’t count how many times I thought I had it down only to find a new security setup.

But you should know two things: It isn’t going to change anytime soon, and there are steps you can take to make it better, like always having your boarding pass and ID ready. (More on that later.)

Matthew Gilligan, who travels weekly, wishes for more consistency across the country.

“I feel like I’m ready for what I need to do, and then when you throw me a curveball at 3:30 in the morning, it’s an annoyance,” he says.

Fits and starts

TSA officials say a standardized approach nationwide isn’t feasible and likely never will be. Blame the uneven rollout of new technology. The agency is always looking to improve threat detection. With that comes new equipment and procedures, says Christina Peach, a TSA deputy assistant administrator.

But it doesn’t have the budget to outfit 431 airports simultaneously, so new equipment arrives in phases. Some airports don’t have the space for the latest screening machines.

“I think that it’s always going to be a rotation,” Peach says.

Take those new machines where the officer pops your license in to verify identity and travel plans, no boarding pass necessary. The agency has called the credential authentication technology (CAT) systems a security game-changer.

Today there are about 2,000 installed in 228 airports, or barely half of airports where TSA oversees security. And fewer than 900 of them are the latest version, with computer tablets that take your photo to match with the ID your present.

That new tech is in every lane of Denver’s newest security checkpoint. It also has automated screening lanes, where you place everything, including carry-on bags, in a bigger-than-usual bin. The 17-lane checkpoint also comes with the latest CT bag scanners, which provide 3-D images and allow travelers without TSA PreCheck to keep liquids and laptops in their bags.

Travelers at other Denver checkpoints face a different experience. That leaves a lot of room for the kind of confusion playing out across the country.

Mixed messages

Chicago consultant Mike Voticky says he encountered a little bit of everything during his trips through security on a recent three-day trip from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He watched plenty of passengers fumble through pockets and purses for their boarding passes and IDs, clogging the line.

He says he wishes the TSA would put a sign at the beginning of each lane outlining the procedures in place: “Please have your ID and boarding pass or just your ID or just your mother’s picture, or whatever the hell they want.”

With 2,411 security lanes at 684 checkpoints, the TSA can’t possibly “address every scenario” and keep it updated, spokeswoman Lorie Dankers says. And signs sometimes make things even more confusing.

“A lot of times what ends up happening,” Peach says, is that “people from a different lane read that sign and they’re doing the wrong thing.”

Allison Tucci, a Home Depot manager from New Jersey who has TSA PreCheck, says she’s gotten grief at checkpoints for not doing the right thing at the right time. She finds the hodgepodge of practices confusing and hates jostling for bins with other passengers.

None of that was an issue at Terminal 3 of Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Friday. A TSA employee asked if she wanted to try the self-service checkpoint the agency is testing and escorted her to the Innovation Checkpoint.

There was no line. A TSA agent checked her ID and she was on her own from there. She put her stuff in a special bin, stepped into a glass enclosure for a body scan and “Have a good flight!” flashed on the screen when she was done. She picked up her stuff and was on her way.

“It was such a piece of cake,” she says. “I felt like a rock star.”