IADLHR From Italy, joined Apr 2005, 669 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 1529 times:
Does anybody know what caused the extra, erxtra long security lines @ IAD on yesterday(Sept. 2, 2005) Since 9-11 I have never ever seen such a long,line anywhere, including IAD. I arrived @IAD at 3pm ,with only carry on luggage, and had checked in online for a 5:40PM flight. I madce it to my gate just as the flight was starting to board---a wait of about 2 hours.
I talked to a number of people and we all agreed it was awful, somtimes even chaotic. It was also the worst they had ever seen since 9-11 and it took them closed to 2 hours to clear security.My flight was even held for 30 minutes as there were so many caught in the never ending line.
Does anybody know what is gpoing on there, is this a sign of things to come at IAD? I am not so sure it was all due to being a 3 day weekend at all. I have flown from IAD every Christmas and Thanksgiving since 9-11 and nothing remotely compares to what we endured yesterday.
UA772IAD From Australia, joined Jul 2004, 1635 posts, RR: 3 Reply 1, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 1513 times:
Being Dulles based, all I can tell you is that Dulles TSA is THE worst system in the United States. They haven't figured it out yet after operating for almost 3 years. They have always been plagued by bad security and I can't see them reforming it anytime in the future. I'm afraid that there's nothing you can do except get their early, because they are incompetent over there.
Captover From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 87 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1440 times:
I used to work in security lines at Dulles. The standard max security line wait was about 25 minutes. The only times it was ever higher was thanksgiving week. The big problem at Dulles is space during the afternoon rush. The lines sprawl all over the main terminal due to the extreme volume of passengers all at once. When the lines run into the check-in lines it can lead to havoc. The worst I have ever seen was when the east security line was entangled with the United International check-in line and the police had to be called in to stop fights and deter an other fights from springing up. Also the United employees don't help anything there. They are by far the nastiest customer service reps at IAD, especially one of the supervisors. They come in and yell at security people while leaving their lines to get even longer. United's e-ticket check-in kiosks are also located conveniently right next to the east security line entrance causing a large mob to form and clogging the passage between the entrance and the back check-in desks. This leads to mayhem. The situation will not improve until the new security mezzanine is completed. I'm not sure when that will be but they are making good progress on it so far.
Unitedgirlie From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 98 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 1404 times:
it is often like this at heathrow in the evenings. This is when lots of the asian carriers go out and are packing full loads, lots of pax's get left behind as they don't do what they are told and go direct through security! They don't seem to believe us about the time it takes or the queues, the fact the queue snakes all around the upstairs deptartures is beyond them!
Brokenrecord From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 772 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 1352 times:
Quoting Unitedgirlie (Reply 3): it is often like this at heathrow in the evenings. This is when lots of the asian carriers go out and are packing full loads, lots of pax's get left behind as they don't do what they are told and go direct through security! They don't seem to believe us about the time it takes or the queues, the fact the queue snakes all around the upstairs deptartures is beyond them!
Even the transit lines are bad at Heathrow... LOL I got lucky when I transited through on BA because I was in Club World, and got to go to the shorter line...
I caught a glimpse of the actual security line at Terminal 4 when I was there in Feb., and was astonished at the craziness going on there, even with the apparently less stringent security requirements that you have in the UK compared to the US.
With regard to the op's question, I don't know what the problem was, but that is a longer wait than I have ever seen. I hate security at Dulles with a passion (though I hate Terminal G even more), and have never had a "short" wait in line there.
IADLHR From Italy, joined Apr 2005, 669 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 1250 times:
Captover
You hit the nail on the head. I was talking about the east entrance, There was no one in sight to try and control the lines. The eticket kiosk line was out the front door as was the security line. In addition, there were on again off again problems with the kiosks. People would wait to check in at the machine only to have the machines malfunction and one would have to get in a line to be checked in by a human. That is if one could fine that line. Once they finally got checked in, they had to fine the end of the security line.
SA7700 From South Africa, joined Dec 2003, 2918 posts, RR: 20 Reply 6, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1227 times:
AIRLINERS.NET CREW HEAD MODERATOR
Yeez, suddenly I don't feel so good about flying JNB-IAD-JNB. Arghhh what the hell, the tickets have been issued so there is no turning back.
Please just tell me, when I arrive from JNB at 07h00 (via ACC) at IAD and have to recheck my bags for my onwards flight to ORD @ 10h00, that there will be some sort of order?!
Rgds
SA7700
When you are doing stuff that nobody has done before, there is no manual – Kevin McCloud
FutureFO From New Caledonia, joined Oct 2001, 3095 posts, RR: 24 Reply 7, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1204 times:
Als with the line at IAD you are also looking at the start of a holiday weekend here in the US. But that is why I have a crew ID so that I can avoid that 2 hour wait.
IADLHR From Italy, joined Apr 2005, 669 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1165 times:
SAT700
Arriving ag IAD in the early morning, you will probably be ok. Late in the afternoon, when the Europe bound flights depart, is when the most chaos and long lines seem to be a much biggere issue.
To be honest I have flown out of IAD many, many times since 9-11 and never had a problem until 9-2-05. I hope that was only a one time thing. I fly from IAD again on 9-15. Hopefully that experience will not repeat itself.
Unitedgirlie From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 98 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 1109 times:
broken record....heathrow is bad full stop. Everything is held together with bag tag tape. The boarding pass printers, the bag tag machines everything has bag tag to keep it together.
Our printer queues back up and can't be cleared and stop working for no reason, the baggage belts go down almost every day. The scales never work etc so on and so forth.
They need to get the terminals they have, working as they should before worrying about building more. I think it is all some ploy, keep the queues large for everything and claim over capacity and yes to some lengths that is an issue but cant help but think if the terminals worked as they should queues and capacity would not be such an issue.
we are told nothing will be done as in 2007/08 everything will be moing ie star alliance will be in terminal 1 etc so nothing new till then!!
at this rate it will be back to basics for the year or so before that, handwritten boarding passes etc!!
arincs courses must consists of a bag tag roll and how to peel the strip off!
UN_B732 From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 4286 posts, RR: 5 Reply 10, posted (7 years 8 months 3 weeks 4 days ago) and read 1018 times:
I went through IAD the other day, I found it to be great. I was the first person off my flight, but not a soul in the transit area (other than employees) and I was sitting in the RCC before my flight was even scheduled to arrive!
-Mr. X
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