Tweeting TSA on long lines

Tweeting TSA on long lines

If you are stuck in a long airport security screening line this summer, you don’t have to just stand there and fume.

Airlines for America, the trade group for the nation’s air carriers, suggests that you use your idle time in the line to point out the delay to the Transportation Security Administration through Twitter.

The trade group commended the TSA recently for announcing new efforts to reduce long screening lines that airlines worry might scare Americans away from traveling this summer.

But the airline group also seemed to be taking a shot at the TSA by asking travelers who are waiting in long lines to “alert TSA by tweeting your airport code or location to askTSA along with your issue and the hashtag iHateTheWait.”

A TSA spokesman declined to comment when asked if the tweeting idea would help the TSA reduce lines.

Survey: Satisfaction with air travel is up

Satisfaction with air travel is up, thanks to lower airfares and an increased tolerance for those annoying passenger fees.

But there is one aspect of air travel that fliers still hate: taking off their shoes at the security checkpoint line.

Those are among the key findings of two airline passenger surveys released last week.

Satisfaction with air travel is at the highest level - 726 on a 1,000-point scale - since 2006, according to a survey of more than 10,000 travelers of major carriers in North America by the consumer research firm J.D. Power. The satisfaction level jumped 9 points compared with last year.

A steep drop in fuel costs over the last 18 months helped domestic fares decline nearly 4 percent in 2015 compared with the previous year, according to federal statistics.

That may explain why passenger satisfaction with the airfares and passenger fees increased 12 points to 658, according to the survey.

When asked what airport screening measure they would eliminate, the most common answer given by fliers (31.5 percent) was “removing of shoes.”

Geography quiz

Q. Which state is nicknamed the Sunflower State?

A. Kansas. The wild native plant grows across the state and was named the state flower in 1903.

Tourism in SD

PIERRE, S.D.

South Dakota officials hope a pair of high-profile milestones and stable gas prices bring vacationers to the state during the 2016 tourism season.

The 75th anniversary of the completion of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the National Park Service’s centennial celebration are expected to help fuel interest and bring in visitors, state Tourism Secretary Jim Hagen said.

About 13.7 million visitors to South Dakota spent nearly $3.8 billion in 2015.

Combined dispatches