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Comment by LeafItAlone | Hacker News Reader

>It will never be shut down because it's got all the exceptions so that Congresscritters don't have to be treated the same as us plebians.

DCA is open to the public.

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DCA is open to the public. But it has lots of ways for Congressmen to avoid the inconveniences that you and I have to endure.

The other airports in the area do not have those.

Please expand.

I fly out of DCA and IAD frequently (and JFK and LGA). I’ve gone through the process next to politicians, though I’ve never recognized any highly ranked ones (e.g. Pelosi, McConnell, etc.).

What’s the difference they experience?

Not OP but the only thing I'm aware of is new Senator Jim Justice who seems to use a private plane to get to the airport which seems relatively rare.

https://punchbowl.news/article/senate/jim-justice-takes-priv...

I watched Warren and some of her staff cut the entire pre-check line at BOS. They still had to walk through the metal detectors but without any bags, they whisked through.

I got to cut the line at security once because I was on the job, I was completely embarrassed.

Isn’t that just what CLEAR is?

Kind of but even Clear still has a line. Warren had an airport escort walk her around the stanchions and directly to the metal detector.

> the inconveniences that you and I have to endure.

What are those? With pre check you just more or less walk through and use a metal detector.

A lot of people here like to go on about security. I agree there's a certain amount of theater, and I try to avoid really peak times, but with pre-check I do tend to arrive early because I don't want stress but, as you say, it's rarely more than a few minute wait and I pretty much toss my bag on the carousel and walk through the metal detector. It's really not a big deal if you're prepared.

Your airport sounds a lot better than the ones near me!

In my area they all want you to arrive 2-3 hours before your flight, without any water, then to shuffle through security without your belt and shoes.

I usually arrive about 2 hours before flight time. For one thing, my car company doesn't really want you to cut things close as they'll tend to catch the blame if you miss your flight for some unavoidable reason. But usually security is maybe 5-10 minutes. Don't remember the last time I needed anything like the margin that I give myself.

Probably doesn't hurt that I'm usually taking early morning flights.

2-3 hours means you get 1-2 hours spending airside.

What's pre-check?

TSA pre-check is a pre-screening program that air travelers can use to bypass the normal security line.

It's not a huge time-saver (any more, used to be more) but gets you out of a few annoyances like removing shoes, unpacking toiletries, and a few other things. And the lines are usually a bit shorter and the ratio of regular traveller to new traveller is a bit better (less likely to get caught behind somebody who doesn't know the process and wastes everybody's time).

And they don't put you through the nudie scanner (or whatever it's called) which is important to some people. I have pre-check automatically through global entry (that basically lets you bypass immigration coming back into the US).

Just got ETA for the UK and you also have e-entry (which usually works) from the US and a number of other countries as well.

Usually true, though I don't believe that's guaranteed.

And all the lines at IAD have the new, high-powered luggage scanners (for carry-on, so still less powerful than the ones used for checked bags). So for those of that fly with film camera gear, we need a hand check with or without pre-check.

Right--though pretty rare in my experience. Though you can always(?) ask for a hand check rather than going through the more invasive scanner.

Haven't used film for a while :-) Back in the film days, at least latterly I traveled with my film in a lead-lined bag.

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