With the TSA Shutdown, everyone is concerned about traveling through airports and the related headaches. You can arrive at the airport two hours early then you check your bags. You think that you are golden but as you turn the corner, you see the TSA line that wraps around the building. Now you are in full panic mode. You wait and wait. You watch the clock.
When you finally make it through the TSA checkpoint, you sprint to your gate, only to see the boarding door closed and the jet bridge retracting. If you think the airline owes you a refund because the government’s security line was slow, you are in for a rude awakening. According to a new report from USA Today, airlines are officially not required to refund you for missed flights caused by TSA delays. In the eyes of the law, the Airport Blame Game has a clear loser: You.
The Not My Problem Doctrine
The core of this is simple, if frustrating: The airline and the TSA are two completely different entities. When you buy a ticket, the airline is promising to fly you from Point A to Point B if you are at the gate on time. They aren’t promising that the government will be efficient at checking your carry-on for oversized toothpaste. As far as the airline is concerned, if the TSA line takes three minutes or three hours, that’s a you problem. If you aren’t at that gate when the door closes, your seat becomes a lucrative opportunity for a standby passenger, and your ticket value often evaporates into rebooking fees. You are out of luck.
Basically the rules are: if the airline’s plane breaks down, they have to help you. If the weather turns sour, they usually work with you but not obligated to. But if the security infrastructure of the airport fails? You’re stuck. For the business traveler, this isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a financial risk. Between the cost of a new last-minute ticket and the potential for a missed meeting, a slow TSA day can cost you thousands.
Since the courts aren’t going to have your back, you have to be your own advocate. Here is the Road Warrior approach for dealing with the TSA issue:
Stop Gambling with Your Time: The old two-hour rule is officially dead for major hubs. If you’re flying out of a place like ATL, JFK, or LAX on a Monday morning or Friday afternoon, three hours is the new minimum. It’s better to spend an hour working in the lounge than five minutes crying at a closed gate.
Invest in the Fast Pass: If you don’t have TSA Precheck or CLEAR yet, you are essentially volunteering to be a victim. In our current world, these aren’t luxuries, they are insurance policies against missing flights and paying a rebooking fee.
The Gate Agent Hail Mary: If you see the line is a disaster, don’t wait until you’ve missed the flight to talk to the airline. Use the airline’s app to chat with an agent while you are standing in line. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, they can move you to a later flight before you’re marked as a no-show which can save you the rebooking fee.
Document the Chaos: If the line is truly historic, take a photo. While the airline isn’t required to refund you, a sympathetic gate agent is much more likely to help a polite traveler who has proof that the airport was a madhouse.
Final Thought
Travel is a series of tradeoffs. You can travel great distances for meetings to save you time and generate money. But in our current environment, you do not have any way of knowing how long the steps will be at the airport. We highly recommend, carryon bags, TSA Pre Check or Clear and to budget as much time as you can to deal with all the delays. If you miss your flight because some TSA worker did not show up for work, you will be solely responsible for the consequences.