A survey of 2,039 Americans about the airport security process reveals what drives travelers crazy at airport security.
More than half of the respondents who have traveled in the last 90 days (54%) have been caught in long security lines during that period, and 7% missed their flight as a result. To avoid the hassle, 59% of all surveyed say they'll arrive at least two hours ahead of their flight next time.
The biggest pet peeve for all respondents was waiting in line (31%), which solidly beat out removing shoes, belts and layers (20%), redressing and reassembling luggage and personal items (15%), getting patted down by TSA (9%), having to open up luggage (laptop, liquids, etc.) (9%) and the full body scan (6%).
When stuck in a long line, travelers' number one frustration was fellow passengers who were unprepared for security procedures (34%). Following closely after were too few TSA checkpoints open (29%) and then too few TSA agents working at a checkpoint (15%), slow work pace of agents (14%) and TSA PreCheck staff not taking passengers from other lines when they can (8%). Despite the wait times, 62% say they have no plan to enroll in TSA PreCheck, while 38% said they'd fly at off-peak hours and on less busy travel days to avoid the line-ups.
Cheapflights.com, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, conducted this survey. For the complete results from ourSurvey of Americans' airport security experiences, go to www.cheapflights.com/news/american-airport-security-survey.
