There are people in the world who have a hard time admitting they were wrong. They’ll either bury their head in the sand and continue to insist they were right, or once they realize they made a mistake, they’ll just start to ignore the situation, change the topic, etc.
Fortunately, Joe and I are not like that. If we discover we’re incorrect about something, we’ll own up to it and make it right. We might even apologize and thank whoever pointed out how/where we were wrong.
Such is the case with a post we wrote a couple of weeks ago about an oddly placed mailbox we saw at MCO.
The mailbox, placed by a private company called Mail Safe Express, was at the airport, so if a passenger going through the scanner at the TSA security checkpoint was caught with anything contraband that wasn’t allowed to go through (i.e., a knife or a bottle of perfume that was more than 3.4 ounces, etc.), they could mail the item back to themselves instead of giving it up to security for disposal. Based on its intended use, we were positive it shouldn’t have been on the air side of the TSA security checkpoint. After all, the item isn’t allowed to be on that side of the checkpoint, right? So we thought the mailbox should be on the non-secure side, so once they were told they couldn’t bring their knife, etc., passengers could box their item and mail it.
It turns out that several readers informed us that we were wrong. Here are some of them:
From Chris (reply to our post): Instead of TSA taking the items, they walk you to the box so you can mail it…..instead of kicking you out and having you go through the line again.
From Craig M. (reply to BoardingArea/FB): I have used it. The location is intentionally designed. If you remembered to take stuff out of your pocket (or bag) you would check it or leave in your vehicle. So it has little purpose before security. Therefore, it is actually better inside security than outside. At MCO a TSA agent escorts you to fill out the paperwork and they seal it and make sure it goes into it the box for shipping. You continue on to your gate, without going through the security line again. This should be the setup at all airports. Depending on the length of the lines and time until your departure it provides an option that you might not have if you are required to get back in the security line.
From Gus S. (reply to BoardingArea/FB): Used it — TSA agent provided me with options to: A) go to airline counter and check bag B) Discard the item or C) Mail it back, they filled out the paperwork and placed on the box themselves.
Welp, our bad, mea culpa and color us wrong. It wasn’t a mistake; it really was done that way on purpose!
It seems people may have had or heard of different processes:
- A TSA agent walks you to the mailbox
- A TSA agent filled out the paperwork and placed it in the box themselves
But either way, holy crap, what a waste of TSA manpower!
So a TSA agent has to stop whatever they’re doing and spend however long it is to walk a passenger through the steps of getting the package prepared, and then either escort the passenger to the mailbox or mail the package there themselves?
Because they don’t have anything better to do?
If the mailbox was on the non-secure side, the passenger could do what had to be done and get the knife or whatever it was into the mail. By themself. Without a federal employee having to stop their “real” job.
I do understand the one point several of our readers brought up – doing it this way allows the passenger not to have to stand in the queue a second time. But people are told to arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead of time, yes? And at MCO, in particular, it’s suggested they get there THREE hours early for a domestic flight. That generally should give someone enough time to stand in line twice – and if that happens, I’d think it’d be an excellent incentive to ensure they never again bring contraband through the TSA security checkpoint again, don’t you? (well, unless you’re this guy)
So at least we understand that the Mail Safe Express mailbox is where it is on purpose. But we still think it’s an inappropriate process that wastes the time of whichever TSA agent has to “help” someone prepare and mail the package. But they didn’t ask us, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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