This is one of those "if I could give it negative stars, I would" situations. These people are so cruel, just cruel I agree with Trina W. There is something wrong with these people's hiring practices or culture, or something because they are truly cruel people. I have traveled all over the US for work, in and out of almost every major airport in this beautiful country. I have never, ever encountered such rude, cruel, and disrespectful human beings as I did today in the Seattle TSA. There was a 40 minute back up line to check my cat in, so I waited. This meant that I was rushing to make it to my flight, but I should have made it handily. By the time I got to check in they told me it would be better to keep my luggage with me (it was 45 minutes before the flight) so I did. I had my kitten with me in a cat transporter backpack and I told them that he would be really scared to get out, so it would be better if he could stay in the backpack if possible. I also told them I was running late, so if it would take too long for a manual search, I would take him out. They didn't communicate with me, instead were rude and physically pushed me to a corner and told me to wait for a manual check. When I asked how long it would be, they ignored me. Five minutes later, I decided to take off the backpack and just go threw - there had not been any communication but I could tell that it was going to be a while. My suitcase had been flagged and a man was rudely yelling for me since they put my luggage through the machine but had me waiting for the manual search. I got to the angry man yelling my name and told him I also needed my cat pod because my kitten was pretty scared by now, nails digging into my skin as he clung to me in fear. The man said, "so do you want me to go through your bag or get your pod?" I looked over at the conveyor and told him to go through my bag, that was fine. He started pulling out things and throwing them down, repeating to me what I could take and what I could not have and even though I nodded, clearly understanding the words he was saying to me, he still found it necessary to yell and me and repeat things several times. After he was done verbally assaulting me, I asked him why my pod hadn't come out yet. It looked as if he wanted to grab my cat out of my hands and then he took off over to the machine and said, "this woman has a concern about her cat pod" only then did they realize that another piece of luggage had totally blocked the machine and no one's luggage was coming through anymore. They had people come over with a long stick to push all of the luggage through and when they FINALLy got the cat pod out, they insisted on running it through again and then ran my bag, which they had already hand checked, through the machine again. they thrust everything at me and I told them my flight had already boarded and did they really think I would make it at this point and they said yes, definitely just go. I went on the tram and then to the gate and just as I ran up to the gate, the woman closed the door. Had the TSA been even a little kind, or run even a little efficiently, or accepted responsibility for their own incompetence even just a little bit, I would have made it. I have no idea how many other people missed their planes due to the TSA's complete incompetence but I am sorry for each one of them. Seattle, you need to train your TSA better, maybe you need to compensate them better, I am not sure what but they need to figure out that they are only there to help SUPPORT people get to their flights safely. They are not there to make things difficult for people, to work through their own power issues, need for power, or just pure sadistic pleasure watching people be miserable. This was the worst TSA experience by far ever in a lifetime of flying. These people should all be retrained, and if they cannot be reformed, perhaps a different line of work - not interacting with people at all, is what would be better for them. It is one thing to be incompetent and acknowledge that. It is quite another to be incredulous, self righteous and abusive. read more