National Opt-Out Day: More Like Opting Out Of Making Your Flight?

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Join your fellow passengers this Thanksgiving — in helping everyone miss their flight home!

The fuss over the Transportation Security Administration’s new screening procedures over the past few weeks (most notably the viral don’t touch my junk video) have now led to the proposal of a National Opt-Out Day.

The idea, set to begin tomorrow morning, at the height of Thanksgiving travel, is in response to the new full-body scanners in almost 70 airports around the country that have elicited concerns over privacy issues. The “holiday” is being organized by a guy named Brian Sodergren (who is apparently not flying this Thanksgiving) in an attempt to stage a national protest against both the scanners and the pat-downs based on what he (and others like the ACLU) perceives as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. (Watch Saturday Night Live’s sketch on TSA’s pat-downs.)

A nifty dose of civil disobedience, right? Well, maybe. Some reports are suggesting that if enough people take part in the mass opt-out, it could actually cause a number of passengers to miss their flights on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

However, a TSA official told NewsFeed that even with the lengthier, updated pat-down procedures, the biggest culprit in causing longer lines at airport security checkpoints is actually the uptick in airline baggage fees, which have prompted fewer people to check their bags, and more to take their luggage with them through security as carry-ons. More bags in turn mean more scans, more searches, and more time spent per passenger.

The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen: Get to the airport extra early this year. Or you could end up like this lady. We don’t want that, do we?