SFist readers know how much this site enjoys ragging on the litany of stupid, overly-entitled, pointless, and public-safety-compromising apps that power our contemporary local economy. So it behooves SFist to occasionally highlight useful, pragmatic apps, to foster the illusion of journalistic balance. This one goes out to those of you traveling by air this summer (or this weekend) who will face airport security line misery like never before resulting in multiple-hour wait times that have generated less than outstanding publicity for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

No app will get you through TSA wait line more quickly, but a couple of Bay Area apps and websites can at least tell you how long you can expect to wait in the security line, and thereby prevent you from being one of the tens of thousands who will miss their flight because of TSA wait times. Let’s kick back, remove our shoes, place our laptops in a separate bin and take a look at the Bay Area’s best homegrown resources for hacking your time investment in the TSA line.

The above video “TSA are you f***ing kidding me?” was shot earlier this month at Chicago’s Midway Airport, not at SFO. Nonetheless, “We confirmed that waits are longer,” wait-time app MiFlight founder Michael Harmell told SFist. “All of the major [U.S. airport] hubs have had a spike. SFO has actually trended pretty well.” SFO, Oakland International, and Mineta International Airport in San Jose all face some wait time issues because the TSA and its various subcontractors are badly understaffed. What are the best hacks provided by local websites and apps to disrupt these inevitable travel disruptions?

miflight.jpg

MiFlight
MiFlight (pronounced MEE-flight) is an app for iOS that crowdsources user data Waze-style to determine your TSA wait time and communicate it to you in advance. ”Everyone has a right to information about their lives,” the app’s founder Michael Harmell told SFist. MiFlight can assess your individual terminal and gate’s wait time, and is “freemium” with 99-cent add-ons like removing ads and unlocking terminal maps of airports.

Alas, though, MiFlight is only available as an app for iOS. If you're an Android person or prefer to just use a mobile browser, you have other options for checking your TSA wait time in advance.

iFly
Los Gatos-based iFly.com also lists wait times by airport online, but the information is less specific. As seen above, iFly only displays information in three wait time assessments: 0-10 minutes, 11-20 minutes, and 21+ minutes. The site is crawling with intrusive ads and difficult to navigate, but we can cut to the chase and provide direct links to SFO wait times, OAK wait times, and SJC wait times.

iFly also has an iOS app called TSA Wait Times by iFly that appears to cost $3.99 in the iTunes store.

My TSA
Not-terribly-accurate wait times for many airports are also available on the My TSA website, and the My TSA app for iOS and Android, but the time totals on the apps display no higher than “31+ minutes”. That’s no help if your wait is three hours! You also have the option of getting through the line more quickly with TSA Pre-Check, but that requires going through an application process — including an interview at the airport — and paying an $85 fee. In other words, you would not be able to access TSA Pre-Check this weekend unless you've already been accepted into the program.

Related: Morrissey Says Security Officer At SFO Groped His Junk


Image: MiFlight