TSA staff at LAX begin busy Thanksgiving travel day

So far it's smooth sailing at LAX, entering the Thanksgiving holiday. It's also National Opt-Out Day, with passengers upset with new airport body scanners encouraging others to opt out of the scanner and instead be patted down by TSA security. New pat-down procedures have also upset some passengers.

"So far, it looks like the TSA has been able to keep the challenge," says Nico Melendez of the TSA. "We've been able to keep minimum wait times – less than five minutes at most airports. I've talked to Boston, Atlanta, Salt Lake, Denver. We're managing it. Passengers are working with us, and really hats off to the passengers for stepping up and helping us out."

Early this morning, it seemed as though National Opt-Out Day had made little impact on security lines. "It's really too early to tell here at L.A. The checkpoints have been open for almost an hour. The wait times are minimal at LAX, and anecdotally, from around the country, it doesn't seem like it's had an impact."

Two passengers had chosen the pat-down over the scanners as of two days ago, but according to Melendez, "I haven't had any more reports here. I know that it's something that happening that happens around the country on a daily basis, and we wouldn't make it an option if we didn't want passengers to have an option. So even today, National Opt-Out Day, if passengers don't want to go through the machine, don't go through the machine."

Not everyone who flies out of LAX will have to be scanned in the new machines. "It's important to note that, in all of Southern California, other than San Diego, L.A. is the only airport that has the imaging technology. We have 19 machines operational and about 70 checkpoint lanes. So the odds are that most passengers will never even come in contact with the machine. But if they do, they need to know what their options are."