At JFK today, got off an international flight and running late, so dashed to the TSA Precheck line ... it was empty, i was running towards the checkpoint with carry-on in tow .. this tsa dude at the line entrace asked for the boarding pass to check pre-check status, I showed it to him .. all good
All of a sudden, he was like ... close your carry-on expanders.... I have never been asked that before ... and I travel over 100k miles a year ... so I asked in a perplexed tone .. why, he said "because I said so".
Traveled enough to know there is no point in saying a single word after that, so started to close the expander, but he got me out of line into the main area and essentially made me go out of the pre-check lane, and come back again
I just think he really wanted to simply delay me for no reason. He saw me running, so knew I was late ... and I saw the flight gate close right in front of me and "boarding" changed to "Flight closed" on the screen.
The power trip of an asshole TSA agent delayed my by 4-5 minutes that is now costing me 4 hours wait at JFK .