Two weeks after 9/11, I flew in and out of LAX, and except for the fact that you couldn’t drive your car into the airport proper, security was pretty much the same. My bags never got looked at.
Last year I had to fly for work, with a carry-on bag full of tape recorders and microphones and cables. This was a couple months pre-TSA. The security screeners pulled me aside for extra screening – no surprise there, with all that equipment – but I’d allowed two hours before my flight. No problem, right?
Wrong. The poor people directly behind me in the screening line had arrived on a cruise ship that docked late, and had 20 minutes to get to their flight. So I offered to let them go in front of me. Silly me – the screeners assured me that THEY COULD NOT CHANGE THE LINE ORDER AROUND. So those poor people had to stand there watching as the screeners inspected my equipment one piece at a time with their little bomb-chemical-wipe thingys, at their only pace, which was snail. It took an HOUR. Talk about stupid.
I also know a young man who works as ground security for an airline – whose name also happens to match one of the names on the “watch list,” so that every time he flies, even with his airline ID and everything, they have to do an extensive check on him! Just because he has the misfortune to share a name with someone else!
I’ll be flying again next month. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
Flying out of Bradley in CT… I had these incredibly big shoes on with some buckles on them, and I had set the alarms off, so I got the “royal treatment”, sitting there, people gawking at me, shoes AND socks had to be taken off. The Runner took my shoes from me and they ran them through the xray thingy. Well, apparently, this turned out to be a big chore because they had gotten my shoes mixed up with someones baby carriage, and like, ten minutes later I got my shoes back. I look back now, and I laugh, but come on! Someones baby carriage?
Flying out of LAX…I was going through the detectors with the baby, and in a hurry, I had put my cell phone in the pocket of his overalls. Well, we were rushing, and I forgot about it, so naturally, the alarms go off. They put me through the whole routine again, and when they couldn’t figure out what the hell was happening, my baby’s pocket started ringing. So flash forward to my poor boy crying like someone was murdering him cause this huge guy was standing there waving a wand all over him, cause there was some loose change in his carrier. The TSA people were really nice about it, and they kept appologizing for making him cry, but they gotta do it. It just took forever!
I’m flying the day after tomorrow. So I can’t even take EMBROIDERY SCISSORS? I guess I’ll have to pick up a pair when I get to where I’m going if I want to embroider while I’m there…ARRRRGH!
I don’t mind security, but I do mind inconsistent security. I don’t know why they did that to the old man in a wheelchair – I went through security in a wheelchair once, and they just took me around through the side and waved the wand over me.
They want to search my bag? Fine. If they want to see my underwear and such, so be it.
Exactly. I usually arrive around 90 minutes early for continental flights to avoid the whole time issue.
Also, while I sympathize with the OP, I also would have immediately gone up to the head of the checkpoint security line and asked the first person waiting if I could get ahead of him. Chances are, one of the first few folks in line will let you in. Never ask a busy employee to do something that you can do yourself.
I think the embroidery sissors can go in the checked luggage, right?
Do you have to unpack purses that you carry with you? That will set me back an hour.
Can you put those combination locks on checked luggage? IANAT
Even Al Gore was pulled out for a search once. For crying out loud! He’s made of cardboard!
Long ago, when I was flying back to the States from Copenhagen, my plane was supposed to have a stop in Montreal which was snowed in. So we had to go to Toronto instead, before continuing to Chicago. They made all of the passengers leave the plane and go through Customs. They didn’t even open my bag, but they did ask me if I was leaving anything in Toronto. I barked at them that I hadn’t even intended to leave the plane in Toronto!
I lock my luggage still. Just pack a few extra locks so in case they do break them open you can lock them again. Locks are cheap, like $2, so it’s no big deal.
Embroidery scissors have to be in checked baggage. I use nail clippers or blunt-tipped scissors instead. And yeah, I just let them break my locks if they have to.
Someone I know uses those zip-ties that have to be snipped off, and on top of his items he puts a big ziploc bag with a large visible note asking for the extras (in the ziploc) to please be used to resecure the bag after searching - which they’ve done.
If I can pack the scissors, I’m good to go. I’m going to have a lot of time where I’m sitting around and it’d be nice to have my embroidery with me. I haven’t had to check a bag in years and am hating that I have to this time.
We just flew from Indy to Orlando last week. EVERYONE had to remove their shoes to be x-rayed, including the 85-year-old couple flying to Orlando to visit their grandkids. The damn airport didn’t even provide seating for passengers to put their shoes back on. Needless to say, Granny and Gramps had to walk all the way to their gate in their stocking feet so they could sit down and put their shoes back on. Grrrrrrr.
Hmm, hadn’t thought of that. However, the way the corridor was shaped we couldn’t get that close to the head of the line without being intercepted by one of the TSA people, and they may not have let us cut in.
A friend of ours was told knitting needles were out, but a crochet hook was ok. Go figure.
I don’t know about back then, but going through Montreal wouldn’t have helped you these days; they make you get your bags from the carrousel and go through customs all over again.
And I would put forth that a lot of people are experiencing what Alton Brown from FoodTV experienced (scroll down to June 10) – items which aren’t on the TSA’s published banned list are being deemed inappropriate by individual agents on the ground. A huge loophole in the law says that any of the thousands of TSA agents can declare that any item cannot be taken on a plane and if they decide to confiscate that item, you’re SOL. There isn’t even a guarantee that you’ll be given the opportunity to take the item back to your car or otherwise reclaim it and leave the airport with it.
So we can ask for a final, no questions sort of list until the cows come home. It ain’t gonna happen. Unfortunately, that means that there are a lot of vaguely-trained, mediocrely-paid, not necessarily bright bureaucrats out there who have been given a lot of power to make every air traveler’s life miserable.
This isn’t about safety, this is about the illusion of safety. And it’s an open door for abuse, powermongering and agenda-promotion, against the public, by quasi governmental agents.
That should bother everyone.
Just to be factually accurate, Reid isn’t black, Reid is biracial, and strongly resembles many Middle Easterners in appearance.
Why on earth do all you people have jack knives and why do you carry them around with you?
You’re at an airport. Don’t take the stuff. Its not hard. Why in the hell does anyone need a pair of scissors on a flight? If you need them, pack 'em in your checked baggage. Or does that involve too much planning ahead?
If I want to cross-stitch mid-flight, Trigonal Planar, I need SOMETHING to cut the threads with. I’ve used nail clippers in an emergency, but those are on the “NO!” list as well. So quit being an ass about it.
And while there are other things to do to kill time, that’s one of my favorites, and now they won’t let me. Assholes.
Considering that embroidery scissors usually have blades less than 1/2 inch long, yes, it’s possible they MIGHT be allowed.
Although if blunt-nosed scissors are allowed, perhaps whiterabbit could steal her stepdad’s mustache scissors?
That all begs the question, of course, of whether those evil crewel needles (that are so blunt you have to really work at it to stick yourself hard to break the skin) would be allowed in any case…
For many years now I’ve been knitting on airplanes. I’ve had to give it up. I accept it, but sheesh, I use needles made out of BAMBOO. They’re lightweight enough that they break quite easily, and the points are about half as sharp as an ordinary pencil. What’s the threat in them? None, but they’re still banned. Makes no sense whatsoever.
I had a creepy experience in January. I didn’t know about the luggage lock thing (and just how do they plan to address the theft issue, let alone the issue of luggae that won’t stay closed if you don’t lock it). I had a brand-new hard case for my guitar, which definitely wouldn’t stay shut if I didn’t lock it. At Midway they made me stand there while they put the guitar through the X-ray machine, before they would give me my boarding pass and go to the gate.
On the way there, everything was fine. On the way back, I though so too…but I was wondering why it took almost an hour for the guitar to come out on the conveyor belt, and was a bit pissed as I was going to be late for class. It finally arrived, and I made a mad dash for the train, then home, and then to class. When I opened the case to tune up before class, I found a lovely pre-printed flyer from the TSA saying basically “sorry we had to open your case to inspect it, but it’s for your own good.” Luckily they didn’t break the lock; in fact they re-locked it for me. Not that it was the most sophisticated lock in the world, but it was kind of creepy and Orwellian.
I don’t know what made them decide to hand-inspect the guitar, but the next time I fly with my guitar I’m taking out the capo and electronic tuner and putting them in my carry-on bag so at least they don’t bust the lock on the guitar case.
Of course, if security gets much tighter I’m screwed, because I have a metal plate on my left fibula, and lord knows how they’ll want to inspect that if it starts to set off metal detectors.