Unless you really can’t use any tweezers other than those, you do know that we sell tweezers here, don’t you? If you’d rather be safe than sorry, leave your tweezers at home and get a cheap pair from a drugstore here.
I think part of the reason for this is that the tables where the bins are for you to put stuff in to go through the screening device aren’t next to you until you’re very close to the metal detector. You’ve only got so many hands (and one is probably occupied with your carry-on bag) and there’s nowhere to put that stuff down. I’ve noticed the same sort of problem with grocery store lines at stores with shorter check-out conveyer belts.
Of course, some of it is just the plain cluelessness of the sort that makes people not get out a means of payment until they get up to the cashier…
Do check that you’ve gotten all metal stuff, including your keys and cell phone, off before going through the metal detector. It’s easy to forget those things, especially if you carry them with you all the time.
Check several times that you’ve got everything when you get your stuff at the security checkpoint. I almost left my house and apartment keys at the security checkpoint at Orange County airport once.
If you keep your keys and/or cell phone in your pants or skirt pockets, check that you have them when you get off the plane. Something about the position I sit in in an airline seat makes my cell phone likely to migrate out of my pocket during the flight.
Most people have a carry-on bag. Put everything into the bag, not onto the tray. It all gets scanned whether it is in your bag or on a tray. That leaves one hand for your coat and one for the bag. Drop the bag on the moving belt and the coat in a tray and walk through the metal detector. Pick it all up at the other side. The only issue you can run into is if they ask you to remove your digital camera, or other electronics, from your bag. But then I never have a coat with me (not needed in the desert), so I carry my digital camera in my hand instead of the coat.
Now what really screws things up is if the damn security drone asks to see your boarding pass again. Yeah, the same boarding pass that you HAD to show to get into the frikkin line only 30’ away, in plain view, of the current person asking to see your pass.
That’s good. Traveller’s checks were the most popular form of travel money forever. But in the last 10 years when ATMs started popping up everywhere, people use TCs less, thus some shops have become suspicious of them. In New York, you will find a lot of “mom & pop” businesses won’t take anything besides cash US American dollars in $20 or lower denominations. Seriously. Some small corner shops would rather lose the business than cash a (possibly counterfeit) $50 bill. I don’t know what it is like elsewhere in the US, but if you’re cashing the TCs at banks for walking-around money, that’s the way to go.
Are you sure about high credit card exchange rates? I heard charging on CC was actually the best rate you could get. But it appears to be moot in this case.
I heartily third (fourth?) wearing slip-on shoes, at least when you’re coming home through the US. It is very likely that you will have to remove your shoes at security, and slipping them off is so much easier than struggling with laces, buckles, straps, etc.
I also fourth (fifth?) arriving absurdly early to the airport when leaving the US. Sometimes I’m through check-in and security within five minutes, other times it takes two hours for a domestic flight. It all depends on time of travel, the weather, etc. Plan on it taking forever and you won’t be watching your plane take off without you, as Uzi said. This actually did happen to me once!
I’ve never run into tweezer troubles, but then I always put them in my checked bag. Can’t help you there. IMO, risk it, put them in the bottom of your bag with your other toiletries so it doesn’t look like you’ll want to pull them out during the flight. And in the unlikely event they cause a fuss, just chuck them out and buy a new pair in L.A.
I don’t see any reason why you would need to bring your birth certificate. It seems to me that the risk of losing it is much higher than the possibility you would need it for anything. If you have a valid passport, I can’t imagine a situation in which someone would ask you for your birth certificate. Make a good photocopy and bring that with you; leave the original at home in a safe place. Has anyone here had to show their birth certificate while travelling (assuming you have a passport?)
Humm - it almost sounds like you’ve done this before. Furthermore, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that while you’re doing this now, you’re muttering about “Bloody Civilians” under your breath. Not that your post reminded me of anyone I know, or anything.
Not ‘bloody civilians’, but ‘bloody idiots’ has come to mind from time to time. I haven’t been a non-civilian in about 23 years. Now I’m just indifferent to the futility of the whole thing and just follow along ‘mooing’ where appropriate.
I recently took copious amounts of drugs with me to the Dominican Republic, including dilaudin and vicodin with not a peep from anyone. I also had a shaving razor, nail clippers, and tweezers in my carry on and never got in trouble. I flew American Airlines and just checked their website and it had a list of what was allowed - that might be the easiest way to check if your airline has a list too.
The only thing we ever got asked about was taking a computer printer back home with us. "what’s that? "
“A printer.”
“ok then.”
My Verizon cellular phone gave me exactly nada as soon as I left. I had service in Windsor Ontario, a lovely suburb of Detroit. Otherwise, I had nothing. No biggie. I bought a 20 Canadian pre=paid phone card and used pay phones. Although incredibly, in Pourquis Junction outside of Iriqouis Falls, there was no payphone at the motel AND no payphone at the community center where we worked. :eek:
Hey Velma, Rush Limbaugh just got arrested for coming BACK from the D.R. with Viagra. You said you travelled there hassle-free. How was the re-entry into the US ?
Same - no problems at all. I had my prescriptions all in their original bottles and I kept them in my carry on. They must have seen the pills in the x-ray but I never got asked about them or even had my bag opened.
I don’t know how much Viagra Rush had on him, but I only had a month’s worth of pills - maybe if I had come home with a case of dilaudin I would have gotten stopped. I didn’t have anything other than the bottles to prove the pills were legit, but my Dr and pharmacy’s numbers were on there and I guess they could have called them to verify that I had a prescription for that amount, maybe Rush couldn’t do the same? Plus I doubt I attract as much attention as Rush.
The only questions I was asked on re-entry (at JFK, for what that’s worth) from security is they wanted to know why I was coming from Santiago and what was there, and isn’t that a dangerous city and did I feel safe walking around? We were the only Americans on the plane, most people fly to the resort areas so he was interested in that. Once I told him my sister lived there, he said “good answer” and we were on our way. But the ‘helpful’ people working in baggage claim kept trying to direct us over to the baggage coming from Greece, because they assumed we were waiting in the wrong spot!
My wife has to take an injection a day, so if we go on a long vacation she might have many needles in her carryon. We never check her medication. We’ve also never been stopped, or even asked, about the needles.
I’ve got my bag (which I’ve decided to check afterall) packed including my tweezers, my carry on bag ready with gum, a magazine and a bunch of CDs, and my purse stuffed with a shwack of travelers cheques, and my passport.
