Beats the shit out of me. I just checked the TSA web site and they have not changed the prohibited list since 3/2006.
Una I fell you pain. I have to fly to Guam in a couple of weeks. If I check my laptop and it goes bye bye (or gets broken) I will have a 2 week vacation since all I would be able to do is make shadow puppets on the wall.
Also since when did books become weapons? Did I miss a memo?
Yikes! Sounds like they expect it to be permanent! Does Congress really have anything to do with airline security rules, or are these just FAA decrees?
This shit will kill the airline industry if it doesn’t stop.
I can’t imagine that corporate America will agree to a check-your-laptops policy when even one’s non-valuable, non-crucial checked luggage is frequently lost, riffled through, or destroyed.
I believe that most of corporate America would happily kill us, harvest our organs, and sell them on the black market given the chance. I know my company would. Given the cost-cutting and idiotic decisions made by corporate policy drones, I wouldn’t doubt for a minute that most people will be forced to check their laptops and go on day-long flights with no carry ons - or be terminated or demoted.
Until recently, we (meaning, at my company) were personally financially responsible for our work laptops. Lost after being checked on a plane? - better come up with a $4k check to pay the company back (for a laptop that cost $2k, and was depreciated to about $500 in value, but hey…). Thankfully, this policy was dropped, but the laptops are still uninsured and you must pay for them out of one of your projects. So if you lose a laptop, you risk doing something like working 80 hours of unpaid overtime to “pay the company back” for it. But hey, you know, that’s only like 5 weekends - that’s not so bad!
Rick - it works for a while, but your fingers quickly get tired out making shadow figures of Excel spreadsheets. I guess the solution now is we’ll have to take hardcopies only - nope, wait, not allowed - books and magazines aren’t from the UK now, so it’s hard to imagine anything else would be. Hmm…I know! Get the spreadsheets tattooed onto your skin! If you shave your head, you can fit the contract on there too…yeah. If you need more space, hire some out of work IT people for more square inches of skin, like all of mine who were laid off when we just outsourced everything to India…by corporate America.
And just wait until DHS discover that liquids can be stored in your bladder. Hoo boy, that’ll be fun. “Please lift your skirt and squat over the bowl before passing through the metal detector, or you will be in violation of the law!” Actually, that’s not realistic - there’s no way they’ll say “Please”. I guess they could just premptively taser us all, hoping that most of us will piss ourselves.
Cynical? Me?
Air Canada’s website is warning people about the no-creams-or-liquids rule, and telling people to minimize carry-on luggage because of increased screening.
Yeah, well, I’m flying into DCA which means they’re going to tear my carry-on baggage apart anyways. To the degree of opening lipsticks and unfolding socks. So I’ll just bring my carry-on as usual. Minimize? Bite me.
People aren’t going to put up with this shit for very long. Banning tubes of lip gloss? Deodorant? Give me a goddamn break. Hijackers could use their fists as weapons! Handcuff all passengers, just in case! Fly naked, so we can be sure you’re not coated in liquid explosive!
Well alls I can say is, the airports better have some sort of explosives-detecting liquid sniffers in place by the next time I have to travel by air, and they better be more accurate than the gadget that mistook my paperback novels for weed at Hartsfield-Atlanta Int’l Airport. And if such is not the case, then the first thing I hear when I board the plane better not be, “Welcome to So-and-so Airlines,” but rather “Here’s our huge onboard supply of complimentary caffienated beverages with unlimited refills.” Because I’ll travel without sharp objects; if absolutely necessary, I will even travel without shoes. But no way will I travel without caffiene.
Stupid, stupid terrorists. Or should I say “inconvenience-ists?” Because that’s what you are, really. Goofy schemes like yours and Shoe-Boy’s don’t deserve to be dignified with the term “terrorist.” Your clownish antics don’t inspire terror; they are just really, really annoying for all concerned. Whatever percieved injustices you imagine yourselves to be fighting against, I find it vanishingly hard to believe that they were a direct result of excessive air travel convenience, so could you all just please focus more on terrorizing the people in power directly instead? They’re in the phone book, you know. I think I can guarantee that your agenda, whatever it may be, is not advanced by forcing me to have my shoes X-rayed before entering the airport terminal. Leave us proles alone; go put a bag of flaming dog poop on the doorsteps of our duly elected officials instead. If you’re imaginative enough to come up with barking-mad, prime-time TV movie-style plots to blow up airplanes with killer beverages, surely you can take a little extra time to target the decisionmakers directly. I have faith in your insanity.
Also, major props to Scotland Yard! You guys really seem to be an impressively competent police force! That must be a nice thing to have. Plus, the name is just so historically resonant and reassuring somehow. Another dastardly crime foiled by… Scotland Yard!
I flew out of LaGuardia yesterday morning. I had heard about what was happening before I left for the airport, so I was able to pack accordingly, but lots of people there hadn’t, and hadn’t. There were big bins full of lotion, shower gel, and hair products that people had had to simply abandon. The line to get through security snaked across the row of check-in desks, looped deeper into the terminal, then outside and across the whole drop-off platform. It took me about 90 minutes to get through. My own carry-on bag was not searched, but those of the people in front of and behind me were.
In addition to this precaution, as many people and carry-on bags were searched during boarding as was possible. It was like the post-9/11 days of random security call-outs, except they were doing as many as they had time for.
Once on the plane, we had to sit around for a while as they loaded our luggage. I assume it took so much longer because there was so much more checked luggage than is usual; the overhead bins were practically empty–absolutely no scrambling for a space to put my bag. In flight we were all given our precious beverages, and offered tea or coffee in addition (nice touch).
Liquids allowed on the planes, as of that time, were the aforementioned crucial medications provided they were properly labeled with the name of the person who had to take them, and also formula, juice, and breast milk for infants, provided of course that you were traveling with the infant.
Ladies and gentlemen! I was struck by inspiration tonight, on how to turn this current situation into a genuine money making opportunity! That’s right, so long as these current restrictions exist, I can show you how to make a profit from it! Lacking the financial resources to exploit these ideas myself, I’m giving you the information for free!
First of all, they’re banning all liquids on board, and we know what a hassle it can be to find things you might need once you get to your destination (especially if you’re going to be “roughing it” in some place where the hotels don’t hand out free soaps and shampoos), so set yourself up a booth in the airport of your choice selling freeze dried or powdered versions of products travellers are sure to need! “Yes, ma’am, I know that $75 is a bit much to pay for Head & Shoulders shampoo, but this has been freeze dried, so it’s a powder, so now you can take it with you on the plane. Bad enough you’ll be fighting those mosquitos in Mozambique, but it’s even worse when you’ve got to worry about about dandruff! And, I will throw in, absolutely free, this empty bottle, so that when you get to your destination, you can pour the freeze dried Head & Shoulders into the bottle, mix it with a little river water, and never have to worry about dandruff when you’re running from those headhunters! Also, we’ve got Colgate toothpowder for just $50, so when they mount your shrunken head on a spike, everyone will comment on how white your teeth are! Last, but not least, we’ve got powdered Nair for only $40! Keep that bikini area clean, and show those savages why we’re civilized!”
If the restrictions are permantly put into place, I suggest investing your profits into researching developments in mechanical computing and sound reproduction! 
Bins full of stuff the airline is taking off you because of concerns that they are actually explosives. Bins in the middle of airports with hundreds of people around. Shit like this just makes a mockery of these security precautions.
I just realized something - several males in my office are on Rogaine. They’ll have to stop using it on trips, risking reversing some of their hair gain - or else buy a new bottle every place they go, use it for a few days, then throw it away again. What is it, like $50 a pop?
They had reports that some of the “noble TSA” anti-terror warriors were already caught “stealing” confiscated items at KC - some sort of expensive perfume, like Prada or Gucci. I guess it’s hard to call it “stealing” but it’s certainly fucking unseemly. I’ve also heard on the TV the first report of a diabetic refused entry to a plane because her insulin bottle did not have her name on the bottle itself (they also seized a child’s asthma inhaler because it didn’t have the child’s name on it…wow). Looking at my stockpile of insulin, not only do none of my bottles have my name on them (since they’re given to me in sealed boxes, duh), none of the boxes have my name on them either. So what the fuck - if I show up with my insulin and three different copies of my prescriptions from three different doctors (which I do in fact have and carry), is some TSA buttburglar going to call me a terrorist and deny me entry? I wonder if some sort of ADA suit can be filed over shit like that.
And we all go through it like sheep. I know I have to or else I lose my job.
Pretty much for me too. I do a shitload of little same-day there-and-backs carrying just a blackberry, a phone, an iPod and a small bag with a pad of paper and a few pens. With a bit of luck I could be outof the airport in 20 mins. If I have to spend an extra couple of hours each day loitering by a luggage carousel, it just becomes too much - leaving home at 0400 and getting home at 2000 for a two-hour meeting is bad enough. If I have to do an overnight for each trip, I’d probably be single again fairly soon, not to mention the cost. Still, it’s not like I enjoyed all those trips very much, so I’m not exactly mourning them.
Ah yes. I was trying to find out what the famous 250 Francs Poincaré per Kilo equates to nowadays, but it escapes me.
On flights covered by the Montreal agreement it’s a bit easier - 17 Special Drawing Rights comes to about $25.25 per kilo, so the airlines would compensate me $3.96 for losing my iPod and $68.43 for my Thinkpad.
:rolleyes:
If the current situation continues there’s going to be a healthy market in add-on luggage insurance, that’s for sure…
Of course they will, in some instances at least.
There is no problem at all with insulin, at least in the UK. My girlfriend had it cleared with no name on the vial.
As for Rogaine, I’m puzzled. Why would you have to take it in your carry-on? It doesn;t stop working if you don’t apply it for a few hours on a flight does it? 
Liquids are allowed in checked baggage.
They don’t think they ARE explosives. AIUI the plot would be to mix liquids taken separately on board, to MAKE an explosive compound. Individually they would be harmless. When mixed - kablooey.
You make a good point. In the US, most business travelers I know are used to not having to check bags, given the incredibly poor compensation given when they’re “lost” or broken into. I guess if they check it then they’ll be alright.
NPR’s reporting that the TSA is now requiring everyone to remove their shoes during screening. Apparently, thins are even worse in the UK. You show up, spend hours going through the screening process only to discover that your flight has been cancelled or that it’s taken off without you.
I feel bad for anyone who happens to be wearing shoes with those cushioned liquid insoles. They probably become an unperson immediately.
When the hell since 9/11 HAVEN’T they required you to take off your shoes?
I went through Houston Hobby on the way to Dallas Love back near the 4th of July, and they had big signs up saying that it wasn’t required to take your shoes off.
My girlfriend tells me it’s not a good idea, but I said “Well, the signs say I don’t have to.”, and proceed through the metal detector.
Whereupon, the smirking TSA loser proceeds to have me searched and tells me (laughing) that what the sign doesn’t say is that you’ll automatically be searched if you don’t take your shoes off.
I told him that he was an asshole and that he could fuck off directly- straight to his face. I’m surprised I didn’t get detained in some way!
I have been made to take off my shoes on every single domestic flight since 9/11. According to TSA, gel shoe inserts must be checked. Still no word on the boob jobs.