Last time I flew, which was after 2008, the TSA agent made everyone take their laptops out. He got furiously angry when I put my laptop in the same bin with the bag (on top of the bag). He wanted them in seperate bins. He was incredibly rude to people.
Definitely check in online 24 hrs in advance.
Dressing for travel - no metal, shoes that are easy to get off and on, and layers for the plane because the temperature varies so much.
The last couple times through security I’ve had to remove as many layers as possible which is new, so if your bottom layer is a tank top make sure you’re comfortable wearing it alone through the security checkpoint or make sure it doesn’t show.
Carry an empty but refillable water bottle. Fill it up after security because you will want more water on the plane than the flight attendant will give you.
You’ll be fine with two bags for carryon and to keep things moving smoothly while in line for security:
- have your boarding pass and ID in an outside pocket
- have shoe laces untied (as long as you can still walk that way)
- any items that need to be separated in the bins in one spot (laptop, liquids)
- right now Ipads and ereaders do NOT need to be removed from your bag but keep them somewhere reasonably reachable so you can if necssary without unpacking your entire bag.
- make sure your water bottle is empty. Really empty.
I completely gave up. I now fly with a pocket T-shirt, sweat pants and sandles. I keep my ID and One credit card in my shirt pocket with my MP3 player and ear buds. Nothing else. I breeze through all lines and head straight for the naked machine everyone else is avoiding. I guess if an airlines ever loses my luggage I’ll be up the creek, but I try to Never transfer planes.
For what it’s worth, last time I traveled (about two weeks ago), I put my shoes in the bin at both airports and nobody said a word.
I carry on a lot of stuff when I fly, and what I’ve taken to doing is putting my electronics in one bin, shoes and belt in a second, and my bag on the belt following. No TSA agent has ever said boo to me, despite the little multitool on my keys which I leave in my bag.
I carry one of those Swisscards with the knife removed. What seems to speed things up is that I put it in the plastic bag with the liquids.
Yeah, it’s true that if they aren;t in a plastic bag on top, the TSA will still let liquids go thru- most of the time. But then they see the liquids and it slows everything down while they dig them out and examine them.
I wouldn’t know about exactly what type of laptop bag to use; I always put mine in checked luggage (and the TSA usually opens it and turns the laptop on and off). I just know there are some out there that are labeled “TSA friendly”.
As someone pointed out, don’t wear more than one layer of clothing. I wore a heavy sweatshirt by itself once and was fine, once I wore it over a t-shirt and was stopped and patted down.
You can have nonmetallic stuff in your pocket when going through a metal detector. If going through a body scanner you can’t have stuff in your pockets, I believe, but they won’t alarm off metal on (or in you).
I see them testing people’s liquids. I don’t know if they do this at random or if they see something suspicious. Best not carry on liquids for the least hassle.