From your own website: Liquids Rule | Transportation Security Administration
Which is it? 3 ounces of liquids permitted in carry-on or 3.4. Your stupid website says both.
I just bought bunch of 3.2-oz plastic bottles for our family’s upcoming trip. The package said “TSA approved size”.
Idiots. :mad:
I’m pretty sure it’s the 3.4 and that 3-1-1 is just trying to be cutesy. If it all fits in the ziploc, they’re not going to get picky. Personally, I just try and fly without liquids (Lush’s bar shampoo with conditioner is actually really good).
It’s 3.4 ounces, which happens to be 100ml, which is nice and standard for the rest of the civilized world. This is another time when our insistence upon jettisoning the metric system is biting us in the behind.
You know what’s crazy? All American units are officially defined in terms of their metric conversion factors. WE WENT METRIC YEARS AGO AND NOBODY NOTICED! AAAAHHHHH!!!
Hold on just one second there, pilgrim! When they say “1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag” do they mean a US liquid quart (0.946352946 litres) or a US dry quart (1.101220942715 litres) or an Imperial quart (1.1365225 litres)? I don’t want to hold up that line!
Quart bag is a defined size. 7 inches by 7 11/16 inches. Hmm, let’s see if it makes more sense in metric? 17.7 cm by 19.5 cm. Nope.
What if you have gallon bags, but only fill a quart’s worth? Or cut it down to size? Will that get me a cavity search?
Yeah I know, but you’d think with all the flack they’re getting right now these incompetent idiots would at least spend the 10 seconds to get it right on their own fucking website.
“No more than three ounces” should mean exactly that if that is what they are declaring. 3.4 ounces is more than 3.0 ounces.
So stupid in any case. Anyone could easily pack enough 3-ounce containers in a quart ziplock to equal 12 or 16 ounces. Get together with a few other terrorists who brought the same on board and they’ve got plenty of liquids to blow up a plane. It’s all just so fucking stupid.
They also say “no liquids, aerosols or gels”. But in fact, “pastes” are also a no-no.*
*They took my vegemite. 
Well if vegemite isn’t a controlled substance, it should be.
I think vegemite looks more like an explosive than shampoo or body wash.
But I’d be pissed. Mate.
There’s probably something in the regulations prohibiting dangerous and noxious substances.
I would have just dug out big wads of vegemite with my finger and ate them 'til it was okay. Yum.
Yes, I know that doesn’t work in the real world. I learned my lesson a decade ago when I had to dispose of excess vodka while re-entering the US.
“But it’s the good stuff…”
“Yeah, go ahead and lick it up.”
Wait, according to the TSA, joking about terrorism while in line will lead to a metric ass ton of hurt. How much pain am I looking at?
Really? They called you on it and dumped it? How much extra did you have? The few times I’ve been through customs with an excess haul of alcohol nobody seemed to care.
I have students that had no trouble buying large quantities of alcohol in… Mexico, I think it was, but had to give it up when they got to the USofA.
Just because they forgot they were only 19…
Except that they do. I once had a TSA agent insist on confiscating a 2.8 oz bottle because…well, because she wasn’t literate enough to fucking read the “2.8 OZ” that was molded into the bottle.
Which is its own special form of insane, insofar as the preferred explosive formulations of truly professional terrorists, like Semtex, Composition C, and Torpex all all solid plastique-type explosives. I guess if you form it into a mold that imprints the word “LUSH” on it, it must be safe.
I’m increasingly tempted to bring a block of dry ice on board (in an FAA-approved vented container) and argue that because it sublimates it not a liquid or gel and therefore within their permitted regulations, despite the fact that it appears to be smoking like Humphrey Bogart.
Stranger
Last I checked, the definition of “solid” didn’t include any information about its possible changes of physical state: dry ice is as solid as your clothes.
The thing that gets me every time is that, since rechargeable lighters must now be in hand luggage (why? Too many complaints of “some asshole stole Grandad’s gold-plated lighter!”?), and given what you can buy in the duty-free, you’ve got the ingredients for a Very Traditional Incendiary Hand-Grenade right there. No need to bring them through customs, just buy them between security and boarding.
When the the 3-1-1 rule first came out, it actually was 3 oz, not 3.4. They told us that it was equivalent to about 90 ml. We used to throw out a lot of 100 ml perfumes and things until they decided to get on the same page as the rest of the world.
In my opinion, the extreme focus we have on liquids is counter-productive for this very reason. Our testers love putting a simulated IED in a test bag and watching the officers go right for the unrelated bottle of water. The rumor going around now is that the rules may be loosening up next year, and they are deploying a whole bunch of new bottle scanners. Fingers crossed.
Which is communistic and therefore terroristic, thus 3 rather than 3.4 regardless of the regs.
Been hitting the MacGyver box set pretty heavily, haven’t you? 
Indeed. Any security or analysis system that generates a large number of artificial false positives, e.g. searching grandma because her number came up in the lottery is going to dull the effectiveness of the actual system. I would be better to have testers going through security on a regular basis with simulated IEDs and/or displaying suspicious behavior than to impose blanket regulations of questionable effectiveness against any actual threats for the sake of “doing something”.
Stranger