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If I’m to believe my parents, it appears that “liquid” was my first word. Sentimentality aside, I’ve always accepted that liquids would be instrumental in my life. But I was never sure how…I’m quite certain that everyone in this country is painfully aware of the apparently infinite guises of liquids-that-must-not-pass-airline-security. And it’s possible that at one point or another, some of you have been informed of the necessity of a plastic baggie. Now, I’m so completely fine complying with federal safety guidelines, but I do find it irksome and maybe even troublesome when different airlines have their own, entirely changeable conceptions of what, precisely, constitutes a liquid.
For instance, today I was traveling with my one carry-on and purse, the contents of which revealed: a vial of eye drops and three different kinds of lip glosses (in my kind of OCD, I make my drug store purchases in triplication). And though I have–very recently!–booked travel out of almost all of our country’s starting line-up of airports, I’ve learned to properly and even expertly utilize my baggie for any contraband, and I have never been sequestered for lip gloss (though, read on: I should have been). After they confiscated my triumvirate of glosses and my eye drops, I was free to leave, but then one of the officials returned my eye drops. (I later learned that under 4 fl. oz is okay, but all of my glosses were way under 4 fl. oz and eye drops are just–I don’t know–much more representative of liquid! Maybe there was a special fatwa issued just for beauty gels today. Who knows.)
But it seems I actually was getting away with murder before, since according to this list of US Government Guidelines, you definitely can’t have lip glosses of any kind. I once sat next to a woman on a plane who was bragging about all the kinds of liquids she still retained on her person, and people didn’t really know what to say to her. Have any of you walked away from airline security confused about what just happened and/or have you ever “gotten away with” (in the inadvertent, you-did-just-X-ray-my-bag way) liquids/gels?
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I’ll step up and claim this story, ’cause it’s amusing and, well, the internet is rather anonymous. I had, I thought, put all of the liquids and make-up in my purse into a plastic bag. This was my return trip, so I had included the lip gloss and mascara. The zip-lock, my shoes and such were returned quickly. The purse took a bit longer than it should to be X-rayed, so I wasn’t surprised when the guard asked if he could search it. The unfortunate man was on ages with me (early twenties), and had been flirting with me while my things were X-rayed. After a quick search he pulled out a small bottle. “Here,” he said, placing the bottle on top of my plastic bag, “you forgot your …” He trailed off, reading the label and I stifled a laugh. After chatting me up, he wasn’t sure how to proceed after searching my purse and finding a bottle of lube. More amused than embarrassed, I chirped, “Thanks,” and proceeded to collect my things.
posted by Liz on 7-6-2007 at 4:07 am
awesome story, I’m leaving in a week for Niagara Falls. They better not take my lip gloss, it’s like air to me. I need it. I’ll remember to pack my ‘lube’ in the suitcase
posted by Janet on 7-6-2007 at 7:17 am
I worked for TSA as a screener for two years to pay the rent while in college, you don’t want to hear my thoughts on our airline security. Incompetence doesn’t stop with the security though, we had many a doozy in the form of passengers. Sadly I had my eyes opened to more in that airport than in all my years in college. I didn’t know they made them that big…
posted by ryan on 7-6-2007 at 8:33 am
One of the last few times I flew, I carefully put all my “liquids” in the baggie and sailed through security. Imagine how surpirsed I was to arrive at my destination and find my pocketknife still in my purse. Ah, yes, I feel so much safer these days.
posted by Larriann on 7-6-2007 at 9:53 am
I have frequently traveled with lip gloss/blam/stick loose in my purse. I think I got away with lotion too. Most of the time I’m just to lazy to put it in a baggie. I, too, have also gotten through security with a 2 in pocketknife in my purse, as well as several pairs of scissors. Gotta love airport security!
posted by Amy on 7-6-2007 at 1:11 pm
Not long after 9-11 I went through security with my coat on, completely forgetting that a pocket where I had kept my bobby pins had a hole and some of the pins escaped into the lining of my coat. I beeped every time I went through the detector, and naturally when they put the wand on me, too, but they couldn’t figure out what was causing it so they let me through. All they had to do was ask me to put my coat through the X-ray, but for some reason they didn’t think of it.
posted by Larissa on 7-6-2007 at 2:13 pm
On a recent flight I packed all my liquid(ish) items in a ziploc baggie. All of them were over 4 fl. oz but I figured that if they pitched a hissy over it they could just toss everything seeing as it was all non-essential.
Not only was no hissy pitched, my bag was never searched and I sailed through with all my exceedingly dangerous goops and goos intact.
I am eternally grateful to the upstanding men and women of the TSA, making it safe again to fly the otherwise unfriendly skies.
posted by Q. Anonymous on 7-6-2007 at 2:58 pm
As an individual who travels on a weekly basis and usually with about 15-20 other group members, getting though tsa has become more of a game to us than anything. I recall one trip where we took a redeye home from the tournament, and most of us opted to carry on our trophies rather than pack them away. My coach went through the screener first and managed to make it trough with a trophy and scissors that while inspected passed because they were only six inches long and seven is the max. I however was not quite so lucky. In my bag was not only a quite heavey marble based trophy which sailed through security but a blush applicator along with some other various make up items. I still can’t figure this one out… but the man who searched my bag deemed my blush brush a blugeoning tool! Who knew.. maybe the terrorists are now spending their free time at MAC!
posted by Jessica on 7-6-2007 at 6:18 pm
Last month I was flying back to the midwest from California and forgot about the ziplock rule (I don’t fly much). I had a large assortment of lotions, calming creams, and healing ointments loosley scattered in my carryon back. Nobody said a word. On the plane, I went to write something down in my journal, and the gel roller pen I was using exploded all over my hand. I was a litte worried someone was going to accuse me of trying to mix liquids.
By the way, glass is liquid. Anybody know if TSA would give you a hard time for having a glass paperweight or something in your carry-on?
posted by Adam on 7-6-2007 at 7:37 pm
The one that still gets me is that I made it through DC airports with my mace attached to my key ring but got yelled at and was forced to throw it away on my return trip through Orlando. Apparently it’s okay to leave the nation’s capital with it but don’t you dare come back from Disney with it.
posted by Lesley on 7-7-2007 at 7:20 am
Before the 9/11 thing, we pulled off something (accidentally) that never would happen now. Kara and I were actually on our honeymoon in the U.K. in 1994. We’d driven up through England and into the highlands of Scotland and back, and were pretty exhausted after a week and a half. We tooled back into London, dropped off the rental car and grabbed a cheap hotel room in Earl’s Court.
We knew we had to rush to make the airport the next morning, so we grabbed everything and hit the train. When we got to Heathrow, we had about 20 minutes to make our plane. They grabbed our tickets, rushed us up through security, and (somehow) we made the plane.
The funny thing was when we got back to Metro Airport in Detroit. Kara’s brother-in-law was supposed to pick us up, and he was nowhere to be found. We called and he showed up about an hour later, and we found out way:
We had left the U.K. a day early. Our return trip was supposed to happen the NEXT day. And Heathrow and British Airways just rushed us through.
I seriously doubt you could pull off the same thing today. And you know? I’m glad.
posted by Sandy on 7-7-2007 at 7:41 am
I’ve been flying since I was 6 months old, and 9-11 didn’t slow me down. I went to Australia and England one summer, through LA, Detroit, and NYC, with no issues at all. As a matter of fact I came back with 3 bottles of wine from Sydney even though I was only 19 and the limit was 2.
But a few years later I was flying to Florida with 2 lighters in my purse that had been with me for ages, one from Australia and one from Florida. These weren’t bics, but they weren’t expensive. Just sentimental. They also happened to both be empty. I was unaware that they had just passed a rule prohibiting all lighters from going onto airplanes 2 days prior. So they search my purse, pull out my two “just for show” non-working lighters, and tell me I have 2 options: Leave the lighters with them never to be seen again, or take them to my car. Since my car happened to be parked off-lot and would’ve taken me a whole lot longer to get to and back than I had before my flight, I had to let them confiscate my lighters… Of course, I found out later I also had at least 2 packs of matches in the same purse that I did take on the plane with me… Which would have worked better than the empty lighters had I intended to do anything involving fire.
posted by SS on 7-8-2007 at 7:38 pm
I visited France from the UK earlier this year. On the return trip I had one of my rings confiscated on the grounds that it could be used as a weapon. Though this was absurd enough in itself, I had been wearing the same ring non stop for almost ten years on many flights, including when making a number of flights shortly after 9/11 on an American airline. In fact it was during security checks for one of these flights that my father’s prodder for his pipe was confiscated, and my penknife (and ring!) was left alone.
posted by E on 7-9-2007 at 6:29 am
A couple of times I’ve made it thru security, onto the plane & to my destination before realizing I had a pocketknife in my carry-on.
On a different note, once I went thru the metal detector like normal, but my bag stayed in the x-ray for a while. The person manning the x-ray screen called someone else over, & they were both pointing at the screen saying things like, “I don’t know, maybe?” So then we have this conversation:
TSA: Sir, is this your bag?
Me: Yes it is.
TSA: Do you have anything round & metal in it?
Me: Yes, there’s a belt-buckle.
TSA: No, that’s not it. Anything else?
Me: No, but I can show you the belt buckle if you want.
TSA: No no no, just come with me.
The bomb-sniffing machine at this check-point was broken & we had to walk to the other. As I’m following him over to the other check-point, I notice there are 2 armed TSA cops following right behind me. So we get the other machine & my bag checks out, so he opens it up & looks at my belt-buckle (round & metal sure enough).
TSA: Huh, I guess it was just a belt buckle. On the x-ray it looked just like a grenade.
posted by Evan on 7-9-2007 at 10:46 am
I have a 2-sided mirror compact in my purse that I was told looks just like a knife when it goes through the x-ray.
My husband and I were flying internationally a few months ago. Before we checked our luggage (Thank G-d) he found a manual can-opener in his jacket pocket! We have no idea how it got there, but we can only imagine what security would have thought.
When flying another time I broke a nail and it was too painful to rip off, so I asked an employee at the desk if she had a nail clipper (obviously none of my fellow travelers did). She gave me such a suspicious look and asked what I wanted it for! To take over the plane, duh! sheesh.
posted by Yonit on 7-12-2007 at 1:41 pm
I fly regularly, mainly because I live in China, and am not Chinese, but also because my family lives on 2 continents (not including me) and 3 countries. While the Chinese airport regulations are pretty funny (they announce every time you enter Chinese airspace, ‘Chinese law forbids the photography of China from an airplane, please refrain from taking photographs from the plane.’), my favorite stories are the ones from the US airports after 9/11. I was used to strict security in Europe, and remember that once, flying back to the US from France, my family was held up at security for a very long time. My brother got an electric train set for Christmas, and my dad locked the suitcase, then went to the bathroom with the key. My mother tried endlessly to explain what it was, but didn’t know how to say in French, ‘electric train set.’
In the US, I have had my backpack searched because I had wooden clothespins in it. They pulled everything out of my bag, and questioned me for several minutes on why I had them in my bag. (I teach 1st grade, and I use them to make phonics games. Apparently, the endless supplies of markers and paper, and other art supplies didn’t make my story credible enough- they DIDN’T confiscate my little pair of scissors, though.)
When I flew this summer, there were signs in the airport, ‘We will only provide you with a plastic bag if you are making a purchase.’
posted by greenstrawberries on 8-28-2007 at 3:47 am