TRAVEL ALERT!
If you’re flying to Chicago or pretty much anywhere, disregard a recent syndicated travel story that ran in the Kansas City Star. In it the writer suggested that Transportation Security Administration screeners are beginning to look the other way when it comes to liquids in carry-on luggage.
Not so!
I checked at both MCI and Midway airports in Chicago and was told that the
jojo
WRONG AGAIN JACK….AS ALWAYS…
traveled to 3 cities in the last 3 weeks…
took large liquid containers…was looked at
by screener…asked what it was…explained
and we let thru security.
You and tony need to get out more often.
They are less concerned about containers…
there are so many travelers that they are
letting some get by…just don’t have the
time to check everything and get people on
planes…especially in chicago and atlanta
and l.a. x….
please stop making stupid comments.
kcredsox
I recently traveled with a colleague and they forgot to take the liquids out of their bag. Their luggage was scanned and this person was not asked to take the liquids out.
Glow1
Let’s see, I traveled to two cities over the past two weeks and lost an 8oz bottle of hot sauce and a rather small snow globe from my carry on because of the liquid policy. So, I guess that makes me wrong too, JoJo, since the world does revolve around you.
Eric
I went to Chicago a couple of months ago and forgot about the liquid thing (hadn’t flown in forever) and they didn’t even bring it up when I flew out of KC or back here out of Midway. I had all my normal toiletries in my carry on.
Mr.X
From a professional traveler, the policies are applied inconsistently across airports and within the same airport. It’s a crap shoot as to who is going to question what, but in my experience, the TSA has at least unofficially relaxed some rules over the past several months.
Yes, it is still the policy to enforce the 3-1-1 rule, but it seems as though they have much more individual discretion. Again, my personal policy is to not pack anything that is questionable and that I’m attached to. That doesn’t mean that I don’t use a larger clear plastic bag than they recommend, or occasionally stray past the 3.4 oz requirement.
Sometimes I get nailed, sometimes I get a stern talking to about remembering the rules next time, but more often than not, it’s not even questioned.
jack p
Wow! Controversy over the liquid carry-on law!
Since I had planned on purchasing an imported European liquid elixer at Merz’s Apothecary at Lincoln Square in Chicago, I didn’t want to take the risk of losing it at the Midway security checkpoint.
(Not only would I’ve been out of 50 bucks but would’ve been forced back to the little blue pills in order to keep up with KCC’s firecracker editor.)
That’s why I asked the question at both airports. And that’s the answer I got at both locations.
Interestingly enough, MCI’s screeners are NOT TSA staffers but employees of an outsourced, contracted security company.
In Chicago it’s pure TSA.
Travel clients of mine who just returned from a European vacation told me that the liquids-ban enforcement was very strict upon their return to the U.S.!
So OFFICIALLY nothing has changed and taking a bottle of Whiskey on board can be an expensive crapshoot when you lose it.
Mr.X
Now that’s just crazy. I wouldn’t risk any bottle of whiskey, let alone an expensive one. Check that bag.
The stuff I’m talking about risking is when I run out of my travel size shaving cream and try to sneak by a full 6.0 oz can.
To your point about TSA v. contracters. I rarely see true TSA people working security front to back. Generally there will be a couple mixed in or “supervising”, but it’s not often where the whole operation is run by TSA, but I can believe Chicago and some other higher profile airports having a different security profile.
Kia Zi
Flying out of the US, no body said anything about the Gates and Son’s bottle of extra hot BBQ but flying into the US my bottle of Tuscany garlic sauce was x-rayed, examined and finally poured into a sink to make sure it wouldn’t blow up. Maybe security is just more paranoid coming into New York than leaving it.