The world is safe from my hair products
I was going to be getting on a plane a few days ago and packed in a hurry. Since I usually have a problem with suitcase overweight and have gotten a bit paranoid about it, at the last minute I tossed some of the heavier things from my large suitcase into my carry-on. The large one checked in at a hefty-but-under-the-maximum 48.5 pounds, and I congratulated myself for having just squeaked by.
That is, until I went through security and I was pulled out of line. Then they re-x-rayed my carry-on, and then took a smallish plastic bag from its overstuffed and overburdened bowels—and I got a sinking feeling as they reached in and I remembered what had to be in there.
My hair products, all three of them: shampoo, conditioner, styling lotion. All necessary to tame my unruly locks into a semblance of order, and all full to the brim and each weighing well over 3.4 ounces. Not to mention that each had cost me $20-plus, and so the grand total for that little innocuous plastic bagful was over $60. I realized I didn’t have enough time to go back and see whether I could mail them to myself, which would save me considerable money, or figure out some other solution. I was stuck, the TSA guy so totally impervious to my pleas that I barely bothered to mount them. And when I plaintively asked what they would do with them, and he said “we throw them out,” it almost broke my heart.
I’ve replaced them, of course. $64 for that little moment of carelessness.
If the limit is 3.4 oz, couldn’t you discard enough in each to get below limit? Some waste but not total.
That’ll learn you, neo. Sorry for your forced sacrifice at the altar of security theater. Ever wonder what they’re going to do to us if someone tries a body cavity bomb? Maybe then they can try profiling.
Those last minute suitcase/carry-on changes are stressful. When I was leaving Paris in December my carry-on weighed in a little over. I moved some things from it to my suitcase. Besides being concerned about shoving a new item into the bag (in lieu of carefully placing it in a “best” location), as I walked to security, I realized my new camera was in that checked bag. I was so relieved when it was still there when I unpacked.
Between us, my husband and I have three joint replacements. We are treated as major threats to the safety of fellow passengers each time we fly. Can’t be too careful about middle class, American grandparents.
I have a defibrillator implant. I open my shirt up and show them and they wave me straight trough.
Osma bin Laden’s legacy: TSA.
Neo-neocon: attempted terrorist.
LOL
Last time I flew, didn’t pay extra for TEA pre screening.
On the return flight, I printed the boarding pass at the airport. I handed paperwork to first tea agent. He gave it back with a strip of plastic. I went to next agent by the x ray scanner. Started to take off my shoes. He said “you don’t have to do that and waved me past the body scanner. When I looked at my boarding pass, it said I was pre screened. Hmm, slight bug in the system.
If I had been a bad guy with a clean id, all I would have to do is pay for the pre screening. Then I could have taken anything I wanted on the plane.
Meant to write TSA not TEA. Need an edit function here.
Maybe it’s just Google filling in what it thinks I should write instead of what I do write.
Don’t you feel so much safer knowing that the shampoo police are on the alert? The took my mom’s eyeshadow. It wasn’t a liquid, it was certainly not more than 3.4 oz. They just took it because they could. She’s 75 and not one to fight (not in public anyway and certainly not with strangers, the horror). ATC, it’s a good thing I wasn’t there at the time because there would have been blood and guts, probably mine.
They took a corkscrew off of me. It was a little joke thing from a winery I had visited abroad. Probably no more than 2″ long. It had been a long flight and it was an inconsequential memento so I didn’t put up a fight, but still. Are we living in fear of the great uncorking terrorist?
I m now packing for 3 different climates, makes me crazy. Impossible to get it right
They throw them away. Just think of all those “explosives” dangerously piled into the trash can next to security. It’s so ridiculous!
George W gave us TSA, a great repository of minimal wage workers getting >$20 per hour plus Federal pensions, unionized to boot. Michael Chertoff was its first boss. Chertoff, one of 70-plus “Republican” signers of today’s open letter condemning Trump (but not Hillary)
TSA and DHS make the Keystone Cops look professional, but at least they made the world safe from neoneocon’s hair products. I will sleep peaceful tonight.
Say it’s for the baby!
Really though, I got through with thirty oz in three different containers with a baby. They wave some paper over it that does or does not change color. Or put it in some funny machine. If it was worth it for my $1 of milk, why not your items?