Originally Posted by chollie

I suspect behind the scenes the SAN FSD suggested to UA that if people insisted on packing comic books in their checked bags, there would be a lot of overworked, pissed off screeners handling the bags, meaning a lot of damage - opened bottles of shampoo tossed back on top of expensive comic books and collectibles, etc. UA has already had a few bad publicity hits lately, and no matter what they said or who was to blame, many pax would blame UA for trashing their belongings.

It's odd. TSA always seems to know when major sports events are happening, just in case they get to play a role. Yet here is ComicCon, an annual event, and yet TSA was blind-sided for some reason. No one decided to schedule extra hours for the event.

It's no accident that TSA HQ's statement is deliberately threatening and designed to discourage pax from checking certain things. I would worry about retaliation if I were not a ComicCon attendee and unwittingly checked a bag with magazines or brochures.