No, it's a Bouncer word. It's part of my first-ever FT-given moniker (post #1738). :D

GG

I was running a bit late so I didn't have time to go a couple of rounds with a supervisor. I did inform the screener that I knew for a fact that the bottle was under 3 ounces and that it contained shampoo, but she insisted on taking it anyway, her explanation being that she could not accept my word as to the size or the contents since it was unlabeled and therefore she was confiscating it. Hence the, I know it's not a threat but I am taking it anyway remark.

Silly me didn't bring my usual printout since I didn't think I had anything that would trip their radar, other than a prescription tooth medication in original packaging that was under 3 ounces that I could have dumped in my Freedom Baggie (TM) if they'd given me crap for it.

Ironically, I was concerned about losing my prescription toothpaste at EWR the most...and they didn't even find it in my bag or inspect it. So apparently, if I want to sneak things through there, the best way is to distract them with a decoy unlabeled bottle of terroristic shampoo.

As a test, I left my face toner in a cheapie travel bottle in the baggie on the return trip through MCO. They didn't bat an eyelash at it.

*sigh* This keeps getting less and less fun.

Deleted

I think you are onto something. Shortly after the liquid ban went into place in Aug. I was transiting to the US off an international flight into Canada. I had lotion & some other banned liquids in my backpack that I had intended to transfer to my checked bag before continuing on to the US. I got distracted & forgot, so they should have been confiscated at the checkpoint. However, the agents were in such a tizzy that I was insisting on bring an empty water bottle with me that they completely missed the actual contraband. :rolleyes: Security at its finest.

yet another 3 oz question for bart
 

but first, thanks for all the advice and input.

now as to my question....is there any sop, directive, page number, etc. that one can refer a screener or supervisor to regarding "one's own 2.75oz plastic bottle". what i'm getting at is this-for what's left of my hair ;), i use a bit of hair gel and have decanted it into a small clear 2.75 oz plastic bottle. the bottle has no label and have written "hair gel" on it for 2 reasons-one to tell the screener and 2 so i know what's in it. i've been reading that it has been hit and miss regarding whether one can take it or have it taken but what is the official policy and can a reference be shared so as to inform a screener supv if they are incorrect? thanks as always for your input-tho i may not always agree with it :) and in most cases you are only the messenger, it has all been VERY helpful ^

My wife and I printed up some decorative labels that just wrap around the 3 oz bottles we purchased. For example one for shampoo, with the brand name followed by "shampoo", a nice background and "3 fl oz" on the bottom right. We put these on our bottles. I can't say we've really tested them, since SYR TSA are reasonable (today was SYR-ORD-YVR) but I think it's a good idea to provide information on the bottles. If they think I'm trying to deceive them I can always say "my wife made them for me".

Shouldn't it be written on the bottle that it's the "Kip Hawley Is An Idiot" brand hair gel?

Thanks for the follow-up! I might try it on our next trip.

rotflmao
"khiai" gel.
screener: what's that?
me: just a hair product i picked up in hawaii.
(think it might work?)

Bart, is there an "official" date when we can bring aboard "baggies" for UK-bound flights?

Ink?
 

Hi Bart,
Maybe you can answer this for me.

I carry a fountain pen with me at all times. I always carry cartridge refills (the pen does not run out of ink after you stop writing, after all). They are about 1 1/2" by 1/4". A package of refills contains 5 cartridges. Now, one cartridge is going to be in my pen, of course. The cartridges also have no individual label (the box does). If I checked my pen and ink, I would not be able to write on the plane, and the risk of the cartridges being broken by poor handling of my luggage is high.

Do I have to put the pen and ink in the freedom baggie? Are they going to attempt to take away my pen or ink due to the liquid contents? I would not be able to open one of the cartridges to prove that it is ink without ruining it as they are sort of "sealed until use."

Thanks,
KF

KF,

I have successfully and without question gotten a very nice fountain pen through security in several airports. It is has an all metal body, and unless you open the cap you can't tell it's a fountain pen.

So, I'd say you're not likely to have a problem with the pen itself.

As for the ink cartridges, I took a whole 50 mL bottle of ink in my baggie on the way back from DC a week ago. I bought it there because the liquid ban was in place when I went up. The screener looked hard at the bottle (for size, I think, because the amount was not indicated in ounces, just mL), and let it go.

Having said that, if some screener got a wild hair somewhere, the TSA site only talks about toiletries. So a poorly trained or a hardline screener might say something.

I don't think you're likely to have a problem, but I would probably reduce risk by taking the cartridges out of the package and bring them in the ziplock.

BART!!! Bart!!! I just saw this and ran right over here to ask if this is true or if you've heard anything about this. As I'm sure you can imagine, I'm experiencing some anxiety and possible hyperventilation at the very thought. Tell me it isn't so, Bart. Tell me it isn't so.

GG

MSP is an odd place in this regard. You can be on wonderful, first-name terms with the counter agents, but TSA seems to have a culture of severity. I would not be surprised if MSP TSA did that but that doesn't mean it will be nationwide TSA SOP.

[QUOTE=NittanyFlyer]Penn State's Ag program produces great ice cream and packs it to go in dry ice. We didn't buy any since we could never imagine that ice cream, not alone dry ice, would be allowable under the new rules.
However, a guy on our flight was able to bring the ice cream in a bag on board in his carry-on as long as there was no more than 4 lbs. of dry ice. The concern seemed to be more over the dry ice than the ice cream. /QUOTE]

The sublimation (thanks to CarpBoy) of dry ice (frozen CO2/carbon dioxide) to a gas will cause problems for animals/people "when exposed to high levels of CO2 in the environment, and they may experience immediate hypoxia or anoxia in response to the displacement of ambient oxygen. At any given temperature and pressure, a liter of air can contain only a certain number of particles. In this case, the sublimation of dry ice to CO2 gas displaced the other components of ambient air, the most important of which was oxygen.

The displacement of breathable oxygen by another gas produces asphyxiation, impaired pulmonary gas exchange culminating in hypoxemia. Asphyxiation may be caused by a physical mechanism, such as choking, or by the reduction of the oxygen content in breathable air. " (This is NOT the same as carbon monoxide poisoning...that is different .) See http://www.emedmag.com/html/pre/tox/0500.asp Thus a live animal (people included) can be subjected to hypoxia, loss of consciousness, and even die if there is insufficient oxygen. Remember from First Aid Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation training that the normal air we breathe in is 21% oxygen, and what we breathe out is 16% oxygen, and still sufficient to save a life, so it is a matter of concentration and percentage.

Thus there are strict prohibitions on cargo articles with dry ice in the same (closed) cargo compartment (of which there are several below deck) as live animals, Fifi and Fluffie included. Even then, some guidelines suggest 5 minutes ventilation of a closed compartment that has held evaporating dry ice, before one attempts to enter it.

The limitation in the passenger cabin is such that it would not measurably deplete this oxygen for surrounding passengers, and thus not be a danger.