I've checked the airline website (in this case, AA) and it says that safety razors are okay in carry-on bags. It also states that aerosol sprays for personal use are okay as long as no one item is more than 16 ounces. However, the FAA website states that no aerosols are allowed, including hairspray, but does say that perfumes less than 16 ounces are okay. In fact, hairspray is not allowed in checked luggage, which I can understand. Does this apply to even small travel sizes of hairspray.? Today I was told by a telephone customer service rep that safety razors are being confiscated, as well as some keys.

So what have been your experiences? Have any of you ladies out there had your spray perfumes or travel-size hairsprays taken by security personnel? What else has been confiscated that's on the "Okay" list?

The inconsistency in all of this is making me crazy. Does anyone know how to contact the FAA to ask questions such as mine?

[This message has been edited by LoveBora (edited 11-15-2001).]

Traveling on AA37 from ZRH a couple of days ago I witnessed a very upset passenger go off on the Swiss when they took his nail clippers(minus file) and his tweezers. He was angry because he had been told by AA these were not a problem. This was in fact the first I had seen of this.

Just the day before, at FRA, I was given a real steel knife for my steak inside security.



[This message has been edited by FoothillFlyer (edited 11-15-2001).]

I think it all boils down to who you get, and how he/she is feeling.

Here is the Contact information for the FAA:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/005396.html

The e-mail takes about a week for a response.

Thanks UA*AA. Regardless of what the FAA policies are, it's as you said, it all depends on what the security guards wants to do. Did he/she have a fight with the significant other, was there traffic on the way to work, etc. LOL (or maybe not)

LoveBora is completely correct. Whatever whomever decides you can't bring on board won't be allowed.

I took some visiting relatives out on a dinner-casino cruise here in FLL. One had a tiny (like 1 inch) Swiss Army Knife on her key ring. They confiscated it.

The kicker is, once on the boat we were served metal steaknives with our meal!

[This message has been edited by LLZ (edited 11-15-2001).]

My husband (who has a beard) has been thoroughly searched at every checkpoint we've been through since 9/11. He's been wanded and patted and questioned. They've taken his nail clippers and tweezers.

But every time they have ignored the two inch arrowhead he wears on a cord around his neck. I guess no one told them that an arrowhead is a deadly weapon.

In the meantime, I breeze through the same security checkpoints without so much as a second glance. I discovered last week that I have been carrying a small pair of folding sewing scissors in the bottom of a cosmetic bag in my purse all this time. I decided to leave it just to see if it would be taken. They were--the very next time they went through the x-ray at DEN. (Maybe because I now realized they were there I looked *guilty* and they picked up on that.)

Last week when we went through security at DEN they totally dumped (literally) out our roll-aboard because "something looked sharp in there." They never did find the *sharp* object and finally gave up. (I have no idea what it was they saw.) They did find a pair of plastic-sheathed blunt-nosed scissors and started to take them. When I protested that the FAA regs specifically say this type of scissors is OK, the inspector called over his supervisor, who confirmed that they were indeed "legal". They let me keep them.

So I guess it's as others have said: it depends. . .

---

Yep, sometimes meat clevers get through!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/003295.html

I have a small sewing kit, with tiny scissors and recently went EWR-CDG-NCE. In the US, I wasn't stopped, checked or questioned. In Paris--they did ask to see the 'item', and after a brief consultation--decided they were fine, and let me keep them. On my return, in Nice again no problem-and in Paris they didn't ask me to open my bag, just questioned what it was, then sent me on my way!

I had (note past tense) a small pair of nail scissors WITH ROUNDED ENDS. I bought it specifically because it complied with the FAA regulations. They made it through 6 or 7 screenings, but were confiscated at SFO where, according to the rentacop, 'those regulations are only a floor. here we take anything designed to cut asnything else.'

I'm looking forward to the federalized security...

My small sewing kit was taken in ATL on my 24th flight since the 11th.
I had a supervisor called over and protested, pointing to the faa regs. They didn't care and determined that the 1" long blunt nose scissors that can't even cut thread was a weapon. "Don't you feel safer knowing that we here in ATL are doing such a good job?"
During my trip, I picked up new kit from my room at the Hyatt and once again made it through without being stopped on my way home.

The whole security sham is rather sad. You can still put a ceramic knife in your underwear, put a razor-sharp edge on the credit cards in your wallet and stab people with a pen.

The lockers are closed but the large trash bins adjacent are not. No real thought or strategy behind any of the so-called precautions.

The reinforced cockpit doors, reasonable scrutiny of passenger lists and the post-9/11 passenger response to any 'issues' onboard are probably more than enough to prevent a repetition.

Failure of or failure to heed intelligence reports was the biggest lesson from 9/11. We can only hope that has been addressed.

Last night, Portland television news had a story of an unaccompanied 12 year old boy who boarded NW (suspect it was actually CO-Micronesia)in Guam. He received a NW amenity kit with a NW-branded sewing kit containing a pair of blunt scissors (looked like less than 1 inch long), Held up by security while they argued about the appropriateness of the scissors. News said he arrived approx 12 hours late. Yes, he still had the harmless scissors.

What foolishness!

Screeners at LAX made me check a pair of channel-lock pliers. They claimed that the FAA says you can't take any tools on board. Although the supervisor confirmed the story, I find this difficult to believe. I can't find anything on the FAA's site about such a weird rule.

I received a reply from the FAA on my questions about carry-on items and they merely said to check with my airline about what they allow. However, most airlines share the security checkpoints, but they don't seem to be notifying security personnel of what their policies are so it's just generalized on how the guards feel that day. Nobody is in charge. I sure hope once it's all federalized there's a measure of intelligence used when screening passengers.

It justs keeps getting better (joke). When the media continues to report that people are afraid to fly, everyone thinks it because of fear of terrorists. In reality, it is fear of those at the checkpoints.

By the way, after about a dozen passes, with a couple hand inspections, they went after my cheap corkscrew (those little ones the hotels give you). I had to control myself while watching him go through my bag. He moved one corkscrew out of the way to get to the other one. He took it. Missed my nail clippers too. Thanks for the laughs.
To misquote a former president:
"We have nothing to fear, except ourselves"