So much for you supposedly taking the high ground, TSORon. Nice to read that Randy will protect you by making people use your correct name, but you will not be corrected for blatantly inciting issues with obvious insults.

I am insulted by your accusation that I am fracking lying. As far as I am concerned, your posts are BS of the highest order.

I have had over $300.00 of tools CONFISCATED (taken under dubious color of authority) by TSA BWI over the past 7 years. Every time, the tool has been COMPLETELY within the limits espoused by your employer. Every time, the TSA employee physically removed them from my bag, showed the item to the x-ray operator and then immediately tossed the item directly into a bin behind the x-ray machine, told me that I could not do anything about it when I complained and that I would be arrested for interference if I complained any further. The one time I called a LEO was fruitless, as the TSA employee stated that the item was CONFISCATED in accordance with policy and that my actions constituted interference with screening in calling the LEO. That LEO looked at me, told me these "folks" were out of his control and to move on or he would be required to cite me for criminal trespass.

Written complaints to the FSD office were met with, in one case, "we checked the tape and saw nothing, and our "officer" stated that he gave you an opportunity which you declined". All of the other complaints were met with absolute silence. Written complaints to MdTA for the LEO conduct were never responded to at all.

Telling me that I have options is a nice platitude on an anonymous forum. BWI TSA has NEVER offered me that option. I take it this is driven from the top, since the lousy FSD for that airport has verbally threatened me with arrest for carrying LEGAL scissors beyond the C/P. In that particular case, once I complained vociferously there and then, the LEO backed me up, stating that he would not arrest me for carrying an item that was not against the law in MD and which was just visually inspected by one of the FSD's own personnel.

Why not? I carry my wallet and passport in my pockets all the time. I don't take it out just to go through the WTMD..

I will give that the one time I left a laptop at the checkpoint, the TSA powered up the laptop, and paged the userid on the login screen over the PA... which was rather funny to hear, over the the hub-city PA, paging the userid on the login screen!

Now, on the other item. I agree with the letter-of-the-law of your statement, yet the not the spirit-of-the-law. If the TSA were truly a customer-service oriented organization (that they claim to be), there would be a concerted effort, at the strategic level, to meet this need:

In the event that an item is identified as being unacceptable to be accepted into the sterile area, there should be an option, at the CP, to have that item delivered via land-side service to the address of the pax's choice, at the pax's expense, via a recognized common-carrier.

A customer-service oriented organization would not say... you have a Swiss Army knife, of significant emotional value, you have to take it back to a location land-side of your choosing (such as a car, or your home, which means missing the flight), you can mail it to yourself (without a post office land-side, or packing material, etc), or you can abandon it.

A customer-service oriented organization would provide a service option. The first option that comes to mind, and the simplest, would be someone standing at the output of the x-ray belt, saying "$10 plus USPS Priority Mail shipping costs, fill out this mailing label, and we'll mail it for you".

To say "deal with it, mail it, or surrender it", is insulting. If the TSA really wanted to be customer-service oriented, there would be a customer-paid option, at the CP, to deal with these situations. Let the customer decide, at that moment, if they want to spend $20 to send that (emotionally important to them) item home via USPS, at that moment.

I guess it all depends on the definition of "confiscate". (I assume that is why you used quotes?) On several occasions I also have had a TSA grab something out of my bag and toss it in the trash without looking at me or saying a word. Sure meets my definition of confiscate, but to each his own I suppose...

This past week, I flew from Phx to Vegas and back...I stuffed my jacket and purse into my locked carry-on both ways before I entered C/P. No issues.

I NEVER even pulled my zip-lock bag of liquids out of my luggage pocket. I leave it there. I NEVER even take my hand sanitizer or lip gloss from my purse to place into the baggie either. Go figure.

Hubby has loose travel size (hotel) shampoo and lotion in the front pocket of his luggage...never placing into a baggie either.

I walk through security with my ID and BP in hand or shoved into my pocket. No belt, no watch, no jewelry...no issues.

After being forced to unload all my valuables into my carryon, TSA frequently will not allow me to keep an eye on my valuables.

At SFO, after years of going through this, I told the TSA agent before the machine, that I'd set it off and that I needed to be able to see my things. And she said that I cannot do that.

I've consistently over the years (after TSA agents insisted on taking my wallet and running it through the xray) taken my valuables out of my pockets and into my carryons.

It is more than a majority of the time a struggle to get TSA to allow me to keep an eye on my valuables while I go through additional screening (I have a medical issue which always results in this).

I have come to simply hate TSA as almost anybody with a medical issue does. It took a long time to develop but the 1) realization that almost all your procedures focus undue interest on those with medical issues and 2) your rules are often at crosspurposes --I was told to keep an eye on my stuff at all times, then TSA employees tell me I cannot (no i don't mean when they are actually in the xray but afterwards).

9 years of this and as a traveler who gets whatever new screening techniques you can come up with (I've flown this month) and I've gone from being happy to fly to dreading TSA --why? Because I have a medical issue which sets off the various detectors (but not explosives one).