My kippie bag was in the wrong place!
 

The good news... today at IAD I was able to do a SDOO. The bad news is that I was "reprimanded" for putting my zip-lock bag in the wrong place.

I travel almost weekly, and have a routine that I follow in every airport around the United States as the routine helps me know I am not leaving anything behind. I place my stuff on the belt in the following order: First, my carry on bag. Second, my laptop. Third, a tub containing my shoes, freedom baggie, suit coat, and on top of it my nearly-empty briefcase (Empty because it only holds a few folders, my laptop, and freedom baggie - which are now out of the bag in the tub as required.)

Anyway, today I put my zip-lock bag in exactly the same place I have for years, but after I passed through the WTMD I was pulled aside and told that I needed additional inspection of my bag because I hadn't removed my liquids.

I said "Excuse me? The baggie is in the tub." He said he needed to look in my briefcase. I said okay, but I didn't understand why since it was empty. He looked inside and said it was empty. I said " Wow. That's a surprise." :rolleyes:

He proceeds to get my zip-lock bag from the bin and placed it on top of my briefcase. Then he informs me that I should always place it on top of the briefcase like he was showing me, so the screener knows I haven't forgotten to take it out.

Sigh.

I've said it many times and I still believe it's true. You can't fix stupid.

Tch, tch! Naughty, naughty, you! You are going to have to be retrained on the proper airport procedures for passengers. Oh, wait...those aren't written down anywhere, so how could you know if you were doing it right in the first place. Duh...never mind.... :rolleyes::confused::rolleyes::confused:

Please be sure to let us know when another TSO tells you it should be put on the side, because it interferes with scanning the briefcase.

I would be ecstatic if we could elevate this back to merely "stupid".

Meanwhile in other evolved countries airplanes continue to take off, cruise and land safely despite liquids much more than can be stored in a kippie bag being freely taken on board.

The problem is taking your Kippie bag out to begin with. I never do and I've not had anything said to me in several years now.... at least not in the US.

Same here. I stopped taking my Freedom Baggie out of the outer pocket of my carry-on last year. Its never been questioned.

When you get a minute, please take a few seconds to update the log at the site in my signature line (tsastatus.net). I have nothing to do with the management of the site, but I find it extremely useful. The key is keeping it up to date. It's getting a lot harder to do a SDOO at Dulles, and we can use all the help we can give each other.

You have got to be kidding?
 

I cannot believe the clerk told you that! What an idiot, but it was IAD after all. I think I would have gotten the supervisor and let both of them have it. The stpidity just keeps increasing with these morons.

"Ignorance can be fixed, but stupid is forever."
my mother

I'm surprised you were allowed to keep your shoes in the bin. On my last trips through the gauntlet in June, the staff were removing shoes that they saw in the bins--not asking, mind you, just rearranging passengers' belongings on their own. :rolleyes:

I was questioned once out of my last ~100 or so flights--recently. It was IAH T-B of all places. She told me I had liquids in my bag (Which I did, in a ziplock, outer pocket) and when I went to pull it out, (yes, I had already grabbed it before she said anything) she saw the ziplock back and just let it go without additional screening.

I was surprised they said anything as I figured the liquids being tightly packed on the X-ray would have made it obvious it was in a bag, but nevertheless glad, she didn't hold me up more than the 30 secs or so to unzip and show her the ziplock.

Meanwhile, other airports aren't even requiring a baggie. When I flew out of LAS this weekend, the man in front of me tried to give a TSA agent a 3 oz tube of sunscreen he had inadvertently placed in his carryon and didn't have a bag for. She said, "oh, its 3 ounces? You don't need a bag -- just put it back in your carryon." He did, and the TSA agent manning the xray machine didn't even pause the belt as his stuff went through.

That being said, I appreciate the common sense approach exhibited in LAS and don't want to discourage it, but the inconsistencies drive me batty.

On my last 3 trips, I've "conveniently" forgotten to take out my Kippie bag, left in the outside pocket of my carry on. Nobody seemed to notice or care.... (even the time when I was selected for "GRT" swipe of my hands (Gunpowder - No, explosive components - Residue Test).

I don't know what the hell to do with my shoes anymore. If I put them in the bin, that isn't right. If I put them on the belt, then that is not right either. It varies so much from airport to airport and likely from TSA goon to goon.