Must belts without buckles be removed?
 

I can not find anything on the TSA website which requires that belts be removed. It does say, however, that metal belt buckles will often set off alarms.

What it my belt has no buckle at all? Do I have to remove it?

I have a belt whose buckle can be removed in an instant. It would certainly be quicker for me to remove the buckle, and put it back on after screening, than to take off the belt and then rethread it though my pants' loops.

Is there any rule against wearing only the belt without the buckle?

I just have a belt the doesn't set off the metal detectors. Wear it every time.

Have you gone through a nude-a-scope with it? If so, was there a problem?

I have. No problems with any machine, including a NOS.

Walk through metal detectors is not a problem usually

The scanners pretty much depends on who is working them. I had one barking at me that I had to remove my belt before going through, and I kept saying these pants don't have a removable belt and the would repeat you need to remove the belt. Another screener came over and said "if the belt is part of the pants they can't remove it, just let them through" and that was that.

That was Houston if it matters, where I would guess I was probably about the only person who was not carrying a belt with a five pound metal buckle.

I have a belt with a plastic buckle specifically for going through airport security. If a check point has a NOS we must talk it off even if we opt out and get felt up.

Most WTMD checkpoint do not make us remove the belt.

I always refuse to take mine off and the TSA barker out front always gives guff, but of course my belt has never set off a metal detector.

I think it's like a lot of things TSA related. There's no regulation, there's no requirement. They just yell at people to take them off, with the ever-present threat of a retaliatory pat down or secondary inspection if you do not comply. It's pure laziness on their part, but then again, a lot of what passengers are forced to do is based on making TSA screeners' lives easier, not the paying customers.

I have worn this belt (with the buckle) through metal detectors in several countries, including the US, and it has never set off an alarm. (I got away with it because it was covered with a vest.)

My concern was with the NOS. It will definitely see the buckle and, I presume, the belt itself. If it does spot the belt, but I have taken the buckle off, am I going to be delayed for the pat down?

What about suspenders? Has any one had any luck going thru security without removing them?

I have never removed them but, that being said, as they usually set off the metal detectors I get the pat down when I wear them. I've learned to ask for the NOS when wearing suspenders and announcing that I have them on. This results in either no pat down or one restricted to the chest and upper back.

This is just one datapoint.

I watched a young guy go through the NoS (with the 'modesty' screen). The body outline on the screen showed one 'anomaly', right at his middle. He pulled up his t-shirt and showed the screener his belt buckle (not a Texas-sized one). Screener tapped it and sent him on his way.

IME, I don't think the NoS is an issue, I think you're more likely to encounter resistance from the 'moat dragon'. Some airports really have a thing about 'all belts off'. (I've run into the problem myself with trousers that have a built-in lightweight web belt with a small plastic buckle). It's easier to just pull my shirt out until I clear the checkpoint.

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Maybe we should all wear rope belts like Jethro and Ellie Mae.

You... ASK for the NOS?

Wow.

Remind me to stand right behind you in line so I can coast on thru the WTMD.

(Altho, if you're that guy who demands they turn on the NOS... and then they direct me to it... well... I certainly won't like you very much. [Can't make much more of a threat, really... but, yeah, you might be able to sense my seething disapproval.])

My only time going through a NoS was a MMW at RIC a few years ago. I'd lost a bit of weight and was really hoping my pants wouldn't fall down once I assumed the perp position.

Hmmm, I wonder how TSA would react if I wore REALLY baggy pants and went commando through a NoS? Is following their barked orders to remove one's belt and raise one's hands "interfering with the screening process" if they get a result they wouldn't like?

There's actually video out there of a teenage kid standing there with his pants around his ankles. Fortunately for him, he was wearing what look like basketball shorts underneath. TSO still does the hands-in-the-waistband' routine, rest of patdown, then leaves him standing there while he takes his sweet time doing the swab routine. I posed the same question: what if the kid had been commando?

If it were me, I'd just stand there until explicitly ordered to do otherwise. "Just following orders..."