:D

What length of pointy objects is allowed in carryon?

I bought a pair of cuticle nippers with 1/4" blades and a pair of manicure scissors with perhaps 1" blades on this trip. Am I allowed to carry on the nippers but not scissors? I'll be leaving from DFW, IIRC.

???
 

Exactly where airside at PDX? A/B/C concourses or D/E concourses? I know of the one on the right just before D/E security ...

PDX minds wanna know? :)

It would have been D/E; I was flying UA.

My memory is that it is in/around the little desk/workspace area over in the D gates because I plugged in my laptop there and worked for a while in a quiet spot with a window to my back before mailing something. Mail drop may have been on a wall perpendicular to the hallway that would be accessed while facing the E concourse.

This experience was over a year ago so my memory is a bit faint.

http://www.flypdx.com/Service_Ctrs.aspx implies that that area is called the "service center" and that there is a mail drop box. The map also implies another postal drop box just airside of the D/E screening checkpoint. But I know these websites can be outdated/unreliable.

Any info? I'd be glad to look @ the TSA web site, but I've never been there and don't have the URL.

Thanks!

MsEverywhere....sorry for the delay in providing information. Most of the regulars in this Forum have been busy arguing over Arabs in another thread....;).
You can find the TSA website here.
Near the top of the home page is a link to FAQ's. Click on that and then on the link to "What are permitted and prohibited items". You'll have to download a 21 MEG :( .pdf file in order to see a complete list.
Incidentally, when you Google the letters TSA, you get back a link to the Transportation Security Administration as first choice.
But second choice is a link to the Tourette Syndrome Association...:D.

Buddy,

Thanks! I had tried tsa.org, got Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, maybe just what we need??? :confused:

Last December I accidently left my 20 year old Swiss folding manicure scissors in my shaving kit; after clearing security with them at ORD and ATL, they were caught at Dublin and I had to forfeit them, having no way to mail them home. The blades were about 1.25" long. I miss those scissors, the new ones I've found aren't as good.

Yesterday I flew CDG to ORD on Air France; I cleared security in Pisa and Paris, no problem since I didn't have any pointy objects. Sat in steerage and received a very nice meal, complete with metal fork, spoon, and knife with a 2-1/2" blade. The blade wasn't pointy- a rounded tip, then tapered serrated edge. Good for use as a prybar or screwdriver, not great for stabbing. Twice the length of the blades on the scissors I lost, and sturdier than the 9/11 box cutters.

What's the point of the whole pointy thing search if I am then issued a knife by the airline? Sorry, but it makes me believe much of what is going on is just for show, and doesn't make us any safer.

I hope I don't jinx anything by mentioning this, the silverware was a very nice touch and made eating the MRE much easier and nicer than it would be with the typical plastic silverware. Maybe Air France just is making a wry statement about shoe and pointy object carnivals?

No, it doesn't make us much safer. The worst as aspect is that, when screener "judgment" is factored in, travelers don't have much chance of knowing whether they will have to "surrender" an item or not. To me, that makes it practically equivalent to confiscation. The screeners can make up the rules as they go along and if you can't find a way to get your belongings to your destination with a few minutes notice, you've lost. No justice there.

You do have a couple more options, you can take the prohibited item out to your car and leave it or if you have some one seeing you off they can take the item. The responsibility lies with you, no one else, you dont have to give up an item at all, you just cant fly with it. What you do with that item is up to you.

The only thing you can't do, is know in advance what will be allowed on a specific day at a specific checkpoint.

Prohibited items are prohibited items, shouldnt be any inconsistency in that. Swiss army knives werent allowed yesterday and they arent allowed today, anywhere. The sad fact may be that two weeks ago the x ray technician missed your Swiss army knife at the Boston checkpoint but today at the LA checkpoint they spotted it.

As I mentioned above, my scissors cleared two TSA checkpoints before being spotted and rejected by the Dublin screeners.

With their 1-1/4" points, they were no more dangerous than a good quality ball point pen (pointy object) or a sharpened pencil. In fact, in the hands of someone trained in martial arts (as are most terrorists and many suburban grammer school kids) I'd suspect a good pen is a much more dangerous weapon than those manicure scissors.

Nope. There are two many judgment calls. I've had three pairs of rounded tip scissors confiscated after, roughly, fifty flights between them. Screeners at times think they are a problem, at others they don't. It's capricious.

I read that at first and I thought you said that "Screeners at times think they are the problem." :)