So now that I've discovered that my dress shoes do contain metal, I am planning to start to pack a pair of flip flops in my bag that I can slip into going through security.

I'm curious, however, what kind of results people have had with this, and if anyone else has tried this approach. I did a quick search, but there were no central threads on going through w/socks and flip flops (it will look dorky as anything, but I'd rather look weird than step in...whatever is on that floor).

Matt

There's a joke in there somewhere about a guy concerned about what's on the floor and his name is Matt.

They say that 'thinly soled flip-flops' work. They do work in most of the airports, but there will likely be a rogue TSAer who will tell you to remove them as well.

I use a pair of Adidas flip-flops which are really what I use post-run. I put them on at the checkpoint in full view of the screeners and change back into my real shoes (Rockports with metal or my running shoes) at the end of the conveyor belt. I think just the act of going through all of this theatrics really impresses a lot of the screeners. I get comments like: "Here's a guy who really knows the drill about shoes." or some other equally insightful comment.

The strange irony about all of this is that my Adidas flip-flops have a thicker sole than my dress shoes or my running shoes! They are well in excess of the dreaded 1".

I just chuckle and head to my gate.

I use a pair of leather Dunham slides and I'm fine everywhere except HNL. Love the shoe, comfortable and no back strap and no thing between the toes, just slip right in and out.

Actually - flip flops are the national shoe in Australia. I dare you to call the Aussies "dorks" to their faces.

On a side note - I just witnessed an employee in a Hotel in Manila tell an Aussie off for wearing flip flops in the lobby - go figure!

still, i think the flip flop is gaining respect due to the tsa screening.

Haha -- I hope the Aussies arent wearing the flip flops with business attire. That's what I meant. I wear flip flops on the weekends with shorts...but they don't tend to make it to the office <G>.

Matt

Last time I was at HNL, they had mandatory full secondary for anyone wearing flip-flops.

I'm almost to the point of ONLY wearing flip flops to the airport. If I'm wearing jeans, then I have a pair of KEEN flip flops with the little rubber molding over the toe that keeps you from accidentally stubbing your toe, they look a little nicer than the el cheapo $5.00 kind, the TSA's haven't made me take them off yet. If I'm going "business casual" or polo/khakis, I'll wear a pair of "dressier" ones.

Interesting article a few weeks ago in the NYT Sunday edition on how flip-flops are the rage in the movie biz - with all kinds of dress from casual to business to tuxedo. "Designer" flip flops, of course, and at high prices.

Go figger.

I posted a thread earlier this month about a TSA screener who decided my flip flops needed to come off at EWR. It's up to their discretion.

Only if you're haole.

Certainly, a sign of the Apocolypse.

Why not wear the business class amenity socks over your regular socks, then throw them away once you're through security?

If you have flip-flops for going through security, what do you do with them when you're through? If you put them in you bag, whatever disgusting thing that gets picked up on the soles in now in your bag. That is, on top of the flip-flops, which are disgusting in their own right.

I have a cheap pair of "shower-shoe" flip flops that I wear through the WTMD. My sucess rate has been very good with only one negative incident that was clearly a power-tripping TSAer. (search for "scoot" and "wtmd" to read about it.)

Many TSAers (and other pax) comment that it is a good idea. I even had one loud TSA screamer/barker who was shouting "all shoes must come off" to the line actually look down at my feet and then say (still in his loud screaming voice) "not you."

I do not put my sock feet on the floor, period. About six months after the shoe carnival started, I got a virus on one of my feet that took over 18 months to go away. I don't frequent a gym, dorms, or other foot-condition prone places, so I'm pretty sure it came from an airport. When I've been stuck without the flip flops (bag lost by US on international travel), I take the secondary, insist on a chair, and refuse to put my sock feet on the floor.

The only time I tried beach flip-flops was att FLL, which is known carnival airport (My wife had to take off her non-profile shoes). I got to keep them on.