The ultimate form of protest
 

You have to check your bags due to carrying toothpaste, hair gel and lubricated condoms. Flights have 100% bag check, which means it can't take off with the bags of someone who hasn't gotten on the plane. It can take quite a while - like 20 minutes or more - to root through the baggage in the hold of a plane to find yours and get it off.

So, as a form of protest, how about having a leisurely water break in the terminal and just show up a bit late for your plane?

Since I fly both UA and AA too, please send me your travel schedule.

As much as I agree with the stupidity of what's going on, I don't think this is the way to go.

With my luck, the airline would decide to remove my checked bag(s) from the airliner and take off without me. However, because I do not check bags when traveling for business, OP's method of protest would not work for me.

I'm not advocating this, just food for thought. I think it's silly to wait - if TSA inspected it and sent it through the bomb detectors, there shouldn't be anything dangerous in your luggage, right?

Plus the fact that luggage gets lost all the time, if it goes on a different flight from yours there certainly is no 100% of anything.

For me, it's very rare that I would have that kind of flexibility. Invariably I am on the last flight of the day, or the next flight is hours later, or I have been upgraded, or I would miss the connecting flight and have to play standby the rest of the day, etc.

More to the point, you wouldn't be sending much of a message other than that you can't keep track of time and don't hear PA announcements.

Yes, but if you didn't have to check your bag in the first place due to the liquids ban, they wouldn't have had to wait for you.

Is this true? I thought positive bag match was ended once they implemented 100% screening of bags. I think they'll just take off with your bag in the hold and you in the terminal.

I suspect that's true too. Why? i suspect it because you can't see positive bag match. When you spend money on theater, it's pointless to throw it away on things you can't see.

The positive bag match was only for when they did not specifically screen bags. Recall that not too long ago checked baggage for domestic flights wasn't even x-rayed. It was just stuffed into the hold. If you try the trick above on a domestic flight, I'm fairly certain that the flight will leave without you.

Then why have I been delayed on two recent flights (one last week) because someone didn't show up for the flight after checking in and checking a bag? The first delay was about a half hour, the second about 40 minutes. The excuse given was baggage.

I would say that since the invention of TSA, or at least just the last three years, I've been on at least 9-10 flights that were late departing supposedely because they needed to offload the bag of a person who checked in but never showed at the gate.

Better safe than sorry!

If your loved one were on a plane that was blown to bits because someone didn't board the plane and had checked a suitcase chock full of bombs, you'd be singing a different tune, now wouldn't you?

Cower down! They're after us!

But the bag cleared TSA inspection. There can't be any bombs on board, right?

And, if you're a suicide bomber, one of the key parts is that you die too, so checking in a bunch of bombs and then getting on the plane are codependent actions.

Maybe the solution is to ban checked luggage as well as carry-ons. All the luggage can be trucked or shipped (by an actual ship) depending on the geography between your origin and destination.

Whatever it takes!

If only Gandhi or Mandela had thought of that!

Is the OP willing to risk going to jail for his/her beliefs?

If so, there are tons of things he/she could do to protest. If not, I suspect the showing up late trick will not work too well.