I could pour my 500ml bottle of water into 6 small 3oz bottles, put those bottles in the TSA-approved Ziplocktop bag, put my empty 500ml bottle in my bag, and will go through security just fine. Then afterwards, pour the 3oz bottles back into the 500ml bottle and presto chango, I have a bottle of water.

Why is TSA striving to make life as difficult as possible for everyone? I am somewhat happy that they are correcting a couple of the dumbest ideas - no carryons of stuff bought in the sterile area the main one - but two issues are still kind of stupid.

One, 3oz - did Chertoff go to his local CVS and saw at the travel sizes rack what sizes were available and drew a line? Odd.

Two, the ziplocktop bag thing - ok, thats fine that they want the items easy to handle and seethrough, so that we don't have endless bag checks and the resending of bags through the xray because someone forgot to dig a tube of toothpaste out of the bottom of a bag. Note - this does not address the general waste of time that is x-raying liquids. I certainly think that the xray machines - and the TSA guys reading them - are not going to pick out the gradient in densities of different liquids and then compare them to explosives densities and compositions. But, why a quart-sized bag? Again, just an arbitrary number, if it's laid out flat in a bin should it really matter what the size is?

Now, about this "annotating" of allowable items that aren't in your Ziplocktop bag. Why? Does this do something? Is it a note that says they checked your cough syrup and it's legal in case it's inspected later? Is it to make flight attendents less nervous? I cannot think of a legitimate reason for this. It went through the checkpoint and was found to be "legal". End of story, no need to waste time and energy writing things down on your boarding pass.

See, that's why it's partly a theatrical event. Everybody knows it, and is supposed to play along, to keep things going smoothly. Only honest citizens get their panties twisted over the dimensions of the Zippy, or if 100ml. bottkes are OK. What we've got right now is a nice show of security; some real stuff, like the cockpit door; and the pax and crew on board.

When the plane goes boom they will pull all the 'annotated' BPs looking for clues.

"See, we TOLD you Listerine was dangerous !" @:-)

My educated guess is that your speculation is closer to the truth than we really want to know.

I believe this is the TSA's attempt to minimize the impacts to the security lines when they start checking everyone's 3oz bottles. They just started feeling good about themselves because lines were moving really quickly because nobody was carrying on bags. Maybe someone on FT has some real-time experience, but, my guess is that some checkpoints will grind to a halt and lines will be huge. I expect the next bit of TSA social engineering will be for one of their spokesholes to come out and remind everyone that lines move quickly if you check your luggage when wait times increase dramatically.

No, he's too important to do that. He sent one of his interns.

Perhaps Chertoff's credit card purchases are being processed to determine if his CVS purchases pose a risk.

I saw an interview with Hawley. He claimed that they did a study on the type of explosive they were concerned with, and then determined that the combination of 3oz bottles and a 1 quart bag would not pose a threat. I suspect that you could do the math and figure out how many 3 oz bottles you can fit in a 1 quart bag to figure out the maximum amount of liquid they want to let through. If people were allowed X ounces in any combination there would be massive confusion as most people can't seem to handle simple math.

And putting it all in a single bag makes it faster for the screeners, because then any liquids they see on the Xray are clearly not in the bag allowance.

Very apt words about the "studies":

This is all part of the dog and pony show, for this -- ban, modified ban as practiced/to be practiced -- has no serious security benefit. But this (and the "science behind the changes") makes for good CYA and face-saving devices in the face of a need to reconcile fantasies/paranoia with realities and interests.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...&postcount=603

The TSA continues to spin.

Kip Hawley IS an idiot!

Just don't write or say that at a checkpoint in MKE!

No! EVERYBODY should write it at MKE! Can you imagine?

Mr Chertoff's drugstore purchases...there's my emetic thought for the day!