Basen on your username, I think we can all guess where your hidden piercings are.

:rolleyes:

Nobody would EVER forge anything like that.

Aside from the fact that they still have to be screened, just like the rest of us.

Therefore, there is no reason for any cards at the checkpoint.

Save 'em for the paramedics.

Yep, they're in Sacramento, just like the rest of him :D :p

I can only speak to my experience. I had my hip replaced in November and have traveled 6 times since then. I get a pat-down every time I walk through the WTMD and set it off.

Usually, the TSA screener working the belt points at my carryon gear and moves it to a separate spot either at the end of the chute or on an ETD table, while I get patted down by another screener. I have a card from my surgeon, but the TSA could care less about something like that, since all they want to do is hand wand me, and pat me down to resolve the alarm.

So. I give myself about 10 more minutes since the TSA takes their time in getting someone to hand search me, and I don't let on that I despise this element of aviation security. I keep my head down, my mouth closed and my attitude civil, since "I want to fly today".

I received a plate and 8 screws(stainless steel) in my left ankle in November 2005 and i had the same fear of setting off the metal detector all the time. Surprisingly it hasn't set it off even once in a year of traveling around Europe and North America.^

Yeah - similar experience. I've got about a 6-inch (I think) stainless steel plate and 5 or 6 screws just above my ankle and I have NEVER set off a WTMD in the North America, Europe, or Asia in almost 2 years with the implant. It beeped once when I was being wanded, but that's it. My advice would be NOT to tell the TSA. Never trouble trouble, 'til trouble troubles you. It you beep, then deal with it, but don't ask for the pat down when my experiences suggest it will never happen due to your implants.

Here is a thread from the Disabilty Travel Forum that has a detailed discussion of people's experiences with various metal parts, but the OP specifically asked about ankle implants.

Another vote. I have screws and pins in my legs and never have set of the detector due to those items.

The only time I did set it off was due to getting shot and having the bullets still inside me (:( not joking). They attempted to remove them locally but they couldn't get to them without causing more damage so they decided to ship me off island to have them removed. I actually went to the CO DO in IAH with the bullets inside me :D , then off to PI to a hospital to have the bullets removed.

Every flight, every time ...
 

I have a full titanium knee replacement, and I get secondary every time I fly. I catch the screener's attention before I walk through the detector and tell them I have a knee implant. I set off the detector, wait politely for the "male assist" person, explain to them that I have a knee implant, and do the whole secondary -- every time.

It's not onerous, and there really is no other good option available today. I make sure I keep my carry-on baggage in sight, and I expect the whole process to take an extra 10 minutes - which it usually does.

When you're upfront about the reason for the alarm, the screeners seem to relax a little (my impression - YMMV.) I also thank them when I'm done, figuring I'll see them again shortly, as I do about 125,000 miles a year.

And my home base is SFO, where I think the screeners are some of the best I've encountered. After setting off the alarm one day, one screener said I had set the new high score on the scanner (it's a BIG chunk of titanium), and that I was entitled to one free replay ...

How could it possibly take 10 minutes? This seems like something that should be resolvable 1 or 2 minutes. Wand your body, find the metal, pat down leg, lift up pant leg above knee: "See, nothing but my leg." and off you go.

Is there anything else that is done? If so, why? Are the screeners always on Valium or something?

Kind of like when the screener kept wanding my feet because the WTMD allegedly alerted on my feet. Nothing there but carbon-based molecules (and a few blisters), but he was sure I was hiding something.

My wife goes on a lot of trips with me, and she has to wait on average ten minutes until I'm all done. Remember, I get pulled aside after setting off the alarm, and then I have to wait for the "male assist" person to come to that lane and escort me to the screening area, and then I explain that I have an implant, and then we do the whole body scan and patdown, and we usually do a second pass over the metal joint just to make sure, and then I have to put back on my shoes, jacket, and any other items. It takes roughly ten minutes.

... although I have had to wait up to ten minutes just for a "male assist" screener to come and get me ...

... and one time I was coming back from to SFO from PHX, and I had shorts on. I set off the detector, got wanded, and got my (naked) leg patted down twice by the screener. I presumed it was protocol, but I guess he thought I had invented an invisible weapon ...

It probably takes so long to get screened because they are busy explaining that water is a liquid to some genius ahead of you. :D

How'd the screener use the WTMD to make that deduction? :confused: Did he saw off your foot?

Pretend you don't know what's going on. Operation? Implant? What implant? :D

Please explain. Water can be a liquid, but it does not have to be. In my home I have water as a gas, liquid, and solid. ;)