Also, if it is somehow detected, are you given the option to go back to the counter and check it? (I know these sound like amateurish questions, but believe it or not I've never had anything confiscated from me at JFK!)

Most definitely! The night before your travel rent "This is Spinal Tap" :^)

Yes, of course. Liquids and gels are not like weapons; the TSA Gestapo can't call in the airport police to arrest you for the nonexistent crime of attempted shampoo smuggling. :) The only thing they can do is turn you back from the checkpoint.

Ah, have no fear, the liquid/gel smuggle expert is here :)

My latest triumph? A 150ml tube of Garnier face scrub and 7 containers of Otrivin nasal spray (I stock up in Canada) through the YYZ checkpoint.

My trick? Semi-baggy cargo shorts with large, deep pockets. I always walk my bottle of Otrivin spray, chapstick and listerine gel pocketpacks through hiding in my pockets. The face scrub went through in one of the larger cargo short pockets. The bottles of Otrivin were buried in the interior of my rolling duffle.

Generally speaking, if you can't fit it somewhere in your pocket(s), the next best option is packing a vertically dense bag, like a rolling duffle, and placing the liquid containers in the bottom-center of the packed clothing - away from the sides and top of the bag. Avoid hard-sided bottles or items with metallic or hard caps - but I've been able to get a variety of things through using this approach.

What's the worse they can do? Just take the item away - the TSA cannot arrest you for anything - they have NO arrest powers at all. None. Nada. Zero. If they want to throw a fit over something, they have to call the police over and it's up the cop to decide if it's worth pursuing or not. A gun or knife? Sure. A bottle of shampoo? Unlikely.

Bocastephen, living in Boca I'm assuming you do a lot of flying out of PBI? What's your experience been there? They seem to be pretty good at catching stuff....almost always when my mom forgets to take her Kippie Bag of makeup out, they catch it on the Xray. How have you fared? Smuggled and "contraband" past the TSA there?

Actually, I never fly out of PBI - no elite line, waaaaay too many phony wheelchair pax delaying the boarding process and grossly insufficient parking facilities.

FLL is my airport, and I can say that since I started doing the pocket smuggle or using the dense-pack method, they've never caught anything.

The only time they opened my duffle was to determine what a bar at the bottom of the bag appeared to be (it was the handle). After opening the bag and digging around, they went right past my excess liquids and didn't see them.

Before I mastered the dense-pack method, two dimwits caught my large toothpaste tube and held it up in the air for their co-workers and other passengers to see while they loudly exclaimed 'they got something' like they just reeled in a 400 marlin. If I could have gotten away with it, I would have smacked the both of them upside the head.

The cargo pants reminds me of another way to sneak in containers that go back to how we use to sneak in beers to concerts when back in high school. Stick the containers in your socks and wear jeans. Unless you get patted down all the way to your ankles your in like flint.

That's it? :D I've done 2x500ml water bottles in the same fashion the day after the liquids scare, when they were prohibiting any liquids in the airline cabin. ^

And more recently, I've smuggled contraband aboard an SU SVO-LAX plane, with 2x500mL of homemade wine.

Thank you!!! Agree 110% :)

While departing HNL last month, you could imagine my surprise when after my bag went through the x-ray, the agents furiously searched my bag. Finally, she emerged triumphiant with my 4 oz container of toothpaste, which they promptly confiscated.

How is toothpaste a liquid?

Don't you know that toothpaste is a deadly weapon? How dare you question the Transportation Security Administration! You're un-American. Prepare for a cavity search, citizen. Do you want to fly today?

That's hardly an act of civil disobedience -- more like a survival tactic! :D

I've been looking around for something like this, but haven't seen them anywhere... sounds like I need to make a Wal-Mart run. Thanks for the info!

Seriously, How is toothpaste a liquid??? It seems to me if you can put toothpaste on the tines of a fork and it doesn't seep through, then it isn't a liquid!

I'm glad they didn't search my cavity... you should have seen what I had in there. lol. (JUST KIDDING-- in case anyone was truly wondering!)

Squat and cough.. is that where this is going?

I'm wondering why so much energy is put into circumventing the system? why not just put your otrivin, or suntan lotion or whatever into your checked luggage and bring a small bottle (less than 100 mls) in your carry on if you need it onboard.

As a Canadian living in NZ, I note that airports all over the world are now complying with this edict which was brought into affect by the US. IN the long lines at the security check in tables, I see that most of us have gone to great lengths to meet these requirements with our little zip lock bags of small bottles of stuff) and the agents are tied up in front of us, dealing with US citizens who refuse to comply with this issue, and then argue when their large bottles of stuff are confiscated. What is up with this? Who needs a large bottle of shampoo or suntan lotion on a plane?