yup...stoopid schitt it is

i lost an argument over a small un-opened hostess apple pie (hey, i'm not proud, i like them but i digress). i was told i could be escorted out of the secure area and eat it or surrender it. when the screener mentioned surrendering it, her hand extended asssuiming i would surrender it. i paused....opened the package, took a bite and went "blech, this tastes awful, you're right, i'm gonna surrender it" and placed (n.b. placed) it into her hand opend/bitten and sticky side down <insert laughter erupting from the people who saw this>. i looked at the screener and she was not happy and was giving me one of those looks to indicate "you're gonna get it now". my response to her was "i complied with your rules so don't even think of pushing it to retaliatory secondary screening as there are no 4 SSSS's on my boarding pass, i did not alarm the wtmd and i surrendered the item in question". she didn't say anyting so i gathered my belongings and went on my way tho i was stopped by a fellow pax who saw the whole thing and said that he wanted to shake my hand and say thanks. i told him that i was not about to give someone a free unopened snack. he laughed and after showing him that my hand was clean and free of that evel ter'wrist apple pie, we shook and went on our separate ways.

^^^^^^^^^^

Pure genius. Next time I get to the airport early, I will acquire a pie.

I salute you!

Indeed. And I've even witnessed screeners insisting that even the declared medical items MUST be in a baggie, though "it can be a larger baggie since it's medical." And screeners who berated pax for having medical items, even under 3.4 oz, in the same baggie as their regular liquids, insisting they have to be separated just because they're medical, regardless of size.

Real professionalism, Daschale and Kip. "Keeping the terr'rists on their toes!"

All this is true in the US, but NOT at airports overseas (eg SIN, NRT) where contact lenses solution is not exempted from the 100 ml limit

I disagree - I travel through NRT regularly (and also SIN, HKG, SYD) and I have no problem with any size.

I'm travelling in a couple of hours with a 150ml bottle today and predict I will have no issue.

Perhaps....but in SIN I've seen bottles confiscated and was told I could not bring one even with a doctors note. Haven't tried in NRT (b/c I'm always coming from SIN) but saw signs saying the same and they were hand checking bags for fluids on flights to the US (well at least UA flights).
All in all it is a pain as every country has (and changes) their own rules

I ran out of contact lens solution while in Sydney and could only find a 4oz bottle. With no bags to check, I had nothing to lose, so I put it in a separate baggie on the way back to SFO and it made it through 2 searches at SYD (1 security, 1 random pre-boarding) just fine.

Maybe I just got lucky -- I was not sure of all the countries' rules -- but that little 4oz bottle also made it to LAX, NRT, BKK, and back to SFO, before finally...running out!

Actually it seems you have your facts wrong. According to the TSA's website anything in greater quantity than 3oz that is considered a medically approved item (such as saline) is allowed through.

It must first be declared to the security officer and second placed in it's own separate clear plastic baggie of any size. The TSA does not reserve the right to deny you clearance on saline as it is medically approved. I carried my prescription just in case and I also placed my contacts in the same bag as my two bottles of 12oz Saline solution. The security officer waved them through although the screener .....ed but the guy just told her they were exempt.

As always these days it's almost neccessary to fly with a print out of the exempt item list which I did and had it ready to come out if I was hassled.

as a contact wearer, i never agreed that saline solution was medical. it is for cleaning, rinsing and storing which i never do during the course of a flight. i've seen 12oz go through just fine though i don't agee with it. i believe the limit should be the common 4oz. it was a 12oz contact lens solution bottle that was used in the PAL flight killing one person.

I'm sorry that's the dumbest thing I've heard. You think you can't make an explosive with one 4oz container of something, or 5 4oz containers of something. The liquid rule in no way shape or form actually makes flights safer, they provide the illusion of safety and security.

If a person wants to blow up a plane, they are going to blow up that plane regardless of how they do it.

With that said, as a contact wearer and someone who has lost luggage before I would no enjoy flying somewhere and having to purchase an entire new bottle of solution because my luggage was lost. It is my medical (and it is medical, try wearing your contacts by washing them with water or not at all) and I should be allowed to carry it with me wherever I go. For that matter if I wanted to carry on a tube of toothpaste I should be allowed to carry whatever size I want.

Maybe you don't, but I, and I'm sure many others, do. Ever fly transatlantic, or any red-eyes for that matter? What do you do then, keep your contacts in? I nearly always put my contacts in/out when transferring to or from the long-haul portion.

Flying DCA-MKE on YX Tuesday, but the flight cancels due to wx in MKE. So I run over to Concourse B and buy a walk-up ticket to ORD on UA. In the process, I earn a SSSS boarding pass.

During the secondary screening, one of the TSA guys checks out the 3-oz. bottle of Clear Care contact cleaning solution in my 1-quart plastic bag. He unscrews the cap and, noting the red tip on the bottle, calls over a supervisor who informs me that any solution that cannot actually be used directly in the eye cannot be brought into the cabin.

Clear Care and AoSept are hydrogen peroxide-based products that are used along with a small cup and disk that disinfect lenses and turn the solution into saline after six hours. The Supervisor told me that DCA TSA staff had been briefed on this type of product that very morning and that this ban has been in effect for several months.

I've done my usual 100k+ miles this year, albeit with only a handful of secondary screenings, but this ban was news to me. I understand that very strong concentrations of H2O2 can used to mix a bomb. Has anyone else heard about this particular prohibition?

Not looking for any angry rants about civil rights, TSA, or the GWOT. Just curious about contact lens solution.

This bottle was 3oz. As far as these clowns are concerned you can put what's in it in your eye, your mouth or your opposite end. It's none of their business! There are no rules around where the liquids that comply with the idiotic 3oz rule are going to go!

They can claim it as disallowed based on the haz mat rule. You are not allowed to bring 1.5oz of gasoline on the plane either. I don't know that it is on said list, but that's how they'd do it if they wanted to.

I have only found 4 oz. bottles of Clear Care and AoSept in drug stores in NYC. Where did you find the 3 oz. size?