Dominion

Ok so I haven't left yet, but this report has me nervous, a friend of mine who in joining the same program as me in Germany left a couple days ago, a week and some before I leave. She flew out of BNA on the first leg of her flight to Germany. She like me wears contacts, and as we will be in Germany for the next 6 months she had a years worth of contacts. This isn't a lot, 2 full boxes (sealed with prescription info) and 1 box with one case missing, same info on the outside. the missing case was currently in her eyes.

She goes through security and has two bags, one for the standard 3oz items, it's fine, then her other bag is a 1gallon bag containing her contacts, regular meds (not liquid form), and her contact solution, a 16oz bottle I believe (she didn't say exact size just that "its one of those big bottle ya know").

STOP!

He begins to grill her about the bag: "your only supposed to have one bag", "The items are too big" "You didn't declare these items" "why do you have so many packages of contacts", "Do we need to open these to make sure they are whats printed" are some of the highlights.

Boils down to the guy threatens to take away her contacts (a year supply of these contacts are around 500$ before insurance, I have the same brand), contact solution, and heres the kicker, because she didn't declare the liquids, they would have to "....take the rest, just in case..."

Like me she hasn't flown alot but she tends to get a bit hotheaded, she demanded to see a sup, which turned into the SUP and the Leo, and the sup let her take the items.

Moral of the story:

TSA wants us to fly and travel blind now, so maybe more people will be blind to their shifty tactics and 'lackluster' efforts.

Palal

Why put the contacts in a bag? Put them in the carryon and don't draw attention to them.

thegeneral

Moral might be to check all of that

essxjay

Moral? I think not.

oklAAhoma

And when the arrival of the checked luggage is delayed what would the moral be?

erictank

Umm... blind?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Xyzzy

Not if you ever want to see it again.

honeytoes

I have found that bringing along a printed copy of what you can and can't have (printed and date-stamped near or on day of travel from the TSA web site) always helps me through with no problems.

goalie

for me, it's a folder with various tsa website printouts (orthopedic shoes, liquids, lighters, electronics, etc) which lives in my briefcase and like you print dated within a day or 2 of travel. when i've had "issues with a screener", i refer them to my bag and to pull out the folder with "tsa information" on it so we can "discuss the issue at hand". never had a problem once they read it (tho i did have to escalate to a supe on 2 occasions but still no issues once the information was read). stick by your guns but, and this i can't stess enough,-be polite. you can be firm but be polite at all times and don't lose your cool. once you do that, you've lost-the honey vs vinegar approach will work wonders.

Flaflyer

Typical line, pulled from delta.com: "Remember to always carry medicine, money, valuable documents, keys, jewelry, cameras, and other small fragile items in your hand luggage, just in case your baggage does get separated from you for a time." (Love the euphamism. "Forever" is just "for a time". )

TSA says check it, airline says do not. Hello, can you all get on the same page here? Guess that is too much to ask. Sigh.

Dominion

I'm going to have to do that, with the print materials.

n5667

Simple thing would be to "declare" them. Stupid I know but that would solve any problems.

FWAAA

Even simpler soluton would be for screeners to refuse to elevate form over substance in a pathetic attempt to play "gotcha" with the lenses and solution, but that would require that screeners actually think about the lunacy they're enforcing. Instead, too often I hear screeners gleefully tell passengers that their failure to follow the prescribed form means their property will be confiscated.

Some professionalism we've created there.

US law allows screeners to examine passengers' property and determine whether the items should be permitted to fly. The law does not permit screeners to arbitrarily ban items because of the way they were "declared" or not. Screeners and their bosses can go straight to hell if they believe otherwise. Fortunately the sup and the LEO used their brains.

Haven't you finished your education and moved on by now?

essxjay

What's sad is that some will propose that "the government" should step in and enforce this consistency. Oy!

Folks, the government is not your parent. And yes, it will take a creative and vigorous effort to figure out a solution. Change is not necessarily easy, but it's certainly harder once the cogs of bureaucracy have begun churning.@:-)

svenskaflicka

I tried to declare my prescrition eye drops (Restasis) that were in a 5"x5" box and the TSA asked me why I was telling him about it. I told the guy that his website told me to. He just shrugged.

Why don't they train these people with a written manual? If they already have one, then they need new agents. Geesh.