Is "remove all electronics" at TSA security back?
 

CMI (Champaign, IL) March 24, 2008 I'm a 1 million miler, Executive Platinum on AA. The TSA woman at xray said my laptop bag was "too cluttered." They proceeded to empty the contents of all my electronics into a tray to rescreen. This was the same laptop bag that went through CMI and ATL last week with no problems. Needless to say it took longer to repack the electronics and make sure everything went back into the right place. I remember that day back at SFO in January...

The same happened to the guy in front of me and behind me.

Moving thread to the TS/S Forum.
Please follow there..
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Sometimes bag contents do shuffle in a way that catches an x-ray operator's eyes.

You should have caught the TSAers name and filed a complaint.

On a side note, I hope you don't bring up your AA status at the checkpoints. Some TSAers love to stick it to FFers.

Just went through MCO an hour ago with my bag full of chargers and cables with no problem. It is probably a single screener, not a TSA wide change.

Hard not to bring up my status. The ExecPlat luggage tag on my bag is pretty explicit with the 1 million endorsement on it too.

Like I said, I got through CMI and ATL last week with no issues. Hopefully it is one screener but the TSA said they were going to stop this practice.

With 10 flights a day total (or so), the CMI staff probably just needed something to do. (I say this as one who used to live there.)

This is different than the SFO directive where all pax were told to remove all electronics from their bags prior to screening. Here the x-ray operator had difficulty seeing through the bag, so had the electronics pulled to be able to differentiate among the items. It's the equivalent of a bag check.

Or are they changing their tactics? The screeners feint clutter and achieve the same result? How does the same bag with the exact same contents travel each week and not had this problem? If it happens on my outbound at ATL then I'll think it is something in my laptop bag but I'll bet I'll have no problems (just like I haven't the past 8 weeks).

Here's the key question. Did they repack the bag or did you? Make them do it.

The TSA said... and you believed them??? ;) That said, I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It's probably due to a noob screener who is not very good at reading the xrays.

I find this to be the case at some of the smaller airports. CMH is also pretty bad.

.......seemed like the person was just doing their job. And you seemed to have answered your own question, it's probably the one TSO.

djk7 - Which gates did you go through? And around what time....just curious, was working. ;)


Huh? The reason you had an issue with the same bag that has the same contents, because it isn't the same person screening. Yes, we know this is an issue of consistency, but this is not a big deal, it's not like they mistreated your articles, or threw anything around. Come on, as much as you've traveled...and this is your biggest problem?

NO, it is not back.
 

The TSO thought your back had to much stuff in it to see all the items on the x-ray so they called a bag check. That's all, nothing else. In all your millions of miles traveled this once your bag was looked at. It's really not that big of a deal.
:)

The 60+ gates, around 2:00. I went through the "expert" lane, which appeared to be shared by Clear. None of the lanes had much of a line, but the one I when through was completely empty when I got there, from ID to shoes back on was under two minutes.

Too bad there is no way we can know who you are so we can say "hi" when we are going through, but this is too public a forum to give any identifying info.

I understand the once-in-a-while nature of items shifting into place to give "that" look on the x-ray.

But re-read the OP. How likely is that to happen to three consecutive people in line?