Got crap from the TSA for...
 

... stuffing my backpack full of pocket change, wallet, ipod, belt, blueberry etc. before being examined and walking through the metal detector.

This is a habit I have done since I have been travelling. I have always emptied my pockets, belt and such before going through the metal detector well before 9/11, even before TSA ruled our airports. I'll admit it, I don't like being examined by people or being patted down. I don't have anything to hide. I just feel like nobody should be feeling me up or touching me (wife excluded). So I do whatever is neccesary in order to avoid that.

To my surprise when I repeated this such exercise after clearing DTW transfers and somebody "caught" me in the act. He goes, "Sir, you're not allowed to do that." I asked him not allowed to do what. He says, "Well you just can't put everything in your bag like that." I said, "Okay, I'll keep that in mind next time." I mean 7 years through (and many years before that) and this was the first instance I'm NOT ALLOWED to do that? Come on.

I don't give TSA any unneeded crap. I pull out my notebook. I take off my shoes. I take off my baseball cap. Goes into the tray like everything. I'd like to think I'm very cooperative, all except being patted down or felt up by anybody else. Am I out of line for complaining about this?

This is ridiculous.
Put everything in one place to be electronically examined so you don't hold up your fellow passengers behind you going through the metal detectors and some asshat tells you that you can't? :mad:

I've done this myself for years. It just makes sense to put everything together for a mass electronic scanning and let the human tissue and textile fabric breeze through the MD.

Next flight just wear a speedo. I would but that would have passengers as well as TSA dying of laughter and maybe a real T would slip through:p

you've got to do, what you've got to do
 

Self-protection. There is no logic in this situation. You are an innocent person...treated as if you were a potential plane bomber and baby killer.
Your lipstick is viewed as a deadly weapon.
Your shoes could hide bombs.
Your scarf could be hiding something (why else be asked to remove it).
Your bag could have a bomb in it. So they yell at you, 'move on', 'remove your shoes', and 'put your bags in the bin', 'step back' or 'step forward'.
Your jewelry could be a bomb so they paw through your personal belongings, bare hands, through your toiletries and toothbrush.
Everyone deals with this in their own way. One friend 'goes catatonic' until through 'security'. Another well-traveled friend says she 'goes on auto pilot' and another, who travels often, wears ear-plugs and goes through the motion, like a robot, she says. 'You can't be thinking about it'...said another chum.
Travel...is still worth it. Security is grubby.
The destination is the thing. I love to fly. Even so...

I should have clarified this in my original post: I am not in line while jamming my stuff in my backpack and thereby holding up passengers. I usually do this before I even approach that station.

Yes. Your actions make it difficult for the TSA employees to collect their tips.

Remember you are suppose to go through as such http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3grHjibNdA

People can't remember when 9/11 happenned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv8yLT6jM04&NR=1, they're not gonna remember about some plastic bags, no matter how large.
Of course this is from an Aussie show; Australia being the land that allowed Bin Laden's motorcade to get to Bush's hotel during the APEC summit.

I do it all the time. I thought that is the proper procedure. I go into to courthouse more often and they ask everyone to remove everything. I do it in advance stuff it my briefcase as I walk into the courthouse and never hold anyone up.

I do it too, I have even seen checkpoints where they have signs suggesting this. Just to clarify though, I don't dump all my change loose into my bag, I put it in a ziplock, which I then put in my bag. It makes it a lot easier to gather it back up afterward.

I'd love to know where this was, out of curiosity.

I don't get it? How did the screener even know you had done it? My laptop bag contains a lot of change.

Why do you folks fly with loose change? I can't remember the last time I got to security with coins in my pocket. Besides the security hassle, it's extra weight.

I never leave home for the airport with anything but bills. On my return, if I have accumulated any change during my trip, it gets added to the tip the hotel housekeeper gets.

Many Toll Booths require correct change after midnight as the staffed booth has been closed. I travel with ~$10 in change in a ziplock bag. I can go from EWR to NY State on the Garden State Parkway with my change baggie.

Inconsistency is a trade mark of TSA.

I have the same practice of putting everything in my laptop bag and usually leave home with my watch and other metal in my laptop bag except for my cell phone which I stuff in there at the last minute as I walk up to security. I carry some change for toll booths but it is im my bag when I leave home. This makes for an expedited trip through xray and MD. Shoes off, laptop in its own tray, jacket in another tray. Why is this a problem now?

At my home airport I don't have to take the liquids out of my carry-on which I found out by accident last year when I forgot to one time. Since then I never do and have never been questioned (countless trips through security since then). At all other airports I always take my liquids out.

At STT I was scolded for using a zip lock that was too large and for mixing my liquids (all two of them) with my toothbrush and razor. "These items are not liquids and these items are liquids. Your liquids must in this size bag and not this size bag" in a very loud voice in an obvious attempt to embarass me.
I had traveled that way for years and never had a problem.

It is pretty sad when you have to keep a mental checklist of the differences in TSA policies at various airports. We'll have to see if "bag stuffing" is added to the official list of TSA no-no's.

What, no EZ-PASS?

In foreign countries, I often have change in my pockets. I'm often rushing to the airport to make my flight, and I'll empty out any metal items in my laptop pocket. What's the big deal?

What a load of crap and you're not out of line for complaining.

I too take the contents of my pockets - change, keys, cell phone, etc. and dump it all into my carry-on before I reach the check-point. I always have, I always will. Only thing in my pocket is then my wallet and passport by the time I approach the TDC.

When I get to the checkpoint this allows me to remove my laptop, play shoe carnival (if in the US), remove my kip-qwart and to get through without having to mess around with anything else like spare change or keys.

amazing. no other way to put it but amazing.

this putz should be in charge the tsa so we could have as much fun with him as we do with kippie

The irony of all of that is the IN-OUT-OFF guidelines.

Out refers to laptops and other large electronic items coming out of their cases.

Off refers to jackets and such coming off and going through the x-ray.

However...

In refers, specifically, to placing "all metal items inside your carry-on baggage." We totally have signs that say that very thing.

And then you wonder why some of us want TSA to die a quick painful death with the former employees at all levels banned from government service for life.

This putz shouldn't be in charge of wiping his own butt.

Once I stopped putting my coins in my back pack, screening went a lot faster. I'm curious what the folks running the X-rays think the coins are.

They can tell me what to do with my stuff when they're willing to guarantee every item I own and will agree in writing to pay me $5,000 per item lost/stolen/disappeared. :rolleyes:

With power comes responsibility.

No change. Pre 9-11 the Wackenhut drones couldn't tell the difference between a blood pressure cuff and a bomb timer. I always got a bag search based on that.

It's not that we can't tell they're coins (usually); the problem lies in the fact that we can't see through the dense mass on the X-ray. So a passenger could put, say, a knife in the middle of a mass of coins in an attempt to conceal it. That's why we call "cluttered bag" searches in these situations.

as to the "innies"......

i take everything out of my pockets, off my belt* and my wrist before going thru the wtmd and it all either all goes in the snap pocket of my leather jacket (with the jacket neatly folded so that the pocket is on "the inside of the fold") or in an outer zippered compartment of my briefcase or wheels as common sense tells me not to place my cell phone, change and watch in the bin where they are out in the open. but then again, as my signature says......


*my belt never comes off as even with the buckle as big as it is, it, to the amazement of the wtmd gatekeeper, never alarms

The TSO's complaint is bizarre. I have to think it's just a way to go on a power trip. If all those items can legally go through in luggage, who cares when they go in or come out?

All my pocket stuff goes in a Ziploc bag and in my briefcase just before security and comes out again just after it or just after boarding, depending on how hurried I am. It never even occurred to me that someone would object. Of course, I step out of the flow of foot traffic and do this before even joining the security queue so as not to hold up the queue.

I flew with an US based carrier out of a Canadian airport about a week ago, having a connection in the US to go intl. When checking in, the (american) gentleman manning the desk UGed me (yay) and said "...and in addition to our comfy F-seats, you'll pass security with our canadian friends, and not have to suffer a full body-cavity-search from the TSA. Enjoy your flight, and thanks for flying XXXX airlines!" ^

I've got to say, I do as the OP: my rollaboard (Samsonite) has an outside top-zipper-pocket into which I empty my pockets prior to check-in, and never had any issues.

Maybe it's only dangerous if a TSA customer service person observes it?

Yeah, either one is perfectly acceptable. I really don't see what the screener's big deal was. Strictly speaking, the IN part of IN-OUT-OFF isn't a requirement that is necessary to follow, it's just to make it easier on the passenger to keep track of everything, since it's all in the self-contained space of your carry-on bag.

I think this is yet another case of a TSA agent freelancing new rules on the spot. Most airports encourage you (many with instructional videos) to put the stuff in your pockets into your bag while you are waiting in the security line in order to speed up the process for everyone. I would complain.

I always take coins for my destination with me -- you may need them for luggage carts, toilets, vending machines, etc. That's why I always grab a few extra kippie bags at security -- I use them to keep my coins organised by currency, so I just grab the one for whichever country(ies) I am going to when I travel.

I do the same thing the OP has done. It sounds like the TSO was making up their own rules.

The only problem I’ve had was with coins. At the end of the day in my hotel room, I put all my loose change in a pouch in my rollaboard. As stated previously, that looks like a mass of metal in the x-ray if I don’t dump it out on a regular basis when I get home.

Me too. I dump whatever change I have left into my bag and just forget about it. Comes in handy when I need quarters to do laundry. I'm pretty sure I have at least $10 in change in my bag at the moment.

Did they offer any suggestions as to what you were *supposed* to do? Leave it in your pockets and set off the MD? It's totally fine to have all that stuff in there if you pack it in your bag before you leave, so what difference does it make if you put it there at home or just before security?:rolleyes:

No, because they'd probably just yell at me and tell me to move on. It's a lose lose situation asking the TSA ANYTHING

Another Clarification: To further clarify my OP, I had arrived into DTW from KIX, went through passport control, picked up my luggage, handed my immigration card to the security guard, rechecked my baggage for my connecting flight, and then I was re-screened at a TSA checkpoint. So after a 10+ hr flight, I really don't want to deal with crap. I don't think anybody else would either.

... and makes it difficult for TSO's to STEAL $$$$ FROM YOUR WALLET ...

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If a screener were to treat me the way the OP says the screener treated them, then that screener would get a two word invective from me. Not loud, not angry, just a calm FO.

Americans treating Americans very poorly. Only the US government could oversee such outlandish behaviour.

I always put everything metal in my bag before entering TSA or courthouse checkpoints. It's much faster and easier than the alternative, and nobody has ever been stupid enough to complain.

Totally disagree here about DTW. Mean screeners. Even the three-striper gave me the "Do you want to fly today?" just for having the audacity for asking a simple question about her subordinates procedures. :td: