new airport check in rules, my experience yesterday

[Hamlette]

was delightful. I was bummed I had to check my small bag but the upside is, everyone else had to check their luggage too so the scaning line was tiny and I passed through in a fraction of the time it usually takes.

We were told to be there 2 hours in advance which was not necessary. In fact, it may be that this will shorten the check in time at airports in the long run. This was in Seattle, so not one of the biggest airports but not a small one either.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. All bags must now be checked? n/t

[samdogmom]

2. No. Not in my experience. I flew on Friday and Sunday.

You can still carry bags on and MANY people did, you just can't have the newest banned substances in your bags. Besides going through metal check they also recheck your carry-ons at the gate before you can board the plane--they did it two different ways. On one leg of my trip everyone's bag was checked by hand. On another leg, random people were pulled out of the boarding line and checked. If you buy liquids, gels, makeup, etc. behind the security checkpoint, you still have to throw it away. I saw many people buy "lunch" only to be forced to throw their drinks away a few moments later because they couldn't take them on the plane!

My biggest complaint was that I was told to get to the airport 2-3 hours early for a 6:30 a.m. flight. Unfortunately, no one told the ticket agents to get there early. The passengers had to stand in line for all of this extra time until the agents arrived at their normal 5 a.m. start time!

[Hamlette]

3. no, not all bags have to be checked

and a few people had carry ons but not nearly as many as usual.

You can still carry on bags, just no liquids.

[warrens]

4. At least for now

In the U.K., no bags, no electronics, no books. What the hell do you do for 7 or 8 hours?

[spinbaby]

5. Orlando, this morning

No particular backups. There were signs up about the liquids but no one at the security checkpoint asked about them. Before boarding, there was an announcement that we weren't allowed to bring on "coffee liquids." No search to see if anyone had them.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. My Mom (87 years old and in a wheelchair) returned to Florida on

Saturday. It took us approximately one hour to get through security at NW Arkansas' tiny airport. First, they decided my mother looked like a Muslim terrorist, so pulled her little carry-on bag and purse off the conveyor belt to be hand checked. She had a smaller cosmetic bag in her case, filled with about 3 dozen prescription medicines....they had to look at each one and read the label. She had two of her prescription eye drops in her purse because she needed to have them within an hour of check-in. The first 'security' guard took them and said they had to be 'tossed'. I said, the TSA said that prescription medicine could be taken on board. He said he'd ask the TSA supervisor and after ten minutes brought them back. Just getting my mom through the metal-detector without her cane or wheel chair took probably five minutes. Then the shoe thing. Then they 'wanded' everything in her purse and carry-on bag. I'd removed the two or three liquid/gel items she brought with her and boxed them, along with some some food items for my sister, and we had checked the box through.

Of course, the box was 'lost baggage', but they did find it and she got it delivered to her home on Sunday. I had a pass to get her to the loading gate (thought that used to be a service of the airlines), but hadn't thought about the fact I had 3 lighters in my purse! Talked the TSA supervisor into holding them until I came back through after depositing my mom at the gate. Funny, the TSA inspectors only found 2 of the 3 lighters!

[cascadiance]

7. As long as I can carry on my laptop...

That's one item that I really don't want to check. Mine's brand new now too, and I'd hate it to get slammed around in checked luggage, not to mention stolen there. That's one item I'd like to keep my eye on. Even other electronioc devices such as cameras (provided you backed up your images before boarding) are replacable with insurance, etc. if you checked them. I'm guessing that laptops are the items that they probably spend the most time checking now going through security. Don't care though, as long as I can go through it.

Perhaps if they at some point don't want people having laptops near their seats, they'll have some sort of compromise and have an area where you can drop them off inside the cabin, so that at least you know where they are there and feel more assured that they won't get damaged or stolen there. Then perhaps it might be vieweed as "safer" since passengers don't have direct contact with them during the flight, if their battery packs are removed, etc. there too. It would be a drag not being able to watch a movie or do work on them during the flight, but at least it would be a workable compromise for folks needing to take their laptop with them.

[Oreo]

8. I flew out of Raleigh-Durham on Saturday

Absolutely no line for security... none! I was absolutely dreading it as their security is usually pretty painful to get through.

We got two bottles of water among other things through the line (inadvertently of course)
They didn't look in our bags at all. Once by our gate I saw only 2 people's bags being spot checked for liquids.

It seemed to me that TSA wasn't overly concerned about the liquid thing.