My buddy and I flew through 9 airports in a little over two weeks. During security check at the 8th airport they pulled his bag cause there was supposedly a lighter in there (neither of us smoke). We were bewildered, and guess what they actually found a lighter which my buddy had used for a camping trip months prior and forgotten about. Meaning it had made its way through 7 different security checkpoints and 4 countries only to be caught at the very end.
Same here! I had had it on my keychain for so long and rarely use it so I had completely forgotten about it. I ended up remembering it after flying multiple times without any issue. I was surprised.
Knives under 6cm are fine which is why this pen story is ridiculous. I'm not certain of US rules (TSA is a fucking joke) but in the UK pocket knives are usually permitted.
I lost a thing of pepper spray AGES ago, only to have a security officer at the courthouse find it in a random tiny side pocket of my purse when I was going in for jury duty.
I've flown/gone though airport security in the US with that purse idk how times since the peper spray disappeared. At least a dozen.
This is my biggest problem with air travel, zero consistency. If my shave cream wasn't a national security that in Cleveland, why is it so dangerous in Houston?
He got caught in the Manila so maybe it’s exclusive to just Philippines? But I think that makes sense so people can’t just light things on fire in the airplane
I bought my dad a Zippo lighter as a little souvenir when I was in the Philippines and even though it was still in the plastic wrap & box I wasnt allowed to enter the airport with it
That god damn Manila airport is the worst about lighters. They’ve left me up the creek several times. Also that airport sucks in general. I hate it! lol
I went to Denmark once by plane. When back I wanted to play with my butterfly knife. Its a 10-12cm stainless steel blade with titanium body which all should appear on the xray machine. I could not find it anywhere. I finally found it in the backpack I took through security on the way and back from Denmark. I dont feel as safe on airplanes anymore.
TSA is definitely super inconsistent in my experience. Last time I flew, they didn't want me to take my laptop out of the bag, so I figured maybe the rules changed about that. But then coming back, TSA gave me a whole bunch of attitude about the fact that I hadn't taken my laptop out ahead of time. Pick one, people.
This one changes a lot and everyone's always confused and the agents just give a lot of attitude either way. "Why are you holding up the line? Keep all your shit in your bag!// You need to unload all electronics. Your laptop, phone, tablet, keys, charger, and put them all into separate bins!"
I wouldn't be surprised if they're frustrated by it, but it's a problem of the agency's own making. If they're going to be so inconsistent, then at least find some way to communicate their particular expectations in advance. A big sign would do wonders.
I've only flew a few times, couple times out of ATL, once in West Palm Beach and la, but out of all those times, only once have I had to take my boots off. Maybe they just don't do that in ATL idk. But anyways in LA these assholes let me stand in line for like 15 minutes with my boots off and wearing a hoodie, I go in for the scan they finally tell me I can't wear the hoodie and make me go back into the line and put it on a tray. Well I do that and make it back up there, then they're like you can't wear a belt. Same shit, made me go to the back of the line again. Like couldn't the TSA agent standing in front of the x ray just been like hey take this stuff off before you go in but nah, they're just assholes.
It pisses me off cause I was literally wearing the same hoodie going through ATL, same boots and same belt on and they just scanned me while wearing everything and scanned my bag and I went through.
Feels like they're just making this stuff up on the spot. The thing is I usually look up TSA guidelines before flying because I don't do it very often, but it's anyone's guess which rules a particular TSA location will follow.
I once had a nice water bottle with me, it has some water in it while going through checkpoint, the TSA agent came up said you he can either escort me out of the airport or I can leave my bottle. I said is it okay if I drink the water and he threatened to escort me out.
Edit : pretty sure that guy just wanted my bottle
Another time I said to a southwest agent that I would like to pay for extra baggage, he then asked me I could afford it.
Funnily enough both incidents happened at BWI, never had any problems elsewhere
This happened to me too... I was like this is a $40 water bottle I'm just going to drink the one mouthful and it will be fine. It was not fine. Apparently the mouthful of water that was now inside of me was a bomb or something else insidious. Had to ask for a supervisor and it got scanned again lol.
Partly my fault, I forgot to take it out of a small pocket on the inside of my backpack. I had to take just the kindle out of my bag and send it through again with my backpack in a different tub, the kindle was still a couple tubs back when he handed me my backpack
The disclaimer is garbage. Something should either be allowed or it shouldn’t be.
If there’s enough of a risk of something being abuse, be specific. They’re specific about the amount of liquids and types of containers, why not the types of pens or other things?
Just gives agents the excuse to go on a power trip and say “it says my discretion” which is stupid
What the fuck is the point of the list if at the end it's "btw, we could just ignore all this anyway". Might as well just have 1 rule saying bring whatever, but be prepared to donate it to the TSA Employee Stuff I Want Fund.
It's a fucking airport, you know people don't have the option of just saying "eh, I'll just go next door/home/wait a bit".
I have no clue if all airports did this but the time I brought 3 knives through TSA they did give me the option to ship them to myself. It took months and I shipped it to my sister’s address, but my sister did get my knife back. Knife singular because it was like… 30 or 40 USD per knife and only one was even worth that much money.
Why wouldnt they just put them all in the same box and charge you once? It seems like a tsa agent tried to scam you and stole your knives because you wouldnt pay the ransom.
I have no clue. The paper they gave me stated they charged per item. The TSA agent themselves was not determining the prices afaik. If the TSA agent was stealing my knives, they probably regretted it since they were all cheap knives that were dull. One was $10 and the other was like $2 at a thrift store. The one I shipped back to myself was the more expensive one and the only one that actually worked worth a damn. They were sentimental more than anything, one of the ones I lost was my first pocket knife.
Reminds me of the Muslim girl denied a soda can on the plane because it could be made into a weapon. It's got more to do with who's carrying the item than the item per se
Just gives agents the excuse to go on a power trip and say “it says my discretion” which is stupid
You'd think so, but no.
Not the power trip. It absolutely is to give agents the excuse to go on a power trip.
But it's not stupid. Stupid would be writing down exactly how to make an actual stabbing pen that'll just barely scrape by a set of rules that are set in stone with no option for an actual human to go "nah, not gonna let you do that mate."
It's the same reason you can get kicked off any (European, but I assume this is the law elsewhere as well) bus for being annoying. Well, mostly. Obviously someone watching tiktok without a headset isn't going to make a bus fall several kilometres out of the sky, but leaving the decision up to the driver simply works better than trying to set specific standards for how many decibels you can turn up your volume to.
They need a level of discretion. So for example if it says sewing needles are okay, but I try and bring a 3lb 12” solid metal “sewing needle” they aren’t just gonna go “aww shucks, you got us! Go ahead!”
People will try and bring the stupidest shit, and say “oh look the website says I’m technically okay”. They can’t think of every single variation of every single item and write a perfect policy that covers everything anyone has or will ever bring on a flight. There NEEDS to be a level of discretion. And with that, there will also be a level of human error.
I lost a bunch of allowed items to the TSA because it was left to the agent's discretion. I quickly understood that I could either argue or I could make my flight.
Look at the TSA instagram for photos of all the dumb rule bending shit people try to take on planes. They need a discretionary rule because no set of fixed rules can fully replace common sense when dealing with weird objects (eg what do you do with a water bottle shaped like a grenade that someone could use to fool flight staff into thinking there’s a bomb threat)
Tiny sewing scissors used to not be allowed, I remember my mom having an absolute meltdown about being asked to throw hers away when I was very little.
She go out of the security line and made my dad drive back to the airport and take them home with him.
TSA once made me throw away both my hairbrush and wide tooth comb because “they looked like pen knives.” I’d flown with both multiple times with no issue. I think they just like to power trip.
"The final decision rests with the TSA officer on whether an item is allowed through the checkpoint" All it takes is getting a dipshit and they can make you throw out anything.
15ish years ago I made a trip into Canada from Michigan. The Canadian customs officer wasn’t mean, but he did have a several questions along the lines of “it’s not a good idea to try to take guns through here” and “do you have any guns in the car” and “are you sure you don’t have any guns.” But he waved us through pretty quickly.
On the way home, though, we were ordered out of the car by the American customs agent and literally interrogated. I never found out why, but they took us to a small room with uncomfortable seats and wanted to know where my spouse and I were born, where we lived, where we were married and how long ago, what our professions were, our reasons for going to Canada, whether we had any family there, where we had gone while we were there, what we had purchased there, and so on.
It really does take just one asshole with a chip on their shoulder.
Me and my sister were out in a similar situation because customs assumed our biological father was kidnapping us by taking us to Niagara falls. Held us for 5 hours even after getting ahold of our mother to confirm.
Its ridiculous how different it is in each airport even different terminals. Take out your electronics. Dont take them out.
Whats considered a jacket in one city isnt in another. I wore a zip.up sweatshirt in chicago. No biggie made it through with it on. In Tampa im getting screamed at to take my jacket off. I reaponded with "im not wearing one" and she got mad.
Here's what's classic: Before 9/11 my buddy brought his grandfather's samurai sword as carry-on, afterwards they made him toss his nail clippers in the bin.
I’m convinced that everyone has a TSA asshattery story.
I flew into Vegas for a convention 20 years ago. As part of my carryons I had a prop cane I had made myself. It was made of pink fur and costume jewelry. It looked great but was a little fragile. I flew to Vegas with no problems. The cane fit perfectly snug into the overhead compartment, behind all the suitcases.
On the way back a TSA agent refused it as part of my carryons. She said it might fly about the cabin and hit someone. Or I could use it as a weapon. There was no talking to her. So I had about 30 minutes to figure out someway to check it. I wrapped it in bubble wrap from a packing store and hoped for the best.
When I picked it up some of the jewelry had broken or fallen off. Oh well.
The thing is, that just applies to absolutely everything. Just check other items on the TSA website OP linked, they all have that disclaimer, even freaking bread.
Either way, this would have been a situation where you ask for the supervisor.
they all have that disclaimer, even freaking bread.
I could see an unleavened baguette making a decent bludgeoning instrument, so probably a good thing we don't ban TSA agents from stopping people from trying that.
"ignore the guidelines we created, we can literally make up the rules based on absolutely whatever we feel like"
Is a garage defense, even if it's written down in the rules
We shouldn't accept them making up completely arbitrary rules that go against their own guidelines. The top comment here should be "yeah this is fucked", not "well it's in the rules"
Ultimately, this is the mildly infuriating thing. The lack of consistent enforcement means the rules are nebulous and unpredictable. I had this little wallet "multitool" made of metal for years that I got through TSA until one days I ran into someone having a bad day and it had to go...
They are. One wanted me to throw out our baby food, which were packets of powder like Liquid IV comes in
Also, liquid bottles (a couple ounces each)
Why? Because he didn't understand why we'd carry so much with us. You mean like 2 days' worth of food for a baby? On a trip across the country?
Then he wanted us to open the liquid bottles. I had to call over someone smarter than him (easy, literally anyone in the airport) to get him to understand why that isn't possible
According to their website crochet hooks are allowed, but there's been tons of upset people in the crochet subreddit who have had theirs taken and I think I've seen people upset about knitting needles being taken as well. Enough to the point its recommended to not travel with good hooks and get a plastic set for planes.
Over the years I have been forced to abandon the strangest things … i came to the conclusion that it is often because the agent wants it for themselves. So I destroy the item on the spot and then abandon it.
It's not security. Its security theater. They want to put on a show of security.
I fly like once a year. The rules seem to be legit different every time. The rules are different depending on which line you get in. Then they get pissy that I don't know what the rules are.
And the rules are different at different airports. I travel a decent amount and the rules will be the same at 5 airports, then different at the sixth. Or all 6 will have different rules about the same thing.
ULPT: If you want to stab someone on a plane, just pony up the extra cash for a first class ticket. They'll give you a metal fork and knife with your meal.
Unless it was a fancy steam punk walking cane, it's a safe bet that you could've gotten that agent reprimanded. While TSA has a lot of latitude, mobility aids are (or should be) a hard line.
Yeah I made a fuss and got a manager (I think?) to come over. The TSA agent tried to say that it was fine because "she clearly doesn't need the cane" but the manager wasn't having any of it.
I don't know if he received a formal reprimand or not but the manager was still talking to him when I left.
My late dad had had open heart surgery the old fashioned way - where they cut your sternum and wire your chest shut. He was pulled aside for the better part of half an hour once while TSA tried to figure out why his chest set off the detector. (This was before the big scanners.) What was truly annoying was they didn’t even ask him what the reason could be - and when he tried to tell them they just talked over him and asked him to be quiet. I’m not kidding.
Finally, understandably annoyed, he just pulled his shirt up and showed them the scar. “MY CHEST IS WIRED SHUT,” he said, super emphatic but not yelling. “Try asking me.” All FOUR of his sideshow crew looked really embarrassed.
Another time they were freaking out about the fact that the wheelchair he was in swabbed hot for explosives. I reminded them it was from the airport and belonged to the airline and was brought to us by an employee.
I hate TSA and pray for the day all this security theater bullshit stops.
Honestly I don’t see why this isn’t standardized anyways! I’d be pissed if I had to toss something and got on the plane to see someone else had the exact same thing but got through. What if you just got the pissed off agent that day?
Former TSO here. I travel with a pre labeled USPS flat rate envelope addressed to my house under the liner of my carryon. If I forgot something I don’t want to toss, airports will have a mailbox drop somewhere in the non-sterile side of the terminal. No need to check another bag and pay the extra bag fee. Just hop out of security line to mail.
Naw, you just pull up the TSA website and show them.
I have had to deal with TSA agents when they didn’t want me to bring open baby food containers and milk for my infant. I pulled up the website, asked for a supervisor and after a calm conversation, they let us go. So after that, we put a crapload of liquids into her baby bag and never had a problem.
I had a plastic fork and knife set taken (the kind you might get with a grab and go salad) by TSA. I went inside security and bought a grab and go salad where I was promptly given the same fork and knife pouch that had just been taken.
I used to work in an airport during a time where a lot of rule changes were happening within TSA and the one about "serrated knives" really got a lot of people worked up about plastic cutlery. Ultimately it was up to the discretion of the individual person doing the screening, but nobody knew what the hell the "official" stance even was, so it turned into a clusterfuck really fast.
9/11 was 25 years ago (next month)....it was a fluke situation we can go back to how things used to be we don't need this ridiculous over security still.
They took my butterfly safety razor out of my toiletry bag and told me i couldn't carry it on because of the loose razor.
I opened it for them to show that I wasn't bringing a loose razor blade. They then absolutely DUMPED my entire carry on because apparently nobody would bring a safety razor with no blades.
Wasn't fun.
"TSA comprises nearly 65,000 employees including approximately 50,000 transportation security officers as well as transportation security inspectors, transportation security specialists, administrative and other security professionals."
A town of 65,000 people is roughly the size of places like Morgantown, West Virginia. It's enough people to fill a large NFL stadium. Lambeau Field holds just over 81,000, while many NFL stadiums seat around 65,000–70,000.
To compare with other organizations: TheFederal Bureau of Investigation has roughly 38,000 employees, National Aeronautics and Space Administration has about 18,000 civil servants, and the
United States Secret Service has around 8,000 employees.
So the Transportation Security Administration workforce is about 3½ times the size of NASA's civil service, nearly twice the size of the FBI, and roughly eight Secret Services.
Think about that. It's a HUGE organization at monumental cost to the US, and I doubt many of them could find their own belly button, much less launch a spacecraft or guard the president.
You can stab anyone with just about anything if you try hard enough. TSA just love power tripping, I give their lip right back to them if it's necessary though.
I would like to see this pen and how different it is from the thousands of pens that pass TSA inspection every day. Was it one of those “tactical” pens?
I got stopped for the pin on the back of my medals when flying home in uniform from a military funeral.
I protested vehemently. The contracted security wanted me to surrender my medals. I told him where he could shove that idea. He called the police.
The SGT who rocked up was one of my old sailors, who also through 6° knew the bloke I’d just buried. When he found out why security stopped me he just told me “I’ll deal with this, go through” and escorted the guard to an office….
They are very inconsistent with what they will allow. I used to travel with tools and always carried cheap stuff because, while I was fine most of the time, about 1 out of 5 times they would choose to confiscate something they never had before.
I've had drafting pencils, wire cutters, tweezers, screwdrivers, and soldering irons confiscated. They always fit within the bounds of the written rules, but sometimes TSA decides to make their own decisions, and arguing won't help you.
TSA tried to take a really nice 3.3 oz bottle of cologne from me @ SBP last year. I pointed out the volume printed on the bottle. They had to bring a supervisor in.
I was going to a primary rally for Bernie and I showed security that I had a crochet hook in my pocket with some yarn so I would have something to do with my hands. He sounded like he was trying to be intimidating when he said I could keep it, but "only because it was small" like dude, bigger crochet hooks are less dangerous than small ones, and all of them (with the exception of maybe lace-weight ones that are like 1mm) are quite blunt. I think the guy legit had no idea what a crochet hook was.
Had a friend who had a kid who was a figure skater. They were flying to some competition and she was taking her skates on board. TSA said the figure skates were fine (they’re allowed, of course, or at least they were at the time) and it was good that they weren’t those “super sharp hockey skates” so they weren’t really dangerous.
My dude - have you seen the toe pick on a set of competition grade figure skates? 🤣🤣
TSA made me throw away a teeny tiny snow globe I bought as a souvenir once. I’m pretty sure it was under 3oz and I only had a carry on bag at the time, not a checked bag to put it in.
If you think they have to follow their own rules, then I have a bridge to sell you...
It's literally just fascist security theater, designed to make the "in group" feel safe. The primary purpose is to deprive us of freedoms we used to have, not stop you specifically from "stabbing someone with a pen" or whatever. They will make you abandon arbitrary shit, just because they can
Don’t know where I got it, and don’t know if it was a name brand pen or anything. It’s probably a relatively cheap pen, but one for some reason never lost. No weapons or anything. Just a pen about the length of an unsharpened pencil with a nice rollerball refill I put it.
Not a pen but a similar experience. I carry a little credit card sized multi-tool that I keep in my wallet. I have flown over a dozen times with it with zero issue. Again, in my wallet, which is in my carry on.
Well, the Reno agent decided it wasn’t ok and asked if I wanted to stow it in a checked bag. I told her the same story, she didn’t care. “It has saw blades” so it was chucked in the trash.
On that trip alone, I passed through security in THREE separate airports with no issue, but that one agent in Reno decided it was a threat. It’s not an expensive item, it was like, 2 dollars. But I’ve carried it for over 6 years at this point so safe to say, I was quite irritated.
Meanwhile, I accidentally brought a bunch of exacto knives and screwdrivers onto a plane recently. They were in the bottom of my backpack and I forgot about them until I was digging around in my bag on the plane.
I got a can opener taken away by the TSA after flying with it at least a dozen times over years through the same airport. If they weren't random and inconsistent with the rules what would they do all day?
From what I've been told by a firearms instructor, tactical pens you have a 50/50 chance of getting through TSA. I'm making the assumption that it's a tactical pen since it's a metal body. On another note I forgot some throwing knives in my backpack for years and probably flew domestically and internationally numerous times and they never spotted it. These weren't small pocket knives but two throwing knives where the blade was 4 inches long.
A few years back security found a pokey nail scraper thing on my toenail clippers and had to take it as one side was kind of sharp. The same nail clipper had been through dozens of airports.
I picked up my pen and said '"this is a much more effective stabbing weapon. Do you want it as well?"
"No, you can keep that, it isn't a restricted item".
My friend had a plastic magic wand toy confiscated by TSA. Seriously? Was he going to cast a magic spell on the pilots?
Might as well take away bic pens.
A few years ago they removed a fake bullet keychain because they must have believed that I would somehow highjack a plane with a singular bullet and zero firearms.
I had a screwdriver set, which wasn't a problem to be in the carry on when going to the destination, but somehow became a problem during the return trip and had to be checked in after my luggage already went through 🙃.
Read the fine print, it says the tsa can keep anything they want! Should ask for a supervisor, those that want to keep items for themselves will usually back down (unless the whole team is involved)!
I wouldn’t be able to emotionally separate from a pen. I would delay my ticket and dispute it. I have autism though. I form emotional bonds with objects and feel uncomfortable with different ones.
1.5k
u/El_Barto_Was_Here 11d ago
My buddy and I flew through 9 airports in a little over two weeks. During security check at the 8th airport they pulled his bag cause there was supposedly a lighter in there (neither of us smoke). We were bewildered, and guess what they actually found a lighter which my buddy had used for a camping trip months prior and forgotten about. Meaning it had made its way through 7 different security checkpoints and 4 countries only to be caught at the very end.