If you don’t have time to buy a travel-sized version instead of your mondo bottle of saline solution before the next time you fly, don’t sweat it. It’s totally cool to fly with more than 3oz of contact solution, as it is covered under the TSA “liquid medication” provision. [More]
Walk Your Family To The Airplane With A Gate Pass
By June 8, 2011
A lot of big dramatic scenes in movies where there’s a last ditch effort by one lover to make it right with another lover by grabbing them just before they get on the plane don’t seem like they could happen these days with new restrictions that make it so you have to buy a ticket in order to go past security. But it turns out they could still happen, we would just have to have an explanatory side-scene where they ask the ticket counter for what’s called a “gate pass.” [More]
To Avoid Airport Security Hassle, Don't Flinch From Eye Contact
By June 7, 2011
As someone who travels red eyes coast to coast for weeks for business meetings, Jeanniey knows a thing or two about getting through security with the least friction. She tells NYT that one thing she discovered, the hard way, was that you don’t want to dodge from eye contact with the security workers. [More]
Texas House Passes Bill To Outlaw TSA Pat-Downs That Make Contact With Your Most Personal Parts
By May 13, 2011
As we reported in March, a handful of Texas politicians were fed up with being felt-up and were considering a way to ban the TSA’s invasive pat-down procedures. Last night, that ban got closer to reality — or at least closer to becoming a courtroom battle — when the Lone Star State’s House of Representatives voted to approve legislation that would keep hands off travelers’ most personal areas. [More]
Study: Radiation From TSA's Full-Body Scanners Poses "No Significant Threat"
By March 29, 2011
In a new study that will surely be argued and dissected by both sides of the full-body scanner debate, researchers claim that the risk from the ionizing radiation to which travelers are exposed in these scanners “would be extremely small, even among frequent flyers” and that there “is no significant threat of radiation from the scans.” [More]
Texas Pols Want To Outlaw Full-Body Scans & Pat-Downs By TSA
By March 9, 2011
Politicians in the Texas state legislature have authored a pair of bills they hope would keep the TSA from using full-body scanners and enhanced pat-downs at airports in the Lone Star State. [More]
10 Ways To Make The TSA Crotch Grabbers Profitable
By March 7, 2011
Last week, the the Director of Homeland Security suggested to Congress that the TSA get a cut of airline baggage fees. The fees encourage travelers to carry on their bags, and this in turn leads to more bags that have to be inspected by hand at security checkpoints. Should taxpayers keep picking up the tab, or should airlines give the TSA a piece of the baggage fees? How about neither? What if instead the TSA looked for more creative ways to offset costs and even increase revenue? Here are 10 modest proposals: [More]
TSA Wants To Increase Airport Fees Because You're Not Checking Your Bags
By March 4, 2011
To avoid bag check fees, travelers are routinely opting to carry on their bags, but the TSA says that the cost is just getting shifted to tax payers, to the tune of $260 million a year. That’s because the more bags that don’t get checked, the more bags the TSA has to inspect by hand at security checkpoints. Now the TSA is looking to get a cut of some of the checked baggage fees the airlines collect. [More]
Undercover TSA Agent Makes It Through Full-Body Scanners With Gun In Her Undies
By February 23, 2011
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Security Theatre: An undercover TSA agent was able to slip through the full-body scanners at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun stashed in her undies… And not just once, but five times. [More]
Seattle-Area Restaurant Refuses To Serve TSA Agents
By February 22, 2011
Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List. [More]
Feds Find $9 Million In Opium Inside Adorable Acrylic Kitty Cats At JFK
By February 18, 2011
Customs agents at JFK International Airport in New York City have seized $9 million of pure opium hidden inside a shipment of acrylic cats. [More]
TSA Screeners At JFK Admit To Stealing $160K From Passengers
By February 16, 2011
It must be tempting to be a TSA screener, seeing bags full of expensive goodies going through your scanner and knowing how easy it would be to make those bags disappear. Two TSA agents at JFK Airport in NYC gave into that temptation, swiping at least $160,000 from travelers. [More]
Full-Body Scan Privacy Law Gets One Step Closer To Reality
By February 15, 2011
Back in December, we wrote about the law being proposed by Senator Chuck Schumer that would make it a crime to distribute or save images taken as part of an airport security scan. That law has come one step closer to becoming a reality after being unanimously accepted as an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill being considered by the Senate. [More]
Tarmac Regulations May Be Extended To Cover International Flights
By February 14, 2011
Less than a year after the Dept. of Transportation introduced controversial regulations limiting the amount of time planes making domestic flights can sit on airport tarmacs, the agency is planning to expand those rules to cover overseas carriers that use American airports. [More]
Teen Arrested For Pointing Laser At Landing Boeing 737
By February 9, 2011
Flying on an airplane can make travelers anxious enough without having to worry about snotty little punks pointing lasers at planes while they attempt to land. [More]
TSA Body Scanner Tracking Site Gets User-Friendly Makeover
By February 9, 2011
The citizen-created site that keeps track of which airports have bodyscanner devices and what their status is just got a big interface makeover. [More]
TSA Testing Less-Revealing Full-Body Scanner Software
By February 2, 2011
If you’re one of the many travelers who aren’t exactly thrilled at the idea of having the intimate details of your anatomy displayed on a monitor at the airport security checkpoint, here’s some promising news. The TSA is testing out an upgrade to some of its full-body scanners that could put an end to incidents like this or this. [More]
Airport Introduces Hologram "Staff" Members
By January 28, 2011
Rather than just running a plain ol’ video or audio loop instructing travelers on liquid restrictions and other topics, Manchester Airport in the UK has unveiled a pair of holograms it hopes will speed up the lines at the security checkpoints. [More]
