Effective Tuesday 25 September, the TSA is loosening its carry-on liquids ban. According to the announcement on the TSA web site, we can now “carry through security checkpoints travel-size toiletries (3 ounces or less) that fit comfortably in ONE, QUART-SIZE, clear plastic, zip-top bag” (TSA’s emphasis ) and “bring beverages and other items purchased in the secure boarding area on-board aircraft”. The zip-top bag will have to be pulled out of your luggage to allow screeners to examine your toiletries, so you still need to be careful about packing embarrassing personal effects.
Given that I’ve repacked my toiletries kit with all-solid toiletries (the most recent addition being a stick of solid hair wax), I’m actually more excited by being allowed to bring my coffee on-board. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve burned my mouth trying to chug a tall Starbucks coffee in the boarding line.
Recorded in the Renaissance Madison Hotel in downtown Seattle, we have some good stories about missing luggage. I have some problems with Orbitz’s live customer service, as well as an over-zealous TSA screener. I recalculate my fly-vs.-drive threshold given the added hassles and airport time caused by the TSA’s no-liquids security rules. Looking back at all this, I work hard to remind myself that there are some good things about travel. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
This morning’s New York Times’ editorial page joins many of its ink-stained brethern in calling for a ban on carry-on luggage. While as wrong-headed in its conclusions as other editorialists, they’ve focused on the right issue — improved security — rather than the “improved speed of boarding” argument which we showed in an earlier post lacked a common understanding of simple mathematics. I do think it’s a bit rich, though, for the NY Times to be using the security argument to support this reactive proposition when when they’ve brushed it aside in earlier editorials against proactive security-enhancing proposals such as passenger profiling and data mining.
I’m not trying to be any kind — left or right — of wing-nut. As someone who flies 2,3 or 4 times a week — a lot more than your average newspaper editor — I don’t think I’m arm-chair quarterbacking this topic. Every time I board a flight, I have real skin in the game, my own. And, having weighed the risks, I’d like to be able to get some work done on the 12 hours I’m strapped in a seat so that I can spend some time with my family when I’m not. While the NY Times editors, as the producer of printed reading material, certainly have a reason to hope that a carry-on-free cabin would cause “some people … to go over reading material, or even revert to pen and paper”, those of us with 21st-Century jobs know better.
Hilary Baumann has posted a pretty exhaustive list of possible substitutes for liquid or gel toiletries on her ClothingCult blog. It’s a much more exhaustive list than I’ve provided in previous posts. Her suggestions for substitutes for products like bubble bath, concealer, and mascara go far beyond experience set. Why go through all this trouble; why not just check your luggage. Hilary says “the last time someone (a family member) convinced me to check baggage that I could have carried on, my checked bag took a 2 day trip without me to LA”. Sounds like a good reason to order up some of those dry nail enamel strips…
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