TSA Decides Against Allowing Small Knives On Aircraft 298
New submitter lemur3 writes "After multiple months of discussing possible changes to the prohibited items list, the Transportation Security Administration in the United States has determined that it is best to go ahead without any changes to the list of items passengers may have in their carry-on baggage when traveling by air. Under the proposed change (discussed previously on Slashdot) pocket knives and other items, such as hockey sticks and ski poles, would have been allowed."
Re:There goes another Swiss Army knife (Score:5, Informative)
They should just charge a $5 fee and mail it to you if you don't want it destroyed.
Most major airports have kiosks for explicitly this purpose.
Which ones? I've never seen one.
Here's a list of airports for one company's checkpoint mailers, there are probably other companies that do the same thing in other airports:
http://www.airportmailers.com/airportlist.php [airportmailers.com]
There was a company called ReturnKey that did the same thing (I linked to an Engadget article that mentions them in another post), but their domain is dead, so they seem to have gone out of business.
Re:There goes another Swiss Army knife (Score:2, Informative)
No the problem can at times be the TSA. Let me illustrate...
Look at the jolt cola can referenced by this link: http://bevwire.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/jolt-cola-soon-to-be-discontinued/ [wordpress.com]
I was at SD West (last one btw), and they were giving out the jolt cola awards, and cans. I managed to get a can, put it into my backpack with my notebook. The next morning, too early (as I was flying to Europe) I forgot the can was in there. So off I go into the search, and they asked "what's this?" I said its cola, and they asked if I wanted to drink it. I said, "na, just throw it away, its too big for me to drink right now".
Well, apparently that was the wrong answer. One agent said "we have never seen this type of can!" I was like, really? Never, apparaently it was a new can design. So off they go and search my entire body and took my entire backpack apart. I was there 45 minutes! It was not funny and of course they found nothing. This was a stupid search and because the TSA had never seen one of their products from their own country I was dodgy! Come on people!
Re:There goes another Swiss Army knife (Score:2, Informative)
You should mail yourself stuff. UPS can even make custom boxes and packaging for you to use. The money you spend mailing it to yourself is money that you save when you don't have to buy a replacement for it.
Re:There goes another Swiss Army knife (Score:4, Informative)
They should just charge a $5 fee and mail it to you if you don't want it destroyed.
Back in the eighties, they did. Well minus the charge. If you had a dangerous item (knife, drafting compass, ...), you handed it in at the security checkpoint, it would go into a box in the cargo hold (together with similar items of other passengers), and you got it back on arrival.
Re:There goes another Swiss Army knife (Score:5, Informative)
easy way to ensure your luggage does not get opened by the TSA (in transit)
PROPERLY CHECK A FIREARM
once they check it at the airport it is considered a SEALED PACKAGE and can not legally be opened by anyone without you present.