Son had his carryon examined at SEATAC because he was bringing me two bags of Caffe Vita Nor’Wester beans.
I’m jealous. (I’m assuming those are coffee beans from Seattle).
1 Like
Yes, I brought some back after my visit there in September so charged son with bringing me more. Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Co.
2 Likes
I had to remove my shoes at LHR, but not in Munich. My sisters didn’t have to either place. Oh. One did as she was told to do so, but then she was yelled at for removing them. 
Same with the iPad.
The searcher refused to let anyone move ahead who had an imminent flight to catch. Nope. Wait your turn.
In Manchester one time, everyone had to remove everything from their 3-1-1 bag and put it into one of theirs or they wouldn’t pass.
It’s all a bit of, “Well, do you want to fly today?”
1 Like
If you’ve ever lived in Seattle, one of our favorite things is Johnny’s Seasoning Salt. Costco sells it in huge plastic jars. Just after they changed the rules on powdery or granular substances, I saw a poor woman have her new, sealed jars opened and tested.
I purposely didn’t bring coffee home from Germany for fear of something similar.
1 Like
Flying out of Omaha recently and some poor guy got the full monty from TSA because he had ground coffee in paper bags in his carry-on.
3 Likes
My youngest son lost a gifted expensive battery charger from his brother when they met in Germany for Octoberfest. My son never opeend it because he had brought 3 others and so just put it in his suitcase. Even though he never took it out of the package, the German TSA folks took it and kept it. Ugggghhh, he hasn’t told his brother, now he’ll have to go buy another just like it and have 4 battery chargers!
3 Likes
I had a sous-vide cooker in my checked bag one year - I was carrying it as a gift.
I was sure my bag would get pulled for a physical inspection as the sous-vide cooker is literally a metal tube with electronics at one end and a wire sticking out.
But nope, sailed right through the x-ray machine.
1 Like
We had a flight from Sky Harbor in Mesa two weeks ago and they told us to leave our shoes on. They also didn’t let people use bins, although there were huge stacks of bins. Seems that caused more hold-ups than using bins–purse straps, jacket sleeves, keys, etc. falling off the sides of the belt, etc.
2 Likes
I always feel the bin is marginally cleaner than the conveyer belt and prefer to use the bins if we are allowed. I try to zip everything loose that we remove for TSA into pockets of clothing we put in bins to reduce the chance of leaving items behind—yup have had that happen!
2 Likes
Bins are probably as disgusting as the belt, but at least they contain everything… sigh. TSA is such a joyful bunch, aren’t they? 
3 Likes
I’m seeing the bins being offered less and less.
I got tagged once for having an Anthropologie candle in a gift bag. I should have known better, since it is an incendiary item. It was in my big suitcase, but I was over the weight limit and had to do the luggage unzip of shame and remove excess weight, so I just grabbed it.
They didn’t confiscate it, but I did have to submit to a full search where the removed every item from my carry-on bag and purse and swabbed it. They unwrapped the candle and removed it from its box. They even unwrapped a protein bar that I had. Lesson learned - no more candles.
2 Likes
At this point I’m a little nervous about flying back to the US tomorrow. I hope there is no government shutdown (for many more reasons than just my flight).
5 Likes
Sky Harbor in Phoenix? Was this the regular non-precheck lane? Very weird, I’ve never seen that any airport but I’m usually in the pre-check line.
Yes, we were in the regular non-Pre-check line. I thought it was strange, also!
We just flew out of the British Virgin Islands and they wanted the shoes off but not in a bin. We didn’t have to remove liquids or our IPad. The agent was cute as she told me I should put my passport in my bag.
That’s funny because we were in the BVI this summer and they did have us pull out our liquids. My sister was annoyed because she has TSA precheck. Umm maybe because the BVI is a foreign country. 
I can’t remember about the shoes.
I think they didn’t want the shoes to dirty the bins
1 Like
TSA claims that the reason rules are different at different places and times is to keep terrorists on their toes. I’ve long wished they had electronic bulletin boards after the ID check to tell you the procedure for today, but that would make too much sense. I’ve been in line at PDX when they’ve announced “Everyone is precheck, shoes on, don’t take anything out of your bags.” Then when they get the backlog of customers through they go back to normal operations. The randomness is intended.
1 Like
On our recent trip I was shocked at the number of people traveling with a dog. One family had three small dogs. We saw several people traveling with large dogs. One young couple who was going through passport control at the same time we did said his dog was 90 lbs and he had bought him a seat. He said he also was traveling with a cat. The dog was wearing a service vest but didn’t behave or appear to be a true service animal.
2 Likes