The new normal: In a few hours I’ll be traveling on my first liquid-free carry-on flight. I thought I’d review the new prohibited items list on the TSA website. I saw also that they have a web-based tool that provides an estimate of the time it takes to get through security at a specific airport at a specific time and day. According to the website, I will have zero wait time to get through security when I’m traveling tonight. We’ll see.
Merchandising idea: I’ve wondered if airport retailers will lose money from the inability to sell water and drinks that passengers carry on board. However, they can more than make up for that if they start packaging together grab-bags for arriving passengers that include small versions of all the items one can’t carry onboard anymore. (I say this because I know I’ll have to swing by a drugstore with I land tonight.)
Update: The time through security was just as the TSA site predicted: zero wait time. Thumbs up TSA agents. Thumbs up TSA website meisters. However, I’m beginning to question my optimistic assumptions regarding the level of intelligence of the average TV watching American as the woman in front of me had a bag full of all sorts of liquids, pastes and gels confiscated — and she was dumbfounded as to why. I wanted to ask her about the rock under-which she resides, however, well it’s the south and I’m a gentleman and all. The security process was rather standard, except for the zealotry with which the TSA agents were seeking bottles and vials. However — and this is not a suggestion or recommendation and is especially not a confession, but just an observation of this guy I know — the security checkers don’t seem to be looking for a tiny bit — say about the amount that you’d find in a ketchup package at McDonald’s — of tooth paste or gel or lotion that is spread thinly and evenly inside little baggies and in, hypothetically speaking, a file folder in ones backpack.
