There could be new screening rules coming to an airport near you....
Those who pack their carry-on luggage to the bursting point may have to unload it in the security line if the screeners can't discern what the contents are.
This is being done on a test basis at the moment, but if there are no major problems this may be rolled out at all U.S. airports. Flying these days is such fun (NOT)!
I saw that last night as well and thought OH BOY here we go!
So they really, really mean arrive 2-4 hours ahead of the flight...
I put an extra pair of tennis shoes in my carry-on luggage this time, still I wasn't called on it. I'll just have to open it and unpack it all in front of them should this actually happen. It certainly won't be the first time.
I wonder why they chose the airports they did for this test? Like, LA but not NYC?
Thank heavens ours isn't on that list (yet).
This should be interesting. For the many years now that liquids and whatnot have been banned, shoes have to be off, pockets have to be emptied, etc., too many people still don't get it.
They do this anyway even when they can see they randomly pick people for enhanced search
the theory is that the extra "uncluttering" of bags before x-ray, will reduce the number and time of bags needing an extra look. So a net speeding up of the process. If it doesn't work, they may not do it.
I flew from Milwaukee once, at which the screeners had to open and inspect many of the bags because the big round blocks of cheese (sold at the airport) were showing up on x-ray and blocking the view of whatever else was inside the bags. The screeners told me they had to check, even though they knew what they were. .
At the same time, they are trying to promote access to the Pre-check application process, setting up temporary interview offices at our airport, and I assume others.
Going over wouldn't be a problem for me, my carry-on bag just has my 3-1-1, book, change of clothes and a few other compartmentalized things, easy to dump out and stuff back in. Coming back it's packed just so and usually has fragile items--last trip had 6 pieces of well-wrapped vintage Hungarian pottery, 2 vintage Delft tiles, 4 lbs of cookies, and an old tin toy--easy to remove but couldn't just throw back in. I can only imagine if someone had to open a bigger bag, this could really get time-consuming.
This is being done on a test basis at the moment, but if there are no major problems this may be rolled out at all U.S. airports.
I can't imagine that there wouldn't be major problems, unless TSA doesn't consider even longer lines to be a problem. But this might push more people to get Pre Check.
One point to add.....
I do know from personal experience that screeners looking at the X-Ray image sometimes can't tell what an item is, so they will flag it and have one of their colleagues pull it out of the bag to inspect it. I've had that happen several times at various airports. The local airport here is very diligent, and they've even caught the small knife in a Swiss Card a couple of times (it's only about 2" long). I've learned to remove the knife and pack it in checked luggage.
