Top Ten Officer Secrets To Help Enhance Your Travel Experience (Or At Least Avoid the Stress!)
Want to make your flight a worry-free and pleasant experience? Our resident transportation security alumnus is here to offer some insider tips that may come in handy.
10. Overweight luggage? No problem for us! In fact…
TSA isn’t concerned with revenue from your luggage- that’s up to the airlines. They’re just there to keep everyone safe and will scan every bag you bring through. Now, I would never encourage anybody to cheat or be dishonest, but I will make a simple point: If you happened to have a piece of checked luggage that was two pounds overweight, or a carry-on that bulged too much to fit in the overhead compartment, you could pay an extra $50 to check a second bag… or you could just walk over to the newsstand, buy a candy bar for $1, and perfectly reasonably put 2 lb. of socks or something from that overweight bag into the plastic bag the cashier puts your candy bar in. Presto… no extra bag fee, no overweight fee, you still only have one carry-on, and TSA will scan all your bags. (Just make sure you don’t buy a beverage till you’re on the other side of security!)
9. Yes, there are limits on liquids, and airlines sell beverages, but planes are still BYOB if you plan ahead.
Remember 3.4 oz. bottles are fine, so if you want a little wine or whiskey on your trip without the mile-high surcharge, just remember that most places that sell your favorite spirits offer travel-size bottles. You’d be surprised how many of those things fit in a 3–1–1 Ziploc bag… and again, it’s totally legal!
8. Send your fancy gadgets through the x-ray separately if possible. Nobody likes a bag search, or the wait that comes with it. One tip most people don’t think of: If you have a vibrating neck pillow, a battery-powered heated jacket, or a hoodie with headphones built-in, think for a second about what that’s going to look like on an x-ray. Placing it in a separate bin, and telling the friendly divestiture officer what it is before you send it down the x-ray belt, will definitely help speed things along. They may still need to check it, but they won’t have to hunt for it!
7. Curious why you keep alarming? Just ask!
This won’t always be possible when it’s busy, but if you’re a regular traveler and you have no idea why you alarm the metal detector or the AIT machine, you can always ask the officers to help you figure it out. In slow moments, I’ve tossed individual shoes, belts, and bracelets through the metal detector at passengers’ requests so we could determine exactly what accessory they should pack in the carry-on or stop wearing on travel days. That’s just a common sense courtesy that saves us both time on your future trips. So next time you’re wondering if a patch on your favorite pair of jeans makes the AIT alarm, just ask! It might save you a lot of pat-downs in the long run.
6. Want to know where to eat before your flight? The Blueshirts are better than Yelp.
Most security officers are at the airport 40 hours a week or more, and many have been on the job for over a decade. If you need a recommendation about the best place to eat, grab a coffee, or kill some time before your flight, they’re your experts. They usually go to these places when they’re on lunch break too, so they know exactly how long it takes to get your food at each place if you’re in a hurry. Just don’t expect them to know which bartender makes the best mixed drinks…
5. Unsure if you can take that toy grenade? There’s an app for that!
TSA has an app that lets you type in the name or description of an item, and get an instant answer as to whether it’s allowed. Just click here: https://apps.tsa.dhs.gov/mytsa/cib_home.aspx
As for that toy grenade, of course not! When that image shows up on the x-ray, it’s going to be a long day for everyone involved.
4. Traveling with young kids? There is help!
Many officers are parents too, and even those who aren’t have seen their fair share of strollers coming through. Most of the time they’re happy to help fold it up for you, run it through the x-ray, and set it back up for you if you want, and they certainly aren’t going to rush you as you fish for that juice box in the bottom of a backpack while keeping your children from crawling through our x-ray machine. They don’t hold passengers’ babies for liability reasons, but they’re happy to either coax your toddlers through the metal detector or let you carry them through.
3. No TSA-approved lock? No problem.
If you want to lock or zip-tie your checked bag but you don’t have a TSA-approved lock (and don’t want us to page you back out of the secured area or break it off), you can stick around for a moment and give the officers a standard lock to secure your luggage once it clears the screening process. Just let them know before they put it on the conveyor to get scanned, so they don’t react too slowly and have to go hunt for it underground! Also be aware that this is still not very secure — most luggage zippers can be opened with a ballpoint pen and re-zipped even with the zippers locked together. Your safest bet is always a hard-sided case!
2. Don’t want to part with that pocketknife? You may have some options. If you accidentally bring a prohibited item like a favorite 12 oz. body wash or beloved pocketknife (though not a gun, of course!) through the checkpoint and TSA finds it, you may not have to abandon it. Many airports have post offices in the public area that you can use to mail the item back to yourself, and they’ll gladly escort you out of the checkpoint to get there. If someone is seeing you off, they can actually walk out to the public area and hand it to the person for you, so you don’t have to get re-screened. No guarantees on this last one, but if you have time and the item is really important to you, it’s worth asking TSA and the airline if your checked luggage can be retrieved so you can place the item in it and have it re-screened. It’s no easy feat trying to find one bag out of thousands down on the conveyor labyrinth, but I’ve personally done it more than once when we had adequate staffing and the airline was confident the suitcase hadn’t already been taken to the plane.
1. Even in a hurry, try to be flexible, and let the Blueshirts help you!
If you politely tell an officer (without rushing or pressuring them) that you’re in a hurry, they may have some advice. I’ve redirected countless people to less-populated checkpoints down the hallway to help them out over the years, but you have to trust us! If I’ve radioed to another checkpoint that connects to your gate to find that they are nearly empty, and I can see that ours is overflowing or I know that there is an equipment malfunction, then I know the extra 3 minutes you spend walking there will save you 10 minutes in screening lines once you’re there. No promises they can do all this every time, but they may also be able to tell you if the standard lanes are running faster than the pre-check lanes due to volume, help you run your items through the x-ray quickly, or even let you know if your boarding has been delayed so you can catch your breath.
Well, there you have it: ten secrets from a former officer who actually wants you to enjoy your flight. Deep down TSA officers are humans too, and pleasant travelers make for an easier workday. While the officers may not be able to accommodate every request or solve every problem, they do know their way around the air travel experience, and are usually quite happy to help!
Disclaimer: any content contained in this article is based on the author’s own opinion and experience and is in no way intended to reflect any policies or opinions on behalf of the agency. The Transportation Security Administration has not endorsed or approved this article or any contents herein.
