Comments on: TSA declares some laptop bags 'checkpoint-friendly'

In an effort to streamline the security screening process at airports, the agency decides to let travelers keep their laptops packed in certain types of bags.

[Penguinisto]

You know? Screw it - I'll just drive unless I otherwise have to. Long lines, being treated like cattle by both TSA and the airline, paying for a small seat with no legroom (which seems to be shrinking each time I fly), overbooking, cancellations, delays aplenty, and now... this.

Already it's easier and cheaper to drive from Portland to San Francisco as it is to: drive to PDX, wait through the check-in line, wait through security, wait for boarding, wait for the slot on the runway, wait in the landing/holding pattern, then wait for everyone to get off the plane, wait for baggage, wait for the rental car, etc etc. It takes me about 9-10 hours to drive to SanFran, and it takes roughly 8 hours (altogether) to do the airport rigmarole + flight time.

As a plus, I can eat whatever I want during the drive, don't have to put up with screaming babies, legroom is spacious, and the only idiots you have to deal with are in other cars, quickly forgotten as the miles roll by.

[AndrewRich]

I'm with you. We go from the SF Bay Area to SoCal six or seven times a year and it's no longer worth the hassle to fly. I can make it in six hours with reasonable traffic, which is only an hour or two more than it would take to fly plus airport rigamarole on both sides.

[OlderThanOld]

Man, I can sure second that notion. I flew before 9/11, but not since. I've seen the lines get longer, the searches get more intrusive, the requirements like something from a National Lampoon "Vacation" movie, and I'm sick of it. If I can't drive, I won't go. Gas prices aren't high enough to make me want to subject myself to the multiple indignities of the current air travel environment.

[n3td3v]

Breaking news, the TSA are engaged in PSYOPS, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_operations to bring fear and paranoia to the general public!!!

[DarkHawke]

Including, naturally, this comment.

[MadLyb]

My company did an estimate of how much money flying was costing the company, and then decided it was cheaper to lease 2 jets and go private. Drive right up, get on the plane and takeoff. Commercial flight from RDU to ATL including check-in, security, and flight is about 4 hours. Private flight takes just over an hour.

Now, the TSA wants to screw with that:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-08-10-charter-planes_N.htm

[vishalranjan]

HA! America, the land of opportunity...the announcement was made today and within hours, luggage companies line up with "checkpoint friendly laptop bags". What a joke!! lol

[vishalranjan]

HA! America, the land of opportunity...the announcement was made today and within hours, luggage companies line up with "checkpoint friendly laptop bags". What a joke!! lol

[abuflan]

What does it mean, that they should be "completely unfolded...so that there is nothing above or below the laptop-only section,"??? I don't get it.

[therealbean]

When the bag is opened out there is nothing underneath or on the laptop. In other words, the scanner sees only the laptop when the laptop passes by it--there's nothing obstructing the view nor underneath the machine.

[travel2much]

No, it wasn't that TSA made an announcement and laptop bag makers rushed to launch bags the same day... they have been working on it together for months, and as a very frequent international traveler, I am not going to just slam it out of hand... they are trying to make an annoying situation better and every little bit helps. Se www.checkthrough.com for some good info before jumping to conclusions.

[mbenedict]

What a bunch of whiners.

I don't know what the big deal is. I flew twice a week, every week from April through July including several transoceanic flights, with professional photography gear which includes my laptop, tripod, big lenses, backup hard drives, etc.

Dealing with the TSA has never been a problem. Sometimes they want to swipe inside of my gear bag for the chemical sniffer, but that takes like two whole minutes.

You guys want to talk about airport hassle? Try traveling to Caracas, Venezuela where the airport police force you into illegal taxis controlled by the local mafia, nice corruption action there under Chavez. Each time I never know if I'm going to come out of the taxi without getting mugged or worse.

Or how about the military guards at Shanghai Airport in China who feed their egos by harassing foreigners.

Or the border authorities in Indonesia who purposely give you wrong information so they can fine you later (hoping you'll settle with them with a bribe instead.)

Or try traveling out from any small Canadian city, where they'd literally have 20 guards manning that one measly metal detector they have in the airport, for that one daily outbound flight (thank you socialist government job programs.) Each one of them think they have to "earn that money for the day" by inspecting and re-inspecting every square inch of your bags. What they do for the other seven hours and fifty minutes of their job day is anyone's guess.

Frankly, I've found dealing with the TSA is a pleasure compared to the rest of the world.

[keithej2]

Wow mbenedict, you get around. You're also whining a little bit yourself about international travel. I think it comes down to peoples personal experiences with the TSA. Some of us remember what it was like flying 20 years ago and long for the days when you could show up just before the plane was scheduled to depart and run right to the gate without a hassle. Our time spent on the airplane was also much nicer then. I wish we would scrap the TSA and go back to taking our chances. I?m also driving from now on unless I?m forced to fly due to job, illness or a funeral.

[The_Decider]

The worst of it is that if people can hijack a plane and force it into buildings with box cutters, nothing is going to protect you.

TSA and its mindless drones only exist to give the appearance of security. It is also a nice petri dish to experiment with privacy violations to see just how far the government can push things without ramping up the fear button some more.

[Lerianis]

You hit the nail on the head with both the privacy violations thing and the 'ramping up the fear' point.

Frankly, if someone with BOX CUTTERS can take over a plane (I never bought that ********, someone on the plane WOULD HAVE FOUGHT BACK).... nothing is going to keep you safe, as you said, EXCEPT..... an armed federal agent on the plane! That is the absolute freaking ONLY thing that is going to keep you safe.

[The_Decider]

An armed federal agent is not a very good solution to a suicidal terrorist.

Unless you think that a gunfight at high altitude in a pressurized container is a good idea. It certainly has an effect of stopping some problems but is not a cure all.

[The_Decider]

An armed federal agent is not a very good solution to a suicidal terrorist.

Unless you think that a gunfight at high altitude in a pressurized container is a good idea. It certainly has an effect of stopping some problems but is not a cure all. A single armed agent couldn't even come close to stopping, say 10 people rushing him. Then the terrorists have the plane with the loss of a few of their own(but this is likely a suicide mission) and now they have a gun. In other words, game over.

[Lerianis]

The_Decider, you are showing your ignorance here. The fact is that they have done tests on pressurized airplanes to find out what would happen if a regular bullet hit a window, wall, etc. and managed to penetrate to the outside..... absolutely nothing, in almost all cases. In fact, they found out that they would have to have a hole about 2 inches big before they would have ANY problems with a hole in a plane.
Add to that, there are special bullets that are lethal to human but when they hit something more substantial than flesh, vaporize or close to it..... and it becomes an absolute non-issue.

[kinowerken]

The main qualification for a TSA uniform is having had a history of working at Taco Bell.

[ixocean]

Well...I don't recall 20 years ago hearing about planes being flown into skyscrapers by terrorists either. Did we have shoe bombers on commercial aircraft? Was the FAA cooperating with airlines in testing anti-missile technology for commercial airplanes? Come on - what's the big deal...an extra few minutes at the airport...foreign countries have been like this for decades and it's about time we took security a little more seriously for our own sake.

[Lerianis]

There comes a time when 'security' goes to far, ixocean. Frankly, it's gotten too far in the past few years, and this is NOT for our own sake. This is so our government can harass people and then blame it on 'we thought they were a terrorist'.
The fact is that terrorist attacks happen VERY infrequently. In fact, the 9/11 things and the first WTC bombing are the ONLY terrorists attacks in the past 100 years by foreign terrorists that were successful. Big deal: 2 terrorist attacks, killing only 1/10 to 1/20th of the number of people who are killed every year in car accidents in this country.... not a real big risk, in all honesty.
I'd be more worried about getting killed by a car walking down the street in the rural area where I live than I would worry about being killed in a terrorist attack.... and to be totally honest, if someone tried to take over the plane that I was on...... I would fight back and, if necessary, KILL the guy in question or girl who was trying to do that.

[magicmaster]

Friendly to whom?

The passengers who may be exempted from opening the bag for inspection,
or
the TSA that inspected passenger's belongings?

Looks like they are trying to get sponsorship or something:
"Today's inspection is brought to you by Blah Blah Bag Ltd".

[rebert3]

I think what a lot of people forget is that the majority of those manning the X ray machines at the airports have really no clue what's in a computer. Take for example the new Apple Laptop the MacBook Air; when it came out people were being hassled, because they couldn't tell the difference between a regular hard drive and the solid state one.

No matter which bag you buy; your better off just taking the laptop out of bag and get it over with. Besides if you get to the airport in time for your flight it won't take that long.

Also I heard that all boarder inspectors can confiscate laptops and storage devices, search them without giving a reason.

[Lerianis]

That last part is true, rebert3. However, Congress has also gotten on the Border Patrol and Customs case and told them that if they hear of them doing that crap..... they will pass a law saying that they are FORBIDDEN from ever doing it without prior cause, so the Border Patrol and Customs have pretty much backed off their position that it was okay.