Lee

I have done some searches this morning for information but would like to hear from someone who has flown recently. How did things go IF you did not lock your checked baggage? And, I often travel with hairspray in a spray can. Can I still place this in my carry-on bag? One airline website suggested to put in my carry-on as long as it was under 16 oz. Another website suggested not packing any type of flammable liquid at all (carry-on or checked bags). Anyone had any experience with this yet? Any other tips for packing/flying these days? Thanks!

Lenore

We flew from FLL to LAS over Christmas. We left our checked bags unlocked as instructed and put nothing of any real value in them. No problems there. We had my jewelry, our toileties including a full size can of aerosol hairspray, my hair dryer and a big bag of loose quarters all in the carry-on. They seached our bag, thanks to the loose quarters, and wished us good luck in Vegas! Nothing was ever said about the hairspray. This was BEFORE they started sending the checked bags through the new screening machines, so I don't know how that's working out.

J Correa

I flew a couple times right before Christmas and carried on my hair spray and other toiletries - no problems with security. There were signs everywhere saying that hairspray and shaving cream cans were ok.

I haven't flown since the new regulations about not locking check bags though. I never put anything of value in there anyway - just clothing and sometimes work stuff if I have more than I want to carry with me. From what I understand the airlines are most concerned about hard sided luggage with the locks built in. If they need to open that type of bag and it is locked, they may have to damage the bag to open it. They can just cut the padlocks that people generally put on soft sided luggage.

Julie

I flew yesterday from Atlanta to New York. I think what you will encounter in terms of the checked baggage screening will differ by airline and airport in the near term. They did have the new bomb detection machines in the check-in area in Atlanta, but not all airlines were using them. The carriers with big operations did have them set up so that you had to run your bags to be checked through the machines before going to the ticket counter. Airlines with smaller operations there like Continental, which I was flying, did not have them yet so I just checked in at the kiosk and handed over my checked bags as usual. My understanding is that if your bags are not checked by machine, they have to be checked by hand or by bomb-sniffing dogs somewhere in the back. In any case, things seemed to be moving pretty quickly.

The recommendations that I've seen and that I followed when I packed yesterday were: i) pack toiletries on top in the suitcase, and put them in plastic bags so that they can be easily identified if your bag is opened, ii) spread out solid items like books rather than packing them right together since the machines look for solid objects, iii) avoid packing food items in your checked bags, iv) don't lock your bags; use a plastic tie to close them if you want some measure of security, so at least your lock won't be broken if they do open your bag.

Going forward, they are supposed to give you blue plastic ties to put on your luggage at the airport if you want them. Then, if security opens your bag, they are supposed to replace the blue tie with a red one and leave a pamphlet in the suitcase explaining why it was opened. I don't think that the ties are available yet though.

Jamie

We flew out of JFK in November. At Check in, where you show your tickets and would leave your checked bag is no longer. They check you in, tag your luggage and you are directed with your bag to another security line where your checked bags are scanned as you stand by, after they are ok'd you can proceed to the other security line where your carry on's and you are checked. We had no problem and packed all the ususal stuff, toiletries inc hairspray and shaving cream, perfumes, etc, bathing suits, jewelery, cameras ( by the way x ray is stronger now so to protect our film we used a lead lined film bag - very important!) Once thru we had no problems. We have never locked our luggage, ever. We never keep anything valuable in the checked bags and never had a problem either, so the not locking does not bother me.

Lee

Thanks for the information! Sounds like I better get some of those plastic tie-things for my luggage, and I won't worry too much about carrying hair spray, shaving cream, etc. in my carry-on bag. Thanks, too, for the tip about how to pack books. I had not even thought about that, but now I know.