Carry on liquid limit
 

I've flown a lot in recent years but I've always checked a bag and not worried about carry on liquid limits. At $50 round trip I decided to carry on all my luggage for a Seattle-Miami trip in June. I understand that all of the liquids must fit into a quart sized bag and must close all the way. I was wondering if I was free to cram as many liquids into that bag as I could fit, even if they're stacked on top of each other, as long as it closes? I did a trial run and everything fits but it's bulgy, sorta' round. It still closes just fine however!

Also, is Old Spice deodorant (solid stick) considered a liquid or a gel? The TSA website doesn't do a very good job at explaining what is and isn't a liquid/gel.

I currently don't have the deodorant in the bag.

Also, what about chapstick in solid form? I always have a Burts Bee's chapstick in my pocket.

as long as all your liquid/gels are in containers that less than 3 fl. oz, then you can cram as many as you can fit in the bag. You can not have a 10oz bottle than is 1/3 full. Your solid deodorant and chapstick do not need to be in the bag.

Thanks, all of my bottles are 3 ounces or smaller. :)

johnnyomalley-I appreciate your response to Ty0604 because I learned something. I thought that chapstick, solid deo., and the like had to be in that ziplock. Glad to know they don't. We are trying to fly with carryons only, so need to know all I can. There's no way to carryon a razor is there? Guess I'll have to always buy one at our destinations. My husband just skips shaving on a trip but I don't like being bristly.

Hi 1965

Razors? I've been carrying them on for years. Never had a problem or question. No need to be bristly :) Shaving cream might be a problem, not sure what the rule is on aerosols because I don't use shaving cream.

Pls read this site: http://www.tsa.gov/311

Disposable razors are allowed.

CubFanAlways & 1965

Shaving cream is considered a liquid (as is anything inside an aerosol can) so it must be less than 3 ounces and fit into the ziplock bag.

Does anyone know what the rule is about vitamins and non-prescription sleeping aid? I buy my vitamins in bulk (500 count bottles) and will only be gone for five days so can I toss 15 of them into a small sandwich bag and toss it in with my luggage, without the bottle? Same with sleeping aid. I have trouble sleeping when I travel so I usually bring a few nights worth of Tylenol sleeping aid, again without the bottle. I've always checked it though so never been an issue. Can I carry these on without the original bottle? They are a solid...

You are always better off having any pills in the original bottles. That said, you are unlikely to have an inspector - security or customs - question your pills. If they do question them, expect to have them confiscated so don't take anything in an unmarked container that you can't live without.

This time the thanks go to rkkwan and CubFanAlways for the info. about disposable razors. Just assumed they were forbidden. No more bristliness here. Also read that certain small scissors are allowed. Means I can take my needlework if I can fit it into the carryon.

Thanks Kathie. They're okay if I bring them along in the original packaging then? I'll probably just hit up a pharmacy in Miami and leave the rest behind to avoid the trouble.

Thanks again!

I'm old, and in consequence I have a regimen of pills that would serve a platoon. Some are prescription; some are OTC. I put my daily doses in a pill container (which helps me remember what day it is) and carry a listing of all the pills. But in all honesty, I couldn't say with certainty which is which. I've been doing this for years and have never had a problem.

Practically, I think they are concerned with drug smuggling, but if you have fewer than a few thousand pills they are unlikely to consider it a problem.

You folks might consider www.minimus.biz if you want tiny things to bring on board.

Not so cheap, but they fit the bill.

"You are always better off having any pills in the original bottles"

In my opinion that's a baseless claim. Can anybody cite an example when airport security has confiscated pills?

They are concerned security, not what little purple or blue or other color pills one takes or what container they are in.

I wouldn't be bring that many pills onboard. Less than 20 total between the vitamins and sleeping aid. I don't want to be that idiot who holds the line up forever because I brought something I shouldn't have. I emailed the TSA but they're worthless.

TSA doesn't care about pills or drugs or smuggling of illicit items, period. They only care about security of the air system. They are not the US Customs or FBI.

We've taken as much as 6 months worth of our daily medications with us in our carryon numerous times (very rarely have they been in "original containers" and no, we do not bring along copies of our prescriptions) over the past 10 years and have never once even been asked about them.

Inexperienced travelers seem to have many misconceptions as to what is and what is not allowed through the TSA checkpoints. Answers to all your questions can be found on the TSA website where you'll also find a complete list of "prohibited items": www.tsa.gov/311/

J62, it isn't security that you have to be concerned about confiscating pills, it's customs. And yes, there are many, many stories of travelers having pills confiscated. I know the OP was asking about a domestic flight, but for the sake of completeness, I offered info about customs as well as security.

I agree with J62. I never seen anyone checked for pills by US Custom. In fact I have rarely seen anyone checked by customs. You hand them the list, they nod, and you go on. In on our return last year in New York there were two custom agents standing in a door way by the luggage bin and collecting the declaration statement as people walked by without even looking at the slips. Besides someone returning to the US probably doesn't have a lot of pills anyway. All used up. Different story when leaving. And I have never heard of anyone having pills confiscated. More urban fable than anything else. Sort of like the story that you cannot have a pin number starting with zero.

US Customs can stop a passenger and inspect their stuff, going in or out of the country. How often does that happen? Not frequent, and there's no limit how much legal pills you can bring. Say you're arriving into the US, and the customs is having a slow day having nothing to do. They send you to secondary inspection, open your suitcase and see a huge bag of unlabeled pills. Do you think they'll ask you a question or two? Probably. You just have to answer them and what happens next depends on whether your answer is satisfactory to them. Will you spend more time at customs than if you only have a small bottle of labeled pills? You can answer that yourself.

Having gone in and out of the US so many times (by car, by bus, by semi-truck, by plane, on foot; haven't done it by sea yet), I have seen lots of things happened. They all make sense in a way, but no one can say for sure "this will happen to you", or "this will not happen to you". As long as you follow the rules and don't break the law, you're fine. Whether you will spend extra time at the border is another matter.

BTW, just want to add that US Customs don't just inspect arriving passengers. I've seen them positioning on the jetway on flights to Asia and ask if one is carrying more than $10,000 in cash and if so, whether one has reported it.

And I wasn't joking about Customs having a slow day. One wintry Sunday morning, I drove back from New Brunswick into Maine on a secondary road. They inspected my car for 15 minutes, taking out everything in the trunk, including the spare tire and more. Why? They had nothing else to do, as I didn't see another vehicle going through that border either way during those 15 minutes.