Travelling on Air France to Paris and Nice. Are knitting needles permitted? Thanks.

Hi G,

Obvious response, call Air France and "get it from the horses mouth".

The only problem is, it isn't AirFrance who will inspect your luggage and decide if they will confiscate the needles. You will be at the mercy of whoever looks in your carryone that day -- and rules mean nothing in such a case.

I must have missed the part of the thread where it said it was going to be part of her carry on luggage.

When most people take knitting needles it is to pass time ON the flight - therefore they would have to be in carry on.

Double check w/ your airline to be sure - but knitting needles have been allowed again Stateside for a couple of years now. They were never banned from most other countries.

But w/ the new security being aimed primarily at liquids/gels/possible explosives I haven't noticed if the status of knitting needles has changed again.

so check the Air France and TSA websites to be sure.

If you look at the TSA rules, you will find knitting and crochet needles as a line item...yes to both carry on and checked luggage. Their list is quite thorough....

It is unfortunate that you cannot always rely on what the TSA site and the airline sites say to be actually carried out and this makes it all the more difficult.

We recently have been told that medications should be carried in their individual pahrmacy-dispense containers however when I went to and from London a couple of weeks ago I had meds in 7-day boxes and nobody said a word.

I also had nothing in plastic bags and nothing was said. Ditto when a lof of people on the return flight from Heathrow had more than "one bag" that British kept insisting on their website was all that would be allowed.

The bicycle combination cable lock that was taken away from the man in front of me going through Security because it "could be used as a weapon" and the examples are numerous.

I'd certainly risk taking the knitting needles but I agree with NeoPatrick that it is sometimes a crap shott.

You can easily print out the TSA list re the knitting needles.

Re the prescription bit..there has been a lot posted about it I have alsways put all my prescription pills in one plastic bag and did so with my recent trip to France. There was absolutely no interest whatsoever in my plastic bag of pills.

Well, barbmike, why in the world would it be a problem in checked luggage? You can even take knives, scissors, and all kinds of sharp instruments in there. So I figured she had to be talking about carryon. No??

TSA.gov allows knitting needles on board. Called Air France and they replied in the negative but when told about TSA they said OK. I think it will be up to the individual security person. Thanks for all your immediate responses. This forum is wonderful.

"Called Air France and they replied in the negative but when told about TSA they said OK."

See what I mean about the uselessness of calling the airline, especially since it is a TSA issue getting them through security?

Meanwhile once again I'll state that all these "making sure of the rules" post are essentially a waste of time. As I said before you are at the mercy of whoever happens to be checking your carryon at the time. If you want, you can arm yourself with a printed document showing them what you SHOULD be allowed to take, but I don't want to be near you when you take on the TSA guard telling him or her what THEY SHOULD BE DOING. In fact, I don't want to be in the same airport when you do that!

Just print and take with you a current(to when you leave) copy of the TSA rules with you. I doubt that each individual TSA person has every item allowable and not allowable memorized. They would have to refer to the printed literature.

gracejoan, let me see if I understand this. You're standing in line and some guard tells you that you can't take an item in your carryon. You pull out a list and show him that you CAN take it? And he smiles and says "Ok then"?

I think either you're a far bolder person than I am or you've encountered much different TSA guards than I have seen manning the posts. I've seen them snap and go balistic at people who innocently said, "but that guard in the other line said we don't have to take off our shoes."

On your flight originating from the US, knitting needles should be allowed, since security is governed by the TSA.

On your flights originating in France, all bets are off, since they do not necessarily follow the TSA guidlines.

For our recent flight from Paris, the security person broke the miniscule nail file off my nail clippers before allowing me to take the clippers on board. No problem with those according to the TSA.

On another flight from Mexico, we had to check our bag because we had a hairdryer, and they weren't allowing anything with power cords. (Could be used as a weapon??)

They can be pretty capricious at security in other countries.

NeoPatrick,
I think I said that no TSA person is going to know for certain what is on the list without referrring to a list. Yes, if they think it is not, show them the list. That is exactly what you do.

I just went through an experience here in Asheville when I departed less than a month ago...was asked if I wanted the Supervisor and I said it would be a good idea. That easily took care of the problem..some inexperienced kid taking his job too seriously and a Supervisor with some maturity to immediately agree with me.

Where does your flight start from ?
Like marcy said : if it's from France (Paris- Nice ?), TSA rules don't apply (but the PAF ones)

I don't think one should be afraid to question authority (maybe not the police when you are stopped, okay), certainly not TSA agents, as long as you aren't threatening in doing it and stay calm and polite. Now of course they should know exactly which items are allowed and are not on the list, that is their job.

However, even with the increased standards, I'm sure there are many of them who can forget things, are new, etc. Most people want to do a good job, but may make mistakes or forget if they are new, and many would not get upset if you just showed them a list and said, gee, I followed this list and it says here you can, why do you think that is? They might then get a supervisor or ask someone else.

I've done that for museum entry and things, although I know customs/TSA agents may be more rigid and have ego problems -- like when I went to the Orangerie and had a time entry pass from FNAC, the first guard at the door wouldn't let me in and told me I had to go to the end of the block-long line to wait in line like all the people without a timed reservation. I said, I don't think so, can we ask that guy over there (a diff. guard), and the other guard told the guy to let me in, that's what the timed reservation was for. Now, you'd think a museum gatekeeper would know the basic rules about the timed entry reservations, but he didn't.