Airport security

[Cablestitches]

Clearly the airport is the last place you should be stomping your feet and arguing with staff

but confiscating a really really bloody expensive liquid because the SEE THROUGH BOTTLE says 150ml and it’s clearly half empty - therefore under 100mls purely because the label says 150mls?!

And she didn’t throw it in the bin she put it on the shelf in front of her. Robbed, I was bloody robbed

AIBU - the rule is the liquid amount; not the amount the bloody bottle says

(Yes I know the rules)

(yes I really do know the rules)

(yes I know you aren’t allowed to take more than 100mls through)

(why did I try then? - because the rule says you can’t take more than 100mls through - not yoh can’t take a bottle marked at 150mls which is clearly half empty through)

(no I didn’t check my baggage)

(because it wasn’t worth the cost for a two night stay and hang luggage was fine)

(yes I know this is a first world problem and some people can’t fly anywhere)

Perk of the job, keeping the good stuff. I think I’d have a little chuckle spraying something lovely I’d confiscated from an obnoxious traveller.

Somebody tried to blow up a shoe twenty years ago.

It depends on the type of security scanners which the airport have.

Would you prefer to get blown out the sky with a bomb made from liquids. It was narrowly averted.

I was too stupid to read the rules and had to pay £11 quid to get my brand new bottle of Chanel No5 body spray back when I returned from my holiday. Now that is obscene.

It does get destroyed. There is no guarantee that what it says on the container label and the contents ate the same thing.

And do you think 100.05ml makes any difference to anything?

YABU, the rules quite clearly say that it’s 100ml been if it’s a bigger bottle that’s half empty, if you were so bothered by something being confiscated because it was expensive you would have checked and double checked.

0.05 x the number of passengers (potentially circa 500 on an A380)? Possibly!

lt’s like taking an exam. If you fail by just 1% or 2%, you fail.

We know what the rules are. And we know what they are for that’s why we obey them. The airports have these rules in response to a terrorist threat and if we want to fly we obey the rules.
In airports which still have the old scanners the container can’t be more than 100ml that’s it. It then follows that the liquid in the container will be 100ml or less.
I was caught out because I didn’t realise my cleanser bottle was 125ml, they took it out. I knew it was my mistake.

My local airport we can now carry 2L containers and liquid. However the last time I travelled the return airport still had the old liquid rules so I had to pack with that in mind which is annoying but it’s just the way it is.

The rules change during the year because the airport has upgraded their scanners. There isn’t a conspiracy to rob you of your half used bottle of expensive whatever it was

Spot on!

Yeah no. Totally irrelevant.

Flying on A380 or not an extra .05 ml is unlikely to make a difference but if you're limiting liquids by numbers you need a line somewhere and there can't be wriggle room, otherwise you start to get "creep", or just inconsistences.

That's when the arguments would really start:

".....but last week your nice colleague let me take 110 ml through...where's your supervisor?"?

Fundamentally even the most frequent users of airport security get caught out occasionally, maybe by loading up bags in a rush or being caught out by airport rules.....it's a PITA when it happens but you have to accept it - no point in blaming security staff ot worse still thinking they've picked on you so they get to go home with a freebie..

What do you suggest then? Moving to a system of roughly/ballpark numbers? Just eyeballing containers?

I’ve been a frequent flyer (usually 2x a week (domestic, Europe and Ultra long haul) for nearly 20 years.
I’ve known for all that time that it’s containers of no more than 100ml. Very few airports have done away with it so I just work on that basis and never been caught out

That's not the point. The point is the rule is 100ml and the people enforcing the rules have to do so swiftly and easily. They can't be being asked to make judgement calls on whether a larger bottle contains 100ml, slightly more or slightly less.

Yes. The limit is 100ml.

It’s like saying “oh officer I was only 1 over the limit”, the limit is the limit.