New carry-on luggage limits and screening measures after Northwest Airlines terrorist incident

@Eric

I respectfully disagree. We have seen in the past that attacks are often coordinated. Until we know whether this is a part of a larger plot or just one nut job, vigilance is prudent.

The TSA is a joke. They are inconsistant, underpaid, and undertrained. If they had been doing they’re job, the attempted terrorist attack would’ve never happened. I’m not saying that all terrorist attacks are preventable, i’m just saying if you must show your doing your job (you know, confiscating bottles, and formula, shaving cream, and pie,) at least check the carry ons to see if mysterious items are in it. Slowly illiminating carry on luggage isnt going to solve anything, and only make poeple hate flying and the TSA more.
I mean I have no problem having my carry ons checked, (and I’m sure many people agree), but I think its necissary to be able to fly with 2 carry ons. and i’m sure others agree with me, particularily Business travellers.

And yes, a SEVERE restriction in the number and size of carryons would reduce risk and increase safety in many ways. And YES, Ms. Cantin, you CAN fly without carryons. I do it, for six-week trips, OFTEN. You just have to learn how.

Easy solution to the lighter problem…quit smoking. Easy solution to the carryon problem…start USING the baggage sizers and CHARGING the checked baggage fee for those who drag a bag to the gate expecting (and usually getting) a bag checked gratis. Easy solution to pax from Nigeria w/things they shouldn’t have….force them to exit security in any airport in which they land and re-enter to connect.

I am planning on traveling later this week and was already going to Fedex packages. Now I will drop my toiletries bag and most of the rest of my stuff in the box too. Just a very light carry on with an extra book so I can entertain myself through the delays. It’s like the old days when I brought War and Peace to read while I waited on college registration lines. I’ll probably get extra scrutiny because I will be the only one not complaining. Can’t do a thing about so I am not getting my self into a knot over it.

What we need – and are never going to get, it seems – are uniform screening procedures worldwide. What is forbidden to go through security in one country should not be permitted in another.

@Toni

Whether you can travel without a carry on depends greatly on your individual circumstances. For example, when I travel, I must take a work laptop as well as expensive and crucial medications. No one in their right mind would place either in checked baggage.

So the statement that you can travel without carryon isn’t true for everyone.

Even though he was not on a no-fly list, he had previously been considered a person of interest. That alone should have triggered something. No one paid attention, so now we all have to pay the price.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/26/airplane-electronics-ban/

Mort B- start profiling, and they will start recruting people who don’t look like the normal profile. Bad idea. It’s not about being politically correct, it’s about being thorough.

maybe we should have certain planes for certain ethnicities until they can be trusted to keep the rest of us safe..!

how exactly are these restrictions going to be enforced? I am travelling back from the UK with my one year old baby- if he wont stay still for the last hour and needs to move around or have a diaper change, am i going to be arrested for not complying with cabin orders because i need to take care of my son?

When will this end? I know this is impractical and totally non PC, but am so sick of being PC just to have it thrown back in our faces- could be time to make some blankets rules on those permitted to fly in general until all this ends and we can be assured of our safety.

Lets see…I was instructed to take the plane down when the Captain started his decent or about 30 minutes to go. Now I must stay in the seat and have everything stored for the last 60 minutes and the Captain will give me a 15 minute heads-up. I guess my handlers will instruct me to take down the plane with 75 minutes to go. Those Americans are so funny!!!

I always like to use the bathroom just before we land…I don’t know what to do about this!

The TSA, and most government agencies implementing policy, have no concept of aggregate costs and benefits. A seemingly minor thing like not allowing laptop usage in the last hour of the flight could cause $25-50 of lost time (depending on their marginal opportunity cost of time) for professionals getting work done. Multiple that across the millions of people who travel each day in such a situation and you’ve got one substantial aggregate cost that is very real, if diffuse. Yet the benefits of this policy, besides making it appear to people that the government is “doing something” (god don’t we see that all the time) are entirely unclear to me.

I don’t mind measures taken so long as they efficient, targeted, and justified, but let’s at least analyze very closely what the costs and benefits will be before acting. I have a feeling that doing so is simply asking too much of the TSA.

This is just anohter one of their riduclous rules. So now for 1 hour before we are going to act like Stepford wives and do noththing…….Get a life TSA.

Maybe the TSA, FAA or the airlines will provide all passengers with a pair of diapers during the flight!

There’s only one solution, we (travellers) should all go on strike and refuse to fly until this nonsense stops. The economics would trump the bureaucracy, especially with a mid-term election coming up. No BOOKS or MAGAZINES!!! What’ll they think of next?

And, a question, does the one carryon limit for foreign flights to the US apply to flight attendants? Given how many crew I’ve seen with at least 2, not to mention many times 3 carryons, how is that going to work? There would be great irony in making flight crew wait at baggage claim, however.

One hour with no books, nothing to pass the time? Traveling with children will be such a joy for all concerned- young children often cannot sit still or quietly unless otherwise occupied. It is taking a serious issue and making it a joke. As for bathroom usage– how do we tell our bladders to hang in there? What about those passengers with true medical needs? Someone needs to rethink this policy rather quickly- it’s not going to work!
I have no objection to strict security regs, but this is taking it to a ridiculous level.

Guess if I don’t watch the time, I might have to pee myself….

So how exactly will this one hour before landing rule work if you have passengers who HAVE TO use the bathroom? How do you limit carryon’s if the passenger has medications he/she needs to have with them at all times? So they will be in the overhead and the passenger needs to take some because they might be time sensitive? Will this become a federal offense if the passenger has to get their meds and has to take them? The TSA setup since inspection has been a cluster and always will be until someone in WA DC wakes up and takes charge and actually creates an agency that knows what they are doing. Having worked in SECURITY for over 40+ years in both military and civilian careers, SECURITY only works when you have your programs STANDARDIZED at all locations, and ALL members from the TOP down are trained exactly alike. The little game being played on the American public is just that, a game. We all know who the bad guys are and were and who continue to be. IF you are going to have a no-fly list or a “person of interest” list then ENFORCE them. IF you want proper security, then ENSURE that your security procedures around the world, if the airline(s) fly outside the U.S. are ENFORCED the EXACT SAME as they would be in the U.S. It is time that the TSA treated the flying public in the U.S. as adults and not a bunch of children. It is time for TSA to actually PROVE to the American Public and to Congress that the agency is actually doing the job they were created for; and it is time for Congress to REQUIRE TSA and Homeland Security to PROVE to them and the American Public, who happen to be the ones who pay the taxes to allow these two agencies to function to PRODUCE evidence and proof that they are doing worth the taxes being paid for them to exist. Rather strange in my mind that once again a “terrorist” plan was thwarted by in-flight personnel and airplane passengers rather than TSA or Homeland Security personnel. So who exactly is doing their jobs, airlines or TSA/Homeland Security?

The cabin temperature on my last trip home from India was no more than 55 degrees, and at times, it was lower. That is not an exaggeration (my travel clock tells the temperature), and that low temperature remained until landing. I hate to think of how the elderly, the very young or anyone with arthritis will be able to cope without being allowed an airline blanket during that last hour. Not everyone, particularly if traveling from a warm climate, will be dressed warmly enough to go without that particular amenity. There are so few amenities left, and now we lose that one. And what will happen if someone really needs to use the rest room, in an emergency situation? Will they be forced to soil themselves?

I remember a conversation I had with a Russian colleague who immigrated to the US in the late 80s. He marveled at how many “rights” we have, such as the right to complain to a company or demand good service. They were non-existent in the old country. I explained to him that it was not always so. He emphasized that Americans would NEVER accept the indignities the Soviet government bestowed upon its people.

And yet, today, when you walk into an airport – that’s exactly what’s going on. You give up your freedom, and we let it happen. We even supported it after 9/11. We are treated like children and criminals all in one.

Intl flights to or from the US should be labeled “Con Air.”

‘Cause that’s what they’re doing – strapping you to your seat until you land.

Mr. Henderson, that’s exactly my concern. Are we all going to be wearing diapers just so we don’t have to use the loo? They tell us to drink water so we don’t dehydrate when we fly, but now they want to keep us in our seats for the ‘final hour’? Yeah, right. I can just see it. “Hey, you there, with the greater than 3 ounces of liquid in front of you…Yeah, you. You’re in big trouble now…”
And Mr. Graham, you too are correct. Even in the best of circumstances, there’s no way to accurately gauge the remaining time. And is it the hour until we actually arrive at the gate (i.e., the arrival time) or is it just simply touch down? Big difference if you ask me. And since we still aren’t allowed out of our seats when the plane does touch down, all I can figure is that the line to the bathroom is going to be a steady & long one all during a flight.
And to Ms. Cantin, not to be the spelling police, but here are the correct spellings for the 3 words:
their (as in ‘their job’)
necessary
particularly

I am not shocked that Amsterdam security failed. We have flown tthe Amsterdam to Detroit route countless times over the past 15 years. The LAST time we flew that route was in August 2009. I say LAST because of the way I was roughed up when I was searched by Amsterdam security. I am a short, blonde, middle-aged, white american mom, I was travelling with my 2 daughters. My daughters were horrified as they stood there and watched…the force with which I was searched was unjustifiable. I will never fly through Amsterdam again. I didn’t protest or complain about the search and I don’t disagree with searching in this way….just “randomly selecting” a person that is obviously not a threat. I was the only person on the flight searched. Why didn’t Amsterdam security “randomly select” a single male and or female passenger of arab/african ethnicity american passport holder or not? If one passenger is searched, then all should be searched. “Random Selection” is useless. If Amsterdam security had searched the NW bomber as forcefully as they searched me, he never would have boarded that plane.