Liquor bottles pile up at airport

[proud2BlibKansan]

Liquor bottles pile up at airport

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Thousands of pounds of contraband items have been intercepted from passengers at Miami International Airport, but they're not guns, bombs or knives.

They're bottles of booze.

STORY: At airports, booze causes headaches

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it collected more than 9 tons of oversized bottled items at the airport — mostly alcohol and perfume — from October through January.

Hundreds of airline passengers each week returning from Caribbean vacations are trying to go through Miami's security checkpoints carrying bottles of alcohol only to be told their spirits threaten security. So much is accumulating that the airport has convened emergency meetings of transportation and tourism officials.

"It's a problem for tourism in South Florida," airport security director Lauren Stover said. "We don't want people to come down here and have a wonderful vacation, and then have their alcohol taken away when they're flying home."

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Michael Payne, executive director of the International Association of Airport Duty Free Stores, said travelers may not understand a fine point of security: It's OK to carry liquor bottles bought in overseas duty-free shops on board U.S.-bound planes. But when travelers get to the USA and change planes, they can't carry the bottles on those flights.

"The rules are new for some people," Payne said.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-03-11-liquor-airports_N.htm?csp=34

[Systematic Chaos]

1. Is it still legal to carry matches and/or lighters on board?

I want to spout all kinds of profanity about this stupidity, but instead I'll just call it stupid. :grr:

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Matches yes, lighters no

[LaPera]

2. Maybe they'll give the booze to the homeless like they did shaving cream , shampoo & perfume.

[SoCalDem]

3. No more trips to Sparky's for cheap booze..

I bet the Virgin Island Tourist Board will be figuring out a way around this rule.. Why not just have a lock-box set up for those things and give people a claim check for when they deplane..

That's mean to confiscate stuff that's sold and sealed and meant to be duty-free shopping ..

[GreenZoneLT]

5. Stupid rule, easy fix.

You have to futz around with your checked bags when you clear customs anyway. Stuff the duty-free booze in your checked baggage; problem solved.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. Just make sure to have strong, hard suitcases

Must of the luggage they sell nowadays is flimsy cloth-based crap that will just about guarantee that if you pack booze in it, you'll have a suitcase smelling like a distillery by the time you pick it up at the airport.

[MadHound]

8. Easier fix, simply allow the duty free booze, which is legal for those of age

To actually go on a carry on bag. After all, American citizens did pay good money for it. And it isn't like the "liquid bomb" scare that spawned this whole mess didn't turn out to be a bust.

But noooo, we must have more of our rights and privleges taken away all in the unattainable notion of security.

[Tesha]

9. Actually, I'm perfectly okay with bottles being banned from carry-ons.

Actually, I'm perfectly okay with bottles being banned
from carry-ons.

Some of the most obnoxious "Carriers-on" in the world
are the people who haul those astonishingly-heavy
suitcases packed from wall-to-wall with expensive
wine bottles that they just couldn't bear to part
with for any other sort of shipment.

Tesha

[MadHound]

10. As a lover of fine alcohol, I understand why these people do what they do

I live out in the rural Midwest, and happen to love good tequila. I can't find much selection, even in cities like St. Louis or KC. So whenever I head to either side of the Mexican border, I stock up. Luckily, I'm driving so I don't have to be an obnoxious person like you refer to. However if I was flying, I would be, because quite frankly I wouldn't trust my liquor to the tender mercies of cargo. Not just because of the baggage handlers, though that is bad enough, but also some of the bottles are not terribly sturdy and the decompression that cargo goes through could bust them.

Of course if I were being a real pain in your rear, I would give you a bottle as compensation:evilgrin: Make it worth your while to put up with me.

[Tesha]

11. Okay -- deal!

Just FYI: The cargo compartments of planes are pressurised
to the same degree as the passenger compartments. Otherwise,
the flat floor between the cargo area and the passenger area
wouldn't be strong enough to withstand the differential
pressure loading.

Tesha

[KG]

7. it's amusing to watch and see how much this scared shitless nation will put up with

while still crowing about being the 'land of free, home of brave.' :eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. It blows my mind that

they can carry on the liquor as they fly INTO the US but not from one US airport to another. So I take it we are at greater risk from terrorists already IN the US than from any flying in.
:wtf:

[Cerridwen]

13. Please, don't try to apply logic to our current "system"

It'll just give you a headache.

:banghead:

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Good advice - thanks! n/t

[GreenZoneLT]

14. It's not really about safety

It's about not frightening the cattle, because they might stampede. The theory is, if passengers see you doing something useless but seemingly vigilant (like preventing bottles of liquid from coming on board), they'll feel safe and will fly. Otherwise, they might avoid travel, and the economy will tank.

[Richard Steele]

16. Exactly. Hassling people creates the ILLUSION of security.

Because most people will ASSUME that there must be some
good reason for something which appears so completely
pointless and arbitrary.

The fact that it REALLY IS entirely pointless and arbitrary is
just too unsettling, too horrific...so the mind creates
its own justifications for accepting the situation.

It's classic group-control methodology.

[LibDemAlways]

23. Anyone who could watch a 90-year-old woman having her

shoes pulled off, being hoisted out of her wheelchair, wanded, and patted down, as I watched horrified one time in Seattle....and not think "This system is not only pointless and arbitrary... It is a massive invasion of privacy and one hell of a sick joke, and whoever came up with it is one sorry sadistic bastard" is not in his/her right mind.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. The TSA guy took my lighter away

back when you could still take one lighter on the plane. He took it out of my purse. I said "But I can carry on one lighter". He said "Not if I say you can't!" and put it in his pocket. Then he smiled at me and handed me back my purse. I wanted to deck him.

[LibDemAlways]

29. Give a loser even a small amount of power and

watch as he abuses it.

Who would willingly sign up to hassle and harrass the public in the first place?

My husband travels twice a week for business and is convinced the TSA only selects screeners from among those who score below 80 on IQ tests and, additionally, have sociopathic tendencies.

[bdamomma]

20. those words do not have the same meaning to me anymore

especially "land of the free".

[LibDemAlways]

22. My 84 year old mother had her toothpaste confiscated

by some TSA moron at JFK who at first accused her of having perfume in her purse. OMFG, the sky is falling...an 84 year old potential terrorist who carries around little cards with her favorite prayers on them...might want to smell good and have fresh breath. Can't have that.

Meantime she's stepping onto a plane full of all kinds of crap in the cargo hold that nobody's inspected. What a friggen joke.

[NNN0LHI]

17. Why would someone lug around heavy jugs of hootch through a fecking airport?

Even if you can save some money it seems kind if idiotic to me. If you can afford a vacation you can certainly afford to pay the full price for a bottle of Jack. People are funny.

Don

[lectrobyte]

25. Some brands and variety you can only find overseas... Where I live,

the state-owned-and-operated liquor stores have a terrible selection.

[GoneOffShore]

18. The liquid ban is such terrible nonsense

And the TSA is run by a political appointee idiot, Kip Hawley.

It's really time to get rid of TSA (Thousands Standing Around or Terrorists Slipping Around - take your pick), because they are really ineffective. And they daily violate the 1st and 4th amendments.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

19. Whenever myself or Mr. Wonderful go to Ireland we always

bring liquor with us but we put in our checked baggage.

All you need are Hefty One-Zip jumbo (2.5 gal size) bags and some bubble wrap. Wrap the bottles up in the bubble wrap, put them in the Hefty One-Zip bags and off we go. We've never had any hassle from TSA or from Irish customs. Also none of the bottles have broken on any of our trips...knock on wood.

[seemunkee]

21. Saw this happen in Miami last month

Was in line to go through security and the guy behind me had a box with two bottles of rum. The TSA guy sent the man back to the counter to check the bottles.

I bought my tequila in town and packed it in my checked bag so I wouldn't have to worry about this.

[alarimer]

24. I wonder how much of it ends up in the hands of the screeners?

And how much of all the other confiscated stuff.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. I heard they were selling confiscated items on ebay

Anyone else hear that?

[GrantDem]

28. Well, I feel safer already.