I just learned about new procedures instituted by the TSA: Passengers in the regular inspection line will have to remove all electronic equipment larger than a cell phone from their luggage and place it in a bin for X-ray screening. Previously, this rule was primarily applied to laptops, but now it will include such items as cameras and lenses. The new procedure is currently in place in just a few airports, but I assume it will probably be expanded to most before December. The TSA Pre-Check line is currently excluded from this requirement, so it may be worthwhile to sign up now so you'll be ready for Pixelmania. For more details, listen to episode 595 of The Digital Story podcast or read the TSA press release.
Already did that... had my "interview" on a Monday and was approved with my KTN by that Thursday (with my official letter on the following Tuesday). Was a lot quicker than I expected (they say it can take up to 30 days). Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
just be advised that the tsa known traveler, and global program are no guarantee of always having the speedier line, and a friend of mine just 2 days ago, who has both and flies frequently out of lax to both portland and minneapolis to visit her children, got issued a boarding pass with no precheck/ktn, and when she asked the tsa people was told that 3% of all boarding passes for ktn/global, are not given that status as a random security check component, which means going through the regular process. so i would highly recommend everyone with ktn/global continue to pack as if you were going to have to go through regular security. which also means having to waste precious life minutes yet again on unpredictable airport security times
Yeah, definitely pack the same as you usually would. The folks working the xray machines still have to be able to identify every object that goes through. Some smart packing helps a lot with that. I haven't been paying close attention, but I haven't seen any horror stories yet from photographers, so maybe they aren't applying the rule to lenses yet.
ok i just flew round trip from jfk to denver and return, at jfk they now have a new type of automated conveyor belt where everything goes in a bin, goes into the x-ray machine, and if the operator is ignorant or unsure, they can then with the push of a button auto route the bin off to another conveyor, where it waits for hand searching, in the meantime you are now frantically trying to catch sight of your camera bag, and you cannot see it, you do not know if someone else walked off with it, and my mistake was having my camera bag and my small cooler for insulin together in the same bin, they never even looked in my camera bag, but agent with strange name went thorough on swabbing my cooler, all it's contents and the iced pack, and was more concerned about whether or not she was going to get stabbed by a needle, even though i kept telling her, no the needles are all unused, capped, in a zip lock bag and in the front pocket of the cooler, 4 times she asked about getting stabbed, hell i wanted to stab her just on general principles by the time the whole encounter was done. denver security, 8 minutes total, no questions or extra anything over the cooler or the camera bags. since i consider that unnamed agency a complete parasite on society, i guess i'll chalk this up to another unhappy reason to take up long distance driving after i retire
