I want to start off by saying while this post may come out a bit whiney that isn’t the intention. I’m simply trying to point out my extreme frustration with the TSA as this is not the first time this has happened.
Flying Cape Air From St. Louis To Chicago
Let me start off by explaining how I put myself in this situation. Yesterday I decided to fly Cape Air from St. Louis to Chicago. Cape Air operates this route with a Cessna 402 which requires a technical stop in Decatur, IL.
I decided to Cape Air because I wanted to review the experience and see if it’s worth the $74 price tag. Cape Air prices are typically half that of major carriers. However, you get an interesting experience with it. I will hopefully have a review on that flight shortly.
Clearing Security In St. Louis, MO
Since I fly quite a bit I’ve developed several bad habits. One of them is that I no longer pay attention to the TSA’s 3oz liquid rule when traveling domestically. Since I have TSA PreCheck I don’t have to take my liquids out of my bag and I’ve almost never had my liquids confiscated. For that reason I pretty much always bring a full 6.0oz+ tube of toothpaste with me when flying domestically.
Yesterday was no exception and I bypassed security in St. Louis with no issues. My bag when through the scanner and came out the other side without incident. Inside was a 6.3oz tube of Crest Toothpaste. Honestly, I didn’t even think twice about it being in there. I’ve done this hundreds of times and on only a few occasions does it create an issue.
After bypassing security I proceeded to my gate and waited to board my Cape Air flight to Decatur. After a short wait I was on the plane, in the air, and then landing in Decatur on a snowy Easter afternoon.
Re-Clearing Security In Decatur, IL
In St. Louis the Cape Air representative did not provide my connecting boarding pass for my Decatur to Chicago flight. That meant when we landed in Decatur I had to deplane the aircraft and visit the main only terminal to retrieve a boarding pass.
By doing this I left the secure area room of the airport. This meant that I had to go through security again before boarding my next flight to Chicago. Even though I had TSA PreCheck the TSA agent required I remove my laptop from my bad and remove and liquids, aerosols, or pastes from my bag. At this point, if I’m honest, I knew what was going to happen. That is, I knew I’d be visiting a Walgreens in the near future to buy a new tube of toothpaste.
Sure enough as my zipped up dopp kit passed through the x-ray machine it was pulled out for additional screening. The TSA Agent manning the x-ray machine ran the bag twice more before sending it to his college for “additional screening.”
The TSA Took My Toothpaste; Again!
At the secondary screening area table, the TSA Agent unzipped my dopp kit and found the tube of toothpaste in question. The tube contained nearly 5.4oz (idk how much was in there, but it was pretty darn new) of raw uncut Crest Complete Whitening Plus Scope Toothpaste. I couldn’t believe it, the darned TSA caught my trying to smuggle toothpaste back to Chicago.
At that moment the mood of the entire interaction changed. The once friendly TSA Agent glared at me with a look that said “if I could, I’d arrest you” and informed me that she’d have to separate me from my tube of toothpaste. I mentioned that the friendly TSA Agents in St. Louis had let me through with it to which she was not amused. She again looked at me in disbelieve that I could be so reckless as to send a nearly full tube of paste through the x-ray machine in St. Louis.
It was at that point that she unscrewed the lid of the secure overside liquids vault (a 5-gallon paint bucket) and dropped by full tube of toothpaste inside, I would never see that tube of paste again. I hate to admit it, but as my barreled down the runway I may have shed a tear or two over my lost paste. That tube and I had a lot of good memories together and I was sad to see it go.
Joking Aside, I Really Think This Is An Issue
After this interaction I’ve come up with the same question I have each time this happens. That question is, “is someone not doing their job or is someone taking theirs too seriously?”
What I mean by that is, if the TSA mandate is liquids must be in containers under 3oz then why isn’t this always enforced? Why did the TSA Agent in St. Louis (and several other airports) let this by. If 3oz is the limit then I expect my 6.3oz tube to be taken ever time. If that were the case I’d make sure to stock up on 3oz tubes of toothpaste and abide by the rules going forward.
However, as I mentioned earlier, I fly with full-size tubes of toothpaste all the time. So clearly several agents at TSA aren’t doing their job. Unless, perhaps, they’ve been directed to let certain things slide at large airports as confiscating every large container of liquid or paste would slow down the security process. If that’s the case, that’s kind of a scary thought. Who’s making that judgement call? What else are they letting by? Or is this TSA Agent in Decatur just taking their job too seriously because I was one of 15 passengers who passed through the airport that day?
Final Thoughts
As I state at the beginning of this post, I’m not upset about what happened. Sure I had to spend an extra few dollars on toothpaste this month, but I’m not upset. I am however confused. I can’t stop thinking about all of the TSA Agents who let me through with large tubes of paste. Are they letting other things by as well? Isn’t that kind of a scary thought?
Also, overall I just want there to be consistency. If the rule is 3oz then stick to it. If it’s more, change the rule so we can all fly with normal size toothpaste again!
Side Note: Perhaps the most interesting thing to come of all this came from social media. I posted two photos on my instagram page yesterday about the Cape Air flight. I then Tweeted at the TSA about the toothpaste confiscation. Minutes later Crest Bulgaria “liked” both of my most recent Instagram posts. I guess Crest discovered that I was back in the market for toothpaste.
