Airport Avenger: Tips and Top Secrets for Airlines, Airfares, Fees, Security and Cancelations

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has comprehensive lists on its website of what you can and can’t take with you. Click here for the lists.

They don’t change frequently, so glancing at them once in while should be enough to keep you on top of things.

Much of it is pretty obvious: No guns, knives, tools or flammable stuff that can be used as a weapon.

That extends to sports equipment as well—like baseball bats, golf clubs, ski poles—and some common household items like scissors and nail files.

Some banned things for carryons—like guns, knives, black jacks and brass knuckles—can be packed in checked bags.

But never explosives of any kind. This includes things some might think are harmless, like small fireworks or flares.

In spite of the increased scrutiny of people and their possessions at airport security checkpoints, the one thing that still irks many people the most is the limit on liquids.

So who decided that no more than EXACTLY 3.4 ounces of a liquid (or gel) can pass through security?

The TSA says "some of the world's leading explosives experts" spent two months deciding it takes at least 3.4 ounces of something to make a potent liquid bomb. It's probably easier to remember in countries using the metric system, since it equals 100 milliliters.

The TSA also picked the 1-quart (about 1-liter) bag size to limit the total amount of liquids you can put in your carryon. It not only makes for less clutter at the checkpoint, but prevents terrorists from bringing lots of little bottles of explosives on board. Although lots of little bottles of anything would probably raise questions anyway.

Some day you may not have to worry about bringing a bottle of water through security. The European Union says it will get rid the liquids rule by 2013. They expect to have liquid-sceening machines in place by then.

If you forget about something like, say, a pocketknife on your keychain, the TSA will give you the choice of giving it to them or mailing it back to yourself. Depending on how attached you are to the item, you may not want to leave the security area, mail the banned thing from elsewhere in the airport and then go through security again. The TSA won't do it for you.

If you hand it over to the TSA, you might see it again on eBay. The TSA puts not-so-dangerous confiscated items up for sale there.

So think about what’s in your pockets, purse and carryon bag. That’s especially true for liquids and gels. Although the TSA has said for years now that you can’t go through the security checkpoint with more than 3.4 ounces of a liquid or gel per bottle, lots of bigger bottles are still winding up in large trash cans the TSA has on hand for them, courtesy of people who forgot the rules or thought 3.4 ounces is a lot more than it really is.

Yes, You Can Bring a Bottle of Water on Board.

Once you’re past security, it’s OK to buy bigger bottles of water, juice, soda, shampoo, whatever—and take them on the plane with you.

It’s the security checkpoint that’s the, well, bottleneck for bottles.

Save a couple of bucks by bringing an empty bottle through security and filling it from a water fountain on the other side.

You can take your own food with you through security, as long as it doesn’t involve bottles or jars of spreads or liquids bigger than 3.4 ounces.

• Medicines.

• Baby formula and food.

• Breast milk.

• Liquids bought at airport duty-free shops in the U.S., if you're on a nonstop flight out of the country.

Another thing the security folks insist on is that you put all those acceptable little bottles in a 1-quart size clear plastic bag with a zip top. Take that bag out of your carryon and put it in the bin with your shoes (loafers or slip-ons for easy off-and-on), belt with metal buckle, keys and other metal objects that could set off the metal detector and delay your passage to the gate.

One-quart bags are smaller than you might expect. You might get away with a larger one, but don’t bother unless you want to waste time with a TSA agent who’s a stickler for the rules.

Prescription drugs, clearly labeled with your name, should also go in the plastic bag.

If you’ve got too many little bottles and tubes to fit into a quart-size bag, consider buying some of those things either once you’re past security or when you reach your destination. Unless you’re headed for the wilderness, drug and discount stores are quite common throughout the United States.

Your laptop computer has to go through the security scanner separate from your carryon. Remove it from its own bag before it goes on the conveyor belt. You don’t have to take the laptop out of certain “checkpoint friendly” bags approved by the TSA. Click here to see them. Digital cameras, iPods, other music and DVD players, games and similar small electronics can stay in your carryon. That goes for iPads, Kindles and other readers as well. You don't have to send them through separately unless the TSA agent can't get a clear image of them.

Remember that things with lots of circuits, wires and gizmos can look suspicious when they pass through the X-ray machine. So be prepared to have a TSA agent go through your bag, if you’re carrying a lot of that stuff.

The same goes for innocent things that are unfortunately the same shape as, say, sticks of dynamite. Take things like that out of your bag and put them in the open, where they can be clearly and quickly identified.

Take the kids out of baby carriers and strollers, fold them up (the strollers not the kids) and put them on the X-ray machine conveyor belt with your bags. Have a pet with you? Take it out of its carrying case, put the case on the conveyor belt and carry the pet through the metal detector with you.

You may be traveling with things that many passengers won’t have on the average trip—crematory containers, skydiving equipment, scuba gear—some of these come under airline regulations as well as TSA rules. Click here for some guidelines.

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