TSA: Keep your iPad in the bag, please

Thousands Standing Around

When I fly out of SEA, the TSA makes people take out their Kindle to be screened in it's own bin, as if it were a laptop computer. They specifically announce it as you approach the machines.

Why does the Kindle have to come out, but the iPad gets to stay in the bag? The iPad is larger and weighs more.

Did Apple buy someone off?

I flew out of bwi today. I took my iPad out of the bag but kept it inside the case. On m way back I'll leave it in the bag and see what happens

Whoa! What's with all the hate on the TSA?

I admit that most of the whole process is just theatre, but it's the price of flying these days. If you agree to fly on an airplane, you agree to do basically whatever the TSA requires of you. If they ask you to remove your shoes, remove your shoes. If they ask you to take your laptop, or your camera, or your iPad out of a bag, take it out of the bag, quit whining, and move on.

How hard is this? What a ridiculous thing to get worked up about. The security lines would move so much faster if people didn't stand there whining and complaining about every little thing, and instead just did what they were asked and get moving.

One thing to keep in mind is that TSA employees can make any arbitrary and illogical decision they want because at that moment they control your life. The official TSA rules have no bearing on the situation. I think a lot of people who take jobs with the TSA do so because they have no control in any other part of their life.

That said, on my trip last month (Sacramento, CA to Montrose, CO and back) the TSA employees were all polite and efficient. I was a bit taken aback.

Doesn't matter much to me. The TSA has already sapped any desire for me to travel by air these days.

Actually shoes are supposed to go directly on the conveyor, to save bins and take up less room. You can put them in a bin with other clothing items though if you're scanning a lot of things at once.

Wouldn't C4 be caught by the bag swipe? (Which is NOT done on everybody, and then there are the body "sniffers"...)

Sorry if BOS doesn't follow TSA guidelines....

http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/simplifying_laptop_bag_procedures.shtm

I flew yesterday and when I asked was told to put it in a bin, as per the procedure with Kindles. YMMV.