As the holidays approach, many people who usually don’t fly are hopping on airplanes. The Transportation Security Administration has tools that will help travelers get through airport security as easily as possible.
One digital source of help, according to upstate New York TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein, is a smartphone TSA app that will tell passengers what items need to be checked, and what items can be taken on board in a carry-on. She uses a common item that travelers are often confused about, to demonstrate the point.
“You type in ‘razor.’ That’s actually one there’s often questions about. So you type in ‘razor,’ and it give you all these choices, so let’s pick one. Okay, razor blades. It says you can only check razor blades. Okay, let’s go back to pick another one. Safety razor. Okay, check or carry-on. So it lets you know right away.”
Farbstein says this is also the first year for the new TSA Twitter account, called @AskTSA, which can get travelers real-time answers to questions about security issues.
And along with all the usual TSA travel suggestions (get to the airport early, apply to TSA pre-check to get through security more easily), Farbstein urges flyers not to wrap Christmas presents they are bringing with them on flights. She says in the past, security has had to rip open packages that were wrapped because they were suspicious.
“The best example I could give you would be something like modeling clay. To most people, it’s just modeling clay. But to our folks, they are trained to look for plastic explosives, and there are similarities. So use a gift bag with tissue paper.”
