Normality At SFO Despite Usual Conflicting Security Bull

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at San Francisco International
for my flight back to the United Kingdom today. Watching the TV, it looked like
I’d be carrying nothing but my passport and my wallet in a plastic bag and be
thankful I didn’t have to fly naked as well. Kind of like this Matt cartoon on
the front page of the Daily Telegraph today:

I’d heard from Jennifer Slegg that Dave Naylor found himself doing the
plastic bag routine when he went back to the UK on United with a stopover in
Chicago. I’m on Virgin, so I checked out the

advice on the Virgin site:

Flights Departing From US Airports

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has implemented a series of
security measures. Although the TSA is not restricting the carriage of hand
luggage, all items are being hand searched at the departure gate and this is
causing significant delays. It is therefore strongly recommended that you
carry only the most essential items to speed up the security process and
minimise flight delays.

The TSA have advised that the following measures are to take place with
immediate effect:

No liquids or gels are allowed past the airport security checkpoint and they
are not allowed to be carried either in hand luggage or on your person,
except:

• Baby formula, breast milk, or juice if a baby or small child is
  travelling
• Prescription medicine with a name that matches the passenger’s ticket
• Insulin and essential other non-prescription medicines

Duty free can be purchased (including liquid items) from stores after the
security checkpoints, but these will be delivered to passengers when boarding
the aircraft. Any passengers with onward connections from the UK must be aware
that they will not be allowed ANY liquids in their hand luggage so should
place in their hold luggage on arrival in the UK.

Virgin Atlantic advises its customers to ensure that only items complying with
these requirements are carried on board aircraft. All other items must be
placed in checked baggage or left behind.

It sounded like there was no issue with taking laptops, a regular bag, my
Nintendo DS (yes, I bought another one after no luck with
how much British
Airways lost property sucks) and so on. To be sure, I went to the TSA web site’s
page on the new
guidance. And it pretty much said the same — no problems with laptops.

Of course, the TSA also has told me things in the past like that I don’t need
to take my shoes off, only to find that when you get to security, you do. So I
wasn’t trusting the advice and put my laptop bag into my luggage.

When I arrived at SFO, I expected mania. Crowds, people lying everywhere,
plastic bags flying through the air. Nothing like that. The international
terminal was incredibly calm. There was no significant line to go through
security. And I was told there was no problem taking my laptop, my cell phone
and other things on the plane. As long as they weren’t liquid or gel, I was OK.

Of course, my 5pm flight was pushed back to 9pm. Still, with my laptop, that
meant plenty of time to catch up on email. And the flight might get pushed back
further, but Virgin has a nice lounge at SFO. There are a far worse places to
hang out.

FYI, Virgin said that coming out of Heathrow, all the restrictions you’re
seeing on TV are in place. And that makes you think again, as usual, why
different airports are allowed to have such different security requirements.