New TSA procedure at airports

girlsaylor · Post by **girlsaylor** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:18 am

My panties are getting in a wad!!!
lololol

girlsaylor

Roadie · Post by **Roadie** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:34 am

When I fly (often) if I leave the machine in the bag the TSA employee simply removes it from the bag and manually sends it through the scanner a second time, and then wipes it with the sniffer patch gizmo. If I remember to take it out of the bag and put it through the scanner separately like my laptop then it simply removes the setp of the agent needing to go back and run it through. They still wipe it with the sniffer patch.

I for one am not really that concerned about the germs from the plastic bin, I have a good strong immune system. A few germs on the feet of the machine are really not that big a deal to me, but if my removing the machine from the bag means that the agent will not touch my mask I will hapilly remove the machine every time, that is where the germ issue really lies for me.

Roadie

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 9:35 am

MASK??????????????????

Oh holy cr*p... I have to take my MASK OUT and let them fondle it???? I was hoping to leave it inside the "carry on bag", seperate from the CPAP machine.

What do YOU do with your mask?

As for the Kentucky Airport (gosh knows what it's really called), after getting my luggage lost, and getting caught in a serious weather disturbance, and generally having a CRAPPY VACATION, I was in NO MOOD when I walked through the scanner and it beeped. I had nothing to beep in my pockets, no jewelry (I religiously either take it all off or DON'T WEAR ANY when I fly), no keys, and I just LOST IT.

I ripped the pants off, because I figured it was all the zippers on my pants. You know those convertible pants they sell for hiking and camping? I love those... Anyway, it was a pair of those, so I figured it was all the zippers and snaps. I knew I had shorts on underneath, so I just dropped them.

Broomhilde came screaming at me with a wand and hollered and screamed and shuffled me off to some other area to be INSPECTED while she muttered about me under her breath. I really don't remember anything else. Since I was leaving, if there was a news report about it, I never heard.

One good thing about that airport - they let you smoke in the bars there. I smoked about 1/2 a pack of cigarettes after that incident...

Two things I do on vacation I don't normally do in "real" life - Drink and Smoke. I don't know why. I just do.

LOL,
B.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:10 am

My mention of the mask is simply because I keep it loose still attached to the hose in the bag. The hose comes off the machine but the other end stays on the mask fitting. The screener can and will need to get past the mask to reach the machine so he or she can run it through the second time.

Since my travel often involves the first flight out in the morning after working all night I am usually tired and have been known to catch a few ZZZ's on the floor in the departure lounge so I try to keep the machine, with mask at the ready and a battery in the bag ready to go on short notice. I don't put the mask in any sort of separate bag.

I have gotten more than a few strange looks from other travelers when they see me sprawled out with a hose shoved up my nose. It works pretty well since the inlet filter and the hose connection are on the same end of the machine, I just zip open the carry bag and start using it, the whole thing stays in the bag, they only see the hose and mask.

Roadie

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:19 am

DANG! Roadie life sure has changed since my groupie days! Coke and twinkies have been replaced by xpaps and TSA... Not a real fun switch, in my estimation...

Thanks for reviving a fun memory, though!
Babette - former twinkie

girlsaylor · Post by **girlsaylor** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:43 am

LOL, and the other thing that will set off the alert is the metal underwire in women's bras! As if I didn't have enough going on ...

But from what I'm reading, with the growing use of drugs like Prilosec OTC for Gerd (heartburn/gastro-esophogeal reflux disease), it appears that it causes enlarged breasts. So all you guys with heartburn, better go buy your training bras before the price goes up!

girlsaylor
(who does NOT need her 36DDs to get any larger)

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:45 am

OMG!!!!!!!!!

I'm gonna tell my doc that I would have taken the GERD medication more faithfully if I knew it would grow my breasts!

I tell her the reason I don't want to lose weight is because for the first time in my life I'm a C cup.

LOL,
B.

Organplayer · Post by **Organplayer** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:42 am

Good grief. TMI

Bookbear · Post by **Bookbear** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 6:28 pm

lol, Babette! Oh, what I would have given to been in that security line! You must have made several passegers' day... not to mention some of the TSA staff! (they can't ALL be grim and humorless, can they?).

And rant on, Amanda. A good rant is cleansing. Travel used to be fun... now, it just makes people peevish and out of sorts. No, it wasn't LAX, it was SMF (Sacto)... I think it may have been your guy's brother... or maybe his evil twin

Babette, they've never removed my mask or hose, just the machine.

wintersweet · Post by **wintersweet** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:37 pm

I just got back from a trip and got checked as usual. No big deal. I see a lot of CPAP machines going through, though I think so far I'm the youngest person I've seen with one (I'm 29). Though I think on the last trip, copies of the 7th Harry Potter book outnumbered CPAPs by quite a lot.

I was hoping to use my new APAP machine's sleeker, more padded bag, but it only has one internal compartment. Since the power supply can't be fully disconnected from the machine, I was afraid the metal plug prongs would damage the mask. Am I missing something, or did they really design the bag that boneheadedly? Oh well, I used my old CPAP's bag--more room to squeeze in a pair of PJs (no one's yet objected to that, either).

I've been lucky and haven't experienced any rude TSA folks, mostly just tired ones. But the whole situation just drives me up a wall. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Japan, and I can't tell you how much I long for their quiet, clean, spacious, fast train system! With food, and vending machines, and bathrooms that aren't 1/4 of a broom closet, and comfortable seats, and huge windows ... It's such a nice way to travel. But here taking Amtrak costs as much as a plane ticket and takes as long as driving...you can't win!

Babette · Post by **Babette** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:24 pm

Bookbear wrote: No, it wasn't LAX, it was SMF (Sacto)... I think it may have been your guy's brother... or maybe his evil twin

I loathe Sacramento Airport. TSA has NOTHING to do - very little traffic, so EVERY SINGLE TIME I'm there, I get hauled aside and searched. I've had to dump drinks I've just bought in the airport, and they made me take off my BIRKENSTOCKS sandals so they could examine them. This was a few years back, before they made EVERYONE remove their shoes. It was so stupid.

Only time I've ever had to relinquish something was at SAC. A teeny pair of thread snippers that had travelled with me since just after 9/11 and never caused any fuss.

They're bored. And they take it out on us.

I think they work day shift at a DME...

Since I fly out of Sea-Tac, and the lines there are 2 hours long minimum, I have no problems getting through there. They are too busy to deal with me.

I'm thinking of taping one of those red medical tags to the top of my CPAP just in case...

LOL,
B.

amandalee · Post by **amandalee** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:05 pm

This may be slightly OT but xPAP machines apparently aren't the only things there are "new screening procedures" for at the airport:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20298840/si ... k/from/ET/

Hmm, so now when I get a disgusted look on my face after being harassed about my CPAP machine, I'm going to be hauled off for further interrogation...

echo · Post by **echo** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:52 am

WTF and OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's why I got the hell out of the U.S., and into Europe (though I still fly to the US and I HATE it every time!). Run away, run away all of you fast as you can!

Hopefully this spells the END of the evil empire (=George Bush) and not just the beginning....

May you all have strength as you traverse the US airports. And wear sunglasses. And tape your mouths shut with polident tape so you can't make any funny expressions!!

gorkon · Post by **gorkon** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:14 pm

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/sop/index.shtm#video

STUPID!

The TSA has no idea what BREATHING means.....they want me to put a machine I breath with in a bin that held thousands of stinky shoes! ICK!

New TSA procedure at airports

Cut it out you guys!

this should not apply to the boys reading - disregard

FYI: Here's the rule from the horses mouth

Mask

Machine	Mask

Additional Comments: Avg. AHI .4

Mask