TSA Offers Travel Tips

Dreading the lines at airport security?

To make the experience as painless as possible for travelers, the TSA has created a website with tips on how to get through screening lines more quickly.

Helpful Hints for Summer Travel includes the common guidelines on liquids and gels (3-1-1) as well as some lesser known advice.

• Equip your smart phone with the MyTSA Mobile app
• Pack in layers
• Review this list of food items that need to go in your checked bag.
• Use the Family/Medical liquids lane if eligible
• Do not pack wrapped gifts in carry-on.

For more helpful hints, download the handy summer travel tips brochure for easy reference.

TSA Connection

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is reaching out to you.  It has launched My TSA, a new IPhone app.  Read about it in a  July 9, 2010 posting on the New York Times Travel blog, In Transit.

My TSA offers four categories of information:  Airport Status, Can I bring, TSA Guide and Security Wait Times.  Get the latest updates on checked baggage and carry-on requirements as well as tips on how to get through the security lines more quickly.  The Security Wait Times feature relies on real time feedback sent by airport passengers, which may be a good thing, or not, depending on its usage.

My TSA, along with 17 other free apps, is available at USA.gov.  A non IPhone version is available at www.tsa.gov/mobile.

Photo of airport security queue by MikeCogh and republished here under a Creative Commons license.  Some rights reserved.

New Flight Rules

The Practical Traveler column in the May 16, 2010 edition of The New York Times reported on the new passenger protection rules in its article,”Inside the New Flight Rules“.

Enacted by the U.S. Department of Transportation on April 29, 2010, the new rules enforce a limit on the amount of time passengers will be forced to remain seated in an aircraft on the tarmac.  After two hours, snacks and drinking water must be offered and after three hours, passengers must be given the option to deplane.  For the full text of the regulation, click here.

Other consumer friendly rules include the requirement that airlines publish customer complaint contact information on both their websites and e-ticket confirmations.

The DOT has also redesigned its website to make filing of consumer complaints simpler.  Complaints are reviewed and investigated, so don’t be shy about reporting abuses.

Another round of regulations is in the works that will focus on the fairness and transparency of  fees for checked baggage,  preferred seating and other services.