TSA Security for oversized items?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 1 Aug, 2023
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From time to time, passengers have to take unusually large items as carry on. For example because they have some fragile item or because they were delayed and had to carry on luggage they’d intended to check. You can be fairly sure that the airline wouldn’t allow you to try to take something through security if security would refuse to screen it. (Though staff are not infallible and they may have suggested that you do something impossible.)
I have once had to carry on a large bag that I’d intended to check. However, it was small enough to fit through the X-ray machine so there was no issue with that. If a bag wouldn’t fit, I see no organizational reason why security couldn’t just open it and search it by hand. Obviously, if everybody had bags like that, screening them would take forever but, in reality, it’s probably only a few bags a day. I’ve flown a couple-few times a year for the last fifteen years or so and I don’t recall ever seeing somebody have a bag or other carry-on that wouldn’t fit through the machine.
From the scenario you’ve presented, it seems that there was a conflation of the airline’s time requirements to ensure your bag gets on your flight, and the TSA-mandated screening.
Depending on the airline and the airport facility, its size, most will advise customers that, when checking baggage, it must be done within a time minimum. Airline policies for late check in time vary, from Southwest’s 45 minutes to Delta advising that baggage check-in time requirements vary by airport.
And the iFly.com discussion of baggage cutoff times:
As far as checked luggage goes, there is a cutoff time during which airlines will no longer accept your luggage. You likely know that you have to arrive at the airport in the time allotted to catch your flight, but you must also arrive prior to your airline’s baggage cutoff times as well.
Most major airlines require that you check your luggage t least 30 minutes prior to departure; if you attempt to check your luggage with less than 30 minutes to departure you will not be permitted to do so. This rule applies to most major airlines, but each airline has exceptions to the rule. If you are traveling internationally you must check your luggage at least 60 minutes prior to departure. Again, every airline has exceptions.
Additionally, the airport from which you depart has its own rules regarding your checked luggage. There are a few airports that require you check your luggage in accordance with their checked luggage cutoff times, rather than following your airline’s checked baggage cutoff times. For more information you must check with the airport from which you are departing.
Major airlines such as Delta Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines require that passengers check their luggage 30-40 minutes or more before departure for domestic flights and 60 minutes or more for international flights. Passengers departing on any of these airlines out of Chicago, Orlando, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and other major airports must check their luggage with additional time before departure; some of these airports require you check baggage at least 40 minutes, 45 minutes or 60 minutes prior to departure.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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