Travel and Vaping Had a bag check at JFK because of cartomizers

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MustangSallie

Mistress Blabber Mouth
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Apr 20, 2011
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I went through JFK last Friday and had my first bag check while traveling with my e-cigs. I usually pack my juice in my checked baggage, but if I don't check a bag I put the bottles in with my other liquids. No problems there so far. I normally put my e-cigs and cartomizers that I'll be using that day in my laptop bag along with the chargers, and all the peripherals for my laptops. I mostly travel with 808s and I leave the cartos screwed on them. I have no idea what they look like when they go through the scanner, but they've never raised any flags.

Up until Friday the loose cartomizers haven't either. This time I went through the security scanner and stepped over to the belt to pick up my belongings. Out came my computers, out came my belt and my shoes, and then the belt stopped. No computer bag. Uhoh.... I knew exactly what the problem was. I apologized to the woman behind me, thank goodness neither of us was in a hurry. Sure enough, the agent running the scanner called for a second set of eyes. I saw a second agent walk over, take a look and heard him say "I bet I know what it is, just watch." He grabbed my bag, asked who it belonged to and we walked over to the table together. He started looking through the compartments until he found the object in question (a flat cell phone size case that I use to store my loose cartos in), opened it, said "yup, that was it" closed it up, put it back in my bag, closed that up and told me to have a good day.

I didn't have to explain anything to him. The entire process took maybe 2 minutes tops from the time the bag stopped in the scanner until I was walking away from security. So it would seem that e-cigs are popular enough that the TSA agents have seen them before and aren't hassling people traveling with them. :)

And then I sat in the airport waiting for my flight to board, delayed 4 hours due to weather. :glare:
 

Rottwyler

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Jun 23, 2011
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San Jose, CA
So very true. Next time I might pack the lose cartomizers in my checked baggage too. They might still decide to search it though, and I'd rather be there to explain what they are if there is a problem rather then them just confiscating them and leaving a note in my bag.

At least you get a note...I haven't traveled with my ecigs yet but I do travel to Europe quite a bit...TSA seems to like not putting locks back on the bags...I've bought 8 in 6 months. I'm a little concerned about my next trip....hopefully goes smoothly
 
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