On a recent trip through airport security, I was stuck behind a very nice elderly woman. You could tell that she doesn’t travel often, so I tried to be patient. She carefully placed all of her belongings in the bins, lining up each thing. Not totally sure why she was being so precise, I kept an eye on her while getting out my own things. The last thing she did was take off her glasses and put them in a bin. I was about to say something when she stepped away to go through the machine. Unfortunately, when the woman was gathering her stuff on the other side, she couldn’t find her glasses. And I could tell that she wanted to get them on first, before picking up her other items. Once I got through the metal detector I helped her locate them, and with a word of thanks off she went. When I made a comment to one of the TSA agents, she said that infrequent fliers often take off their glasses, and also their rings. “It can get really messy trying to find rings, that’s for sure,” she said.
So for those of you who aren’t flying as often, don’t worry. You don’t have to take off your glasses or your rings! My glasses are made of some kind of metal and go just fine through the metal detector and the body scanner. And I have never taken off my rings, ever. Better to keep those important things as close as possible! Especially since they don’t pose any sort of security threat.
Good to hear that you helped her out. Most people put their blinders on and don’t seem to notice or care when someone else, especially the elderly, clearly need a little assistance. They’d be more annoyed with her for not moving along quick enough. Acts like this make me realize that maybe all hope isn’t lost.
Good to know, thanks!
A very good point, esp. after seeing the Rolex thief recently. Another option I use with my watch, etc. is to take them off before arriving at security and placing them inside my wallet. Then I can just put my purse in a bin and then put everything back on once I reach the gate. Glasses you can definitely leave on though!
At JFK this past Sunday after removing my raincoat and blazer, I was instructed that I had to remove my scarf and send it through the xray machine. It was a silk scarf that was tied at the neck and draped to cover a deep v-neck.
It was a first for me – never had to take off a scarf before!
Afterwards I checked the TSA site and could’t find any mention of having to remove scarves…
Two weeks after reading this, I was at the Bozeman, MT airport (where the TSA folks are almost unbelievably “thorough”) and was required to take off my eyeglasses and put them through the x-ray machine! It turned out that because I happened to have put them up on my head, they decided that my eyeglasses were equivalent to a hat. Really, I am not making this up!
Body scanner? Why are you not opting out?
Thanks! You saved my some time! 😀