TSA Offers Travel Advice Ahead Of Thanksgiving Holiday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- If you're preparing to fly to a Thanksgiving destination in the next few days, the Transportation Security Administration has some advice to make your trip easier.
The TSA especially wants to get through to people who don't fly very often. Spokesman Mike McCarthy suggested visiting the TSA.gov website for a list of items that are and are not allowed in carry-on bags before you head to the airport.
"If you have any questions, you should find the answers there. If you don't, you're welcome to call our contact center, or if you're on social media, reach us at @AskTSA on Twitter, or on Facebook," he said.
Travelers can tweet questions to @AskTSA. McCarthy said responses are provided nearly in real time.
"We can answer you in near real time. So, if you have an odd item you want to travel with – grandma's recipe for a particular item at Thanksgiving – you can send us a picture of that, and we'll tweet back to you and say, 'Why don't you put that in checked baggage? That shouldn't go in carry-on,'" he said. "It's usually unique items that may not be on our list of prohibited items on the website, because those will have your typical items. If you have something a little more unique. Maybe they're an architect or an engineer, and they have something: 'Can I bring this?'"
Many questions found on @askTSA have to do with misspellings on documents. One woman asked whether she could bring her bike seat post and saddle in her carry-on. The answer is no, but bike pedals, on the other hand, are allowed.
McCarthy also suggested double-checking coat pockets if you haven't worn it for a while, to make sure you don't have anything in there, like a pocket knife you may have forgotten was there after a hunting trip.
Approximately 28,000 people a day are expected to go through screening at Midway International Airport over the Thanksgiving holiday; about 90,000 travelers at O'Hare International Airport.
