Taking unopened packs on an airplane

This morning I flew United Airlines from Detroit to Houston, and I had three boxes worth of Topps packs from blasters with me in my carry-on bag. Thinking I was being smart to save space and avoid having that theft-deterrent metal sticker set something off at the screening machine, I took the packs out of their boxes and lined them up in a 400 count box. Well that turned out to be a huge mistake. Despite the fact that my flight left Detroit at 6:30 A.M. on a holiday, there was a big line to get through at the screening area. Almost every bag was being detoured off the conveyor belt for the next available guy to go through it. So 15 minutes later, somebody finally gets to mine. He takes everything out of the bag and starts going through them one by one. When he got to the unopened packs, he had to put his liquid stuff on them to make sure they weren't explosive, and then he felt up EACH PACK individually, which took another 10 minutes. He also opened the other boxes with cards and (after I showed him how to open them without dumping the cards all over the counter), couldn't fit them all back into my bag. Finally I was able to talk him into letting me do it. So a half hour later I was running to the far corner of the airport to become the last person to board my plane - I almost missed it. So lesson learned - if you take unopened cards on a plane, leave them in their original boxes!

How times have changed! "Back in the day", I flew out of the Detroit airport many times with empty RC Cola cans in my luggage as well as a contact lens cooker to sterilize soft contact lenses which looked very much like a bomb and I never had a problem. I no longer have the contact lens cooker but I do still have the RC Cola cans!

Sorry to hear about your troubles at the airport but those are the times we live in. Hopefully, your loose cards did not suffer any damage with the seemingly rough handling of them.

The easy way to avoid that issue....don't fly!!! If I can't drive it, I am not going!!!!!

Do like the idea of having something original to do on the flight though - never thought of busting wax!

Naw nevermind......Happy Memorial Day!

Or do what I do....I get about 6 or 7 lbs of saltwater tad in San Francisco....use to bring it back in my back pack or suit case.....as u get older this becomes more of a pain in the .....so now I get pack it in box and mail it to myself! Best regards, David

I flew cross country last weekend and had a couple boxes of loose cards and packs as well as a box of cards in hard cases all in my carry on and had no issues at all. TSA did not even look in my bag. You never know what will happen.

David K love that idea

Camsue said:

David K love that idea

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Thanks! Best regards, David PS getting two boxes of finest...will keep an eye out for the orioles player!

I don't know if this would have made a difference or not with your blaster pack mishap, but I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend signing up for TSA PreCheck if you fly even somewhat frequently. That was the best $75 I've ever spent in my life.

Also, I'm in the American Airlines Admirals Club which is absolutely awesome. If you fly at least once a month and can afford it, that's worth every penny, too, so you don't have to hang out in the terminals with the filthy, unwashed (and I mean that quite literally) masses. Fortunately, my company picks up the $400-a-year tab on that.