The Travelite® FAQ

I opened my inbox this morning and discovered email from travel supplier Magellan’s (one of my favorite) with the following subject:

“Ultra-Light Luggage! Check it in, or carry it on.”

Ooooooh, I thought. Just what me and Virgin Atlantic check-in crew were looking for! I excitedly went to read the mailer, and I see that the luggage they are promoting is from Eagle Creek. Hmmm…. a new item, perhaps?

I click the link in the email.

The $149.00 Eagle Creek Hovercraft Wheeled Underseat Tote from the Magellan’s travel supplies online store. Photo from Magellan’s.

Kachow! It takes me to a page describing the Eagle Creek Hovercraft Wheeled Underseat Tote. Basically a MiniMe version of the rolling upright. At 13.5″ by 13.5″ by 9.5″, it’s definitely within carry-on limits. But then I check its weight:

Five and a half pounds!

Let me tell you, even with a gnome-sized carry-on, the wheel and handlebar mechanism just adds so much weight. And I guess we all have different ideas of how light “ultra light” should be. Thanks to a reminder from Skip, we’ll probably travel with a couple of Outdoor Products Essential Carryon travelpacks. Well made enough, light as a feather (under two pounds), and only $29.99 from Campmor. How can you lose?

The “Essential Carryon” travelpack by Outdoor Products. One of the most plain travelpacks on the market, this one is also one of the lighest, at under two pounds. Photo from OutdoorProducts.com

My plan to pack my carry-on lightly enough to fit Virgin’s strict 13-pound limit (for our upcoming trip to Europe) is going well! Once I finalize my list, I plan on packing everything and putting it on a scale, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be OK. The challenge is in seeing if we can do the same for my husband, who is considerably taller and larger than I am. However, over the years he’s devised his own carry-on system; he already has the concept down pat, so he will just need to make a few adjustments in his wardrobe to lighten his bag. His biggest challenge will be his camera gear, since he wants to take his digital SLR with him. Depending on how much spare room I have, I may carry some of his clothes just for the Virgin Atlantic segments.

Edited to add:

I’ve gotten some requests to provide links for those retailers who carry this product:

• Campmor.com: $29.99
• OutdoorPros.com: $36.86
• LetMom.com: $37.23
• Great Outdoors Depot: $39.95
• CampBound.com: $49.95

Note: Although prices vary widely, check each site to see which is the best deal for you. Some sites, like LetMom, had a promotion (50 cents shipping for backpacks) that may be worth shopping around. Some sites carry a lot of other good merchandise you might want to buy, and in most cases you save on shipping if you shop for more goods from one place rather than a few items from a number of different vendors.

Based on the blog comments and email I’m getting, there seems to be a lot of questions and concern about the use of bottles in carry-on luggage. Instead of having these hidden in email exchanges or buried in the blog comments I thought I’d revisit this topic again.

Kelle shared this experience:

One thing about using the empty bottles (as opposed to re-purposed ones) is that most of them do not have the volume actually printed on them, either via a sticker label on in the plastic mold. I once had several items well under the 100ml limit confiscated for this reason. The only empty bottles I have found that have the volume in the actual plastic are the Nalgene ones sold at outdoor stores like REI. Unfortunately, I don’t think they have an eyedropper…but maybe we can find an eyedropper lid to fit their bottles?

Nalgene water bottles are great, and even their smaller hard-plastic toiletry bottles can withstand a lot of abuse. I think they have a couple of features worth noting (both pro and con), including:

The hard plastic means you can’t squeeze them to press thick fluid out. So just like those old ketchup commercials that had you tapping the bottles repeatedly, expect a little frustration waiting for the thick conditioner to slowly travel its way down to the mouth.

They tend to have wide mouths, which makes transferring thicker fluids into them really easy. Be careful when you try to pour thinner liquids out, though, because you can easily glop out too much.

A 2-ounce Nalgene bottle (left) and its smaller 1-ounce cousin on the right. [Photos from REI.com]

If you like regular Nalgene bottles for drinking water out of, you will really like the general look and feel of the small toiletry versions.

The Nalgene drop dispenser bottle, however, is a different matter altogether. Take a look:

A Nalgene dropper bottle. [Photo from REI.com]

I’ve played with the dropper bottle, and unlike many others with a snap-top tip, this one actually snaps on pretty snug. That said, it’s still a snap-on, and I do not trust it one bit! I still say the screw-top dropper bottles with the separate dispenser tips are a much better bet. Kelle, for my buck I would still recommend the small eye dropper bottles I reviewed the other week.

Lynnette posted:

I’ve been told that items need to be in their original bottles. That, depending on the TSA, items in these generic bottles will be taken…even if the ounces is clearly marked on the bottle. Have you found this to be true?

This kind of goes with Kelle’s comments about her bottles having been confiscated. Now, it seems to me that there is one unwritten rule with the TSA, and that is:

Not all TSA agents are completely knowledgeable about the intricacies of the administration’s rules.

Some agents will take things literally, some agents will refuse to use common sense, some agents will try to come up with their own interpretation of the rules, and some will plain come up with their own application for the rules. Sucks, I know.

So with Kelle, it sounds like a TSA agent decided that—because her toiletry bottles didn’t have original labels on them showing net weight—the bottles would not be allowed in her carry-on, even though, according to Kelle, it was obvious that the bottles were smaller than 100ml. In Kelle’s case, there isn’t a whole lot you can do, because the TSA agent decided arbitrarily on his own that the bottles must have been larger than 3 ounces. [Had the bottles been 100 milileters, technically, it would not be 3 ounces, but 3.38140 ounces, and there is a very grey area because some TSA agents will allow that slight discrepancy while others will not.]

Lynnette wasn’t sure if the TSA would confiscate bottles simply because they were generic.

I’ve scoured the TSA Web site, and here are the exact words they use:

All liquids, gels and aerosols must be in three-ounce or smaller containers. Larger containers that are half-full or toothpaste tubes rolled up are not allowed. Each container must be three ounces or smaller.

Notice how exacting and particular the wording is. And this is the phraseology they use across the board, uniformly. And nowhere in that phrase does it state that liquids must be in their original container.

The thing is, you might run into a TSA agent who has had a bad day, who has irritated hemorrhoids, is itching to pick on a hapless traveler, or otherwise wanting to just impose his authority. The trick here is to use as small a bottle as you can. That means that it’s far better to carry two 1-ounce bottles of the same shampoo, than to carry a single 2-ounce bottle. Using this strategy also lets you toss the first bottle away when you’re done, lightening your load. Even better? Just take one 1-ounce bottle. Don’t bother with the second. Better than that? Consider foregoing altogether and buying shampoo at your destination, or purchase a bar of shampoo from stores like Lush and avoid this altogether.

Personally, I’m now down to using nothing larger than a 1-ounce bottle. For a lot of things like toothpaste, I don’t even take that much with me, remembering that I can always buy more stuff when I get to my destination.

[Updated December 2, 2008]

You will soon be able to keep your laptop in your case when you go through airport security checkpoints. The Transportation Security Administration announced last week that they will begin allowing laptops to be screened through their X-ray machine while they are still in bags. The catch? The bags have to be “checkpoint friendly” and meet specific guidelines. The new rules take effect August 16, and you should be able to start purchasing these bags this month.

According to the TSA (link), the bags need to have a sleeve or flap that folds out, and encases the laptop separately.

Illustrated samples of the types of checkpoint friendly laptop bags that the TSA has approved for use.

Some of the requirements for checkpoint-friendly laptop bags are:

• A designated laptop-only section
• The laptop-only section completely unfolds to lay flat on the X-ray belt
• No metal snaps, zippers or buckles inside, underneath or on top of the laptop-only section
• No pockets on the inside or outside of the laptop-only section
• Nothing packed in the laptop-only section other than the computer itself.

Although the TSA is not endorsing specific manufacturers or models, a few luggage and bag makers have are announcing their products now:

• Incipio’s QuickCheck line of simple sleeve bags – designed for Macbook laptops of all current models.

Incipio’s QuickCheck laptop sleeve.

• The Targus Zip-Thru Corporate Traveler – looks like an archetypal leather laptop case, but zips fully open to split the bag down the middle to lay flat, with the laptop on one side. Retail priced at $99.00.

The Targus Zip-Thru looks like a standard laptop briefcase, but you can zip it flat (right) and run the bag through airport X-ray with the laptop in its separate compartment.

• Skooba Designs Checkthrough – known for some of their neoprene (wetsuit) bags, Skooba has not yet announced a price for their product. Availability is listed as end of summer, and they are not taking pre-orders. You can, however, sign up to be notified of any announcements.

Skooba Designs Checkthrough bag, with the photo on the right showing the laptop portion with clear window.

• Tom Bihn’s Checkpoint Flyer – Seattle-based bag manufacturer Tom Bihn now offers its own checkpoint-friendly, soft-sided briefcase. If you’re a fan of Tom Bihn or if you’re looking for a truly rugged, made-in-America bag, the Checkpoint Flyer is a great new addition to the roster of checkpoint friendly laptop bags. By the way, Tom Bihn is more than user-friendly; the product description is also reader-friendly. Visit the product page for an animated image of how to unfold the bag at the security terminal.

  By the way, the Checkpoint Flyer is much more than just a laptop bag. You can easily use this as your main carry-on if you can pack lightly; it has plenty of room for a weekend’s worth of clothes as well as all your laptop-related stuff.

The Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer briefcase.

What’s it all mean?

For one, it means that there are some people at the TSA that actually come up with some good ideas. That’s good to know, because a lot of people have negative impressions of the TSA based on their experience at the airport security checkpoints. Honestly, it’s about time we started moving towards some common sense. Putting your laptop in a checkthrough-friendly bag means less risk for banging up your laptop, a little more security from people just grabbing your laptop as it comes out of the X-ray chute, and less scrambling at the checkpoint when you have to get everything loaded up onto the queue.

I think the initial crop of checkpoint-friendly bags will get picked up by business travelers who do a lot of air travel and who must carry their laptops on their trips. I also anticipate that a whole slew of bag manufacturers will come up with some sort of product that they can say is checkpoint-friendly.

Just remember that the TSA is not taking on the added work of actually certifying any of these bags. All they did was provide requirements that a product must meet in order to have it house a laptop through their X-ray machines.

Unless you already travel with a separate laptop bag, my suggestion is that you don’t replace your regular carry-on just yet. Wait until you can purchase a standalone sleeve-type case, with D-rings that let you carry on your shoulder. It should be compact enough to be snug for your particular laptop, and it should allow you to easily pull it out from your carry-on. It will provide a lot more versatility, as you will still be able to use the carry-on of your choice (to which you tuck the sleeve in).

This is just a short post for anyone who paid their $100 to the TSA to get a Clear registered traveler card that lets you go through an express line at the airport security checkpoint.

A laptop containing uncrypted data for 33,000 customers (of 200,000 applicants) of the program was stolen from a locked office in San Francisco International Airport on July 26, 2008 (link to news article). Whoever took the laptop has a lot of the information you supplied in your application form, including your full name, address, phone number, passport number, and date of birth.

According to the program’s spokesman, the data did not include your credit card information or your social security number.

That’s a big consolation, I’m sure (NOT).

For now, the TSA has suspended new applications for the program (read the TSA press release). The TSA has not said whether it is notifying all of the 33,000 persons whose information was stolen, or whether they will pay to maintain a year-long credit check for affected individuals. That would be asking too much, although I think that’s also pretty fair, considering this sort of thing should have never happened.

What do you do, when you give $100 and all your personal information to a government agency so you can clear security… and then they turn around and let your information get stolen? Besides causing some people to have even less confidence in the TSA (even though the laptop and the program are handled by a contractor), what sort of security risks are these people in now? It’s not too extreme of a stretch to imagine the possibility of these names being used for fraudulent purposes, but what if it winds up causing some people to get on the security watch checklist?

Some things just make me shake my head.