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TSA announces that 11" MacBook Air computers can remain in their bag at the checkpoint
In a spot of good news for proud owners of the new 11" MacBook Air, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers may leave their machine in its bag when passing through the checkpoint. A similar exception was previously made for the Apple iPad - which brings me to the question - why did they never announce these exceptions for the hundreds of similar machines passengers have used in the past? Before I started traveling with a checkpoint friendly bag, TSA officers always demanded that I remove my computer from its bag - even when the machine was just an 8 or 10 inch netbook.
The 13" MacBook Air is sadly deemed too large for the exception - but that only raises even more questions - given that both machines are essentially the same on the inside, why can officers scan an 11" machine when it is in a bag, but require special access to anything larger? The whole thing proves that the chairman of British Airways was right when he complained about inconsistent screening by the TSA.
And to clarify - the news comes from CNN who received it from a TSA spokesman - the TSA has not issued any kind of formal statement. Have you passed through security with a new 11" MacBook Air? Did you notice any leeway in the screening procedure?
Update: According to the TSA blog, the rules for smaller computers were indeed relaxed earlier this year. In their words: Electronic items smaller than the standard sized laptop should not need to be removed from your bag or their cases.
In other words, there is no special exception for the 11" MacBook Air - it simply falls under existing rules for smaller computers.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: North America, Airports, Travel Security
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John Oct 27th 2010 8:48PM
These TSA guidelines are BS. I've been through the line and never ever have been able to leave my iPad in its bag. In fact it usually ends up creating MORE delays as they have to take my iPad back and re-scan it. Yup, even when they pull it out and see that its the same device they allow to stay in the bag, they still re-scan.
Now I have a feeling this has to do with being able to *see* the device (and through it) vs. the fact that its an iPad or Macbook Air. They are thin enough to be scanned but if you have anything around them forget it.
Last time around I had almost nothing in my bag except my iPad so I tried it again.. sure enough they had to bring it back and try again... and this was at the crew entrance (I followed my wife through, who is a pilot... and got her iPad through inside her bag just fine)
Kevin Oct 28th 2010 7:15AM
Experiences vary from airport to airport. My iPad goes through DTW in the bag without any problems. But at SeaTac? Same bag, same packing system, same result: they always take it out and re-scan my bag. Perhaps the TSA screeners in Detroit are both smarter and have more common sense than the ones in Seattle?
Alex Oct 28th 2010 9:29AM
Guarantee you half the TSA agents won't know about this provision, and if they ask you "laptop?" and you reply "Macbook", they're going to tell you that you still need to take it out of the bag.
Luigi Rosa Oct 28th 2010 5:05PM
Exactly one year ago TSA at Fort Lauderdale, FL stopped me and inspected very carefully my backpack because I removed my laptop (an old Dell Latitude D610), but I failed to remove a Sony PRS 600 eBook reader