Posted by: dylan555 | November 25, 2009

What Happens to the Stuff the TSA Seizes?

A Big Box of Your Stuff

As many people get ready to travel today, I thought it would be fitting to share a site I tripped across. Ever wonder what happens when the TSA takes your knife, tool, scissors, etc? For some of it, the answer is:

They Sell It!


Yes, that’s correct. They sell it on EBay.  Sometimes they offer pretty good deals on individual knives or tools.  Sometimes they put it in a box and sell 27 pounds of it at once.  Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, it’s an opportunity for someone who has had a knife confiscated to potentially replace it at a low cost.  That’s pretty good.

On the other hand, I wonder if there are other items that have been confiscated or lost/left behind at the checkpoint that aren’t for sale. What if I forget an iPod or other piece of technology? Do they auction that, or does someone at the checkpoint keep it?

Also, considering the amount of confusion I typically see at checkpoints, I wonder if there is even more stuff that is out there? They’ve only got three pages of knives up. Isn’t there more?

Go check it out for yourself at their eBay seller site. And as the TSA says, remember 3-1-1…

  • Three conflicting ways they’ll tell you how to handle the same instruction
  • One sole agent paying attention in a meaningful way
  • One lane open while the others are closed

If you’re flying today… Good luck!

Posted by: dylan555 | November 22, 2009

Tripit Comes to Android

I’ve been a fan of Tripit for some time. The site allows you to forward your travel confirmations and information via e-mail and Tripit does the rest. The build an itinerary, directions, etc. making trips a little easier to manage. For a while they’ve had an application for the iPhone which looks great, but what are the rest of us supposed to do?  You know, those of us who haven’t sold our souls to Apple?

Well I’m happy to say that Tripit for the Android phone is available in Beta. When it first went up it had a few bugs, but the Tripit team has responded very quickly to feedback and so far the application looks great. I’ve got a few trips coming up and will provide a better review once I’ve had a chance to use it on the road.

In the meantime, I encourage other web services to get with it and develop Android apps. A growing number of us are choosing a third way!

Posted by: dylan555 | November 6, 2009

TSA Celebrity Treatment

I have not been posting here enough lately, but the TSA’s latest foul up with Brittney Spears should keep you amused. So apparently some liquids are ok if they’re frozen but not in big containers and so on and so forth.

While they’re busy clarifying and reclarifying, they still have not reacted to this excellent critique of their policies and practices.

Posted by: dylan555 | October 26, 2009

Recent Travel Observations

I could get into how the TSA is continuing to use poor logic to defend its inane policies but that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Instead I thought I’d make a few observations from recent travel.  Let’s start with the good:

  • I recently stayed at the Good Hotel in San Francisco. The hotel is cheap, clean, and really kind of interesting. From the photo booth in the lobby to the environmental focus in the rooms, it was a nice place to spend a few days.
  • More and more taxis in NYC take credit cards. A little modern convenience in what used to be a cash only proposition.

The bad:

  • Despite what I’ve read, the calming of traffic around New York’s Times Square is a nightmare. It makes coming into the city harder due to redirected traffic and Times Square is more of a tourist nightmare than ever.
  • It appears that the Dallas airport (DFW) has signed an exclusive deal with Pepsi. I’m very glad that McDonald’s still offers Coca Cola, but the convenience stores should offer a wide variety of all food and drink. The airport shouldn’t be an opportunity to trap consumers into using your brand!
  • More airlines are offering WiFi. The look on passengers’ faces when they find out what it costs are great.

The ugly:

  • Ok, one shot at the TSA. They still have no clue what they’re doing. From rules being inconsistent and fluid from airport to airport, to long lines due to poor staffing they’ve become the worst part of travel.
  • Once again I’ve been vindicated for not flying Northwest. It’s going to come out that those pilots were at best incompetent and at worst asleep.

Travel has been picking up a little for me and beyond everyone charging more fees to try to make up for lost revenue, the decline in traffic has made the experience much more pleasant for me. What does everyone else think?

Posted by: dylan555 | September 23, 2009

Travel + Twitter = Twaller

Oddly, I had written and published a brief post on this and it vanished. The tags and categories were all there, but not the text…

So what do you get when you combine travel and Twitter? A new site called Twaller. The site posits that when on the road, maybe local strangers are better sources for where to go, what to see, where to eat, etc. than your existing followers and friends.

Mashable offers a little more detail here.

Has anyone out there tried it yet? Maybe I’ll sign up in advance of my next trip.

Older Posts »

Categories