Tag: TSA Precheck

How To Bring “Must Stay Cold” Food (And Medicine!) In Your Carry-On

Everyone has their favorite foods from certain places, whether it’s bratwurst from Wisconsin, kielbasi from New Jersey or Aunt Mary’s famous lasagna. They taste great while you’re visiting, but bringing them home with you on a plane could be difficult because of the need for refrigeration for all those hours. For Joe and I, a perfect example is when we bring home meat from one of our most favorite restaurants in Texas, a BBQ place called The Salt Lick. For the first several years we did this, we always worried if how we packed it would keep the food cold enough for several hours to still be safe to eventually eat. But by now we’ve pretty much perfected our technique, and we’re happy to share it with you.

Oh, and the cool thing is that the same technique works if you need to bring medication on the plane that has to stay cold!
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HOORAY! The Newest Updates To The MyTSA App Makes It Actually USEFUL!

The MyTSA app has been around for about 8 years but it took a while for it to become, well, useful. But finally…FINALLY…it’s something you may want to consider downloading (if you hadn’t already), and actually start using. Here’s why:

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Seven Ways To Avoid Long Lines At The TSA Checkpoint

More and more people are flying and the lines at the TSA checkpoint are not getting any shorter. In fact, at some busier airports, a wait of 30 to 45 minutes is more usual than not, and wait times over 60+ minutes during holidays is not unheard of. But there are some ways that may help you avoid those long waits.

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Our First Experience Using The CLEAR Checkpoint

We’ve had access to TSA PreCheck lanes at the airport thru our Global Entry membership for over five years and it is one of the most wonderful things we’ve ever signed up for. It  transforms the procedure of going through the security checkpoints from a cattle call to something closer to just a minor inconvenience. However we’ve noticed that while there never used to be any line at the PreCheck lanes, there now can be quite a wait just to get to the point to verify your ID. In Orlando, this is partially because of more people having PreCheck as well as people who don’t belong in the line (usually foreign tourists) waiting and then being told they’re in the wrong line and they have to go wait again in the standard line. At other airports, like LaGuardia in New York and O’Hare in Chicago, we’ve had to wait 10-15 minutes in the PreCheck line just because of the number of travelers and a limited number of check in lines available.

I’ve been going back and forth about enrolling in CLEAR. It’s a third party program that bypasses the normal check of your ID and Boarding Pass. You know, the part where you walk up to a TSA agent and hand them your ID and Boarding Pass and you awkwardly stand there while they look at the paper and look at you.

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You Might Soon Be Able To Drop Off Or Meet Your Family & Friends At The Airport Gate Again!

Ah, the good ol’ pre-9/11 days of air travel, when you could go through security with a baseball bat and without taking your shoes off. You could even stay with your loved ones before they got onto the plane or meet them at the gate when they arrived!

Well, the first one isn’t happening any time soon, and the second one won’t happen unless you pay for TSA Pre-Check. But the third and fourth ones COULD become a possibility in the not-too-distant future, if a certain TSA experiment works out well.

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