Airport checkpoint tip: If in doubt, take gear out

If you want to get through airport checkpoints more quickly this vacation season, remove not only laptops but all other "major electronics" items from carry-on bags before they're x-rayed.

That's the upshot of several recent conversations with spokespeople for the Transportation Safety Administration. However, the agency doesn't have an up-to-date list of what qualifies as "major electronics," and its latest information on the topic specifies only laptops for removal.

That ambiguity can leave you guessing whether your device is "major" or among what the TSA characterizes as "small and portable electronic items that need not be removed."

So I discovered when preparing to clear security at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on a recent trip. I dutifully removed a netbook from my briefcase, presuming the device would qualify as a laptop. (There's an exception for laptops carried in one of the relatively new laptop bags that are TSA-approved to travel through security without removal.)

But I didn't think to remove my Kindle DX e-book reader. But the device, with its 9.7-inch screen, attracted the attention of the agent manning the x-ray machine, who asked if it contained some "device with a screen."

After the agent x-rayed–and cleared–the Kindle, I asked whether I'd missed the inclusion of e-book readers on what seemed like a fairly specific list of electronics items for removal at the entrance to the checkpoint–namely laptops, "full-size video game consoles," "full-sized DVD players," "video cameras that use cassettes," and "CPAP breathing machines." "No," he replied," but all major electronics need to be removed."

No harm done; the second x-raying delayed me no more than a few minutes, which I could spare. But to save time you might want to remove from bags anything larger than a cell-phone or camera, which both appear to qualify as "small and portable." For example, while the TSA lists only full-sized DVD players as requiring removal, I'd suggest taking out any portable DVD player, based on my experience with the Kindle.

A TSA media spokesman confirmed the policy to remove "major electronics," but was non-committal as to when the list of qualifying devices–published in August 2007–might be updated.  —Paul Reynolds.