Copenhagen Airport and the tubes
I caught a flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm recently. Dead cheap, much cheaper and a bit shorter than the train these days. It went pretty smoothly- Kevin drove me to the train station, I took it to the Metro, and then walked off the platform at the airport, checked myself in at a kiosk, walked up some stairs I had never noticed before and ended up at the head of the line to get into the security check area.
Last time through security in Copenhagen, I had a left a blade in my ancient safety razor, so I made sure to travel bladeless this time and bought some replacements (to keep in the office in Copenhagen), and emptied the shaver before returning to Stockholm. The razor was not a problem this time. It was the fluids.
Apparently you can only have 100ml bottles of anything in your carry-on. What creams and aftershave or whatnot you have must fit into a baggie. Fine enough. But then I spied this sign while I stood in line- “No containers larger than 100ml”.
I didn’t really pay attention to it, but had a bad feeling I might have to ditch my SIGG bottle (empty). I wasn’t looking forward to that. I got through the detector, and was pulled aside. The usual check of my toiletries, some liguids got placed in a baggie, then the lady pulled out my shaving cream and hair gel. 125ml each. Hmm..
Me: “What if I squeeze out the cream into the baggie?”
Security Lady: “No, you can’t do that.”
“Well, you can see there isn’t even 100 ml IN the tubes- isn’t that alright? ”
“No. You can buy a box downstairs at the convenience store, put the tubes in it, and check it in with the rest of your luggage if you like, sir.”
(They said this about my single razor blade, last time, too.)
“This is all the luggage I have – I wanted to avoid the luggage drop off lines, you see. Am I suppossed to go down and check in that one little box?”
“Yes, you’ll have to check in all your luggage, we can’t check in such a small box on it’s own”
“So- I HAVE to buy a box to put my tubes in, put the box in my hand luggage, and check it all in?”
“Yes, sorry.”
“Well- I just whizzed passed a huge line by using that clever quick-check-in-kiosk, I’m on time, not sweaty, and now I can see my flight is boarding- so no, I don’t think I’ll go back and check in again, thanks. You can keep the tubes.”
“You can just jump ahead the of lines, say you’ve already checked in, you know?”
“No, thanks.”
I walked off grumbling and swearing under my breath.
She was a nice lady, though – I’ll give her that. But the situation perturbed me.
The weird part is – noone seemed to mind my 1 liter SIGG bottle, all bashed up RED and empty. 1 liter! I guess disposing of the gel and shaving cream made my potentially dangerous (larger than 100ml) vessel utterly harmless?
First time I spent any decent amount of cash on shaving cream – it was good stuff – but now it’s down the tubes.