No Lighters on the Airplane?

[12pups]

I have to take commercial flights a lot for my job. Sign at security says, no lighters or matches in carry on. But then, you go to those little stores at the airport, they all sell lighters. One even had books of matches.
I mentioned to him that we aren't allowed to have those. He just said, "Sure you are."
S'pose it's like bringing your own water or can of pop with you. Same reasoning? Or just another excess by airport security?
Once I learned I could have a Bic if I bought it once in, I started just leaving it in my pipe wallet. So far, so good. (All they'll do is make you throw it away, I think, if it's a problem. So far, no problem).
You carry a lighter when you fly?
[NOTE: been corrected -- change took effect Aug. 4, 2007. See below]

 

[sablebrush52]

Always. I leave it in my carry on, which goes through scanning. Haven't had to toss one out in a decade.

 

[ravkesef]

I take a Bic, but I leave my good lighters at home.

 

[12pups]

I'll be damned. Never looked it up, rsuninv, but you're right.
Change took effect way back Aug. 4, 2007. Guess they forgot to take their signage down at my usual airports (FSD and MSP). Signs I'm pretty sure show a zippo with the circle/slash and matches with a circle/slash.
TSA lighers and matches
Awesome.

 

[pipefish]

I travel frequently but never take a lighter or even matches in either my checked bags or carry-on. TSA is simply too inconsistent and international travel restrictions vary by country. For example, on Thai Airways no lighters or matches are permitted on the plane--full stop. I usually purchase a cheap Bic wherever I'm staying and throw it away the morning of my flight. I suppose I could fight the system and challenge TSA if they attempted to take my cheap Bic, but it's just not worth the time, hassle, and chance of missing my flight for my perceived belligerence.

 

[blueeyedogre]

I always toss my zippo and my swiss army knife in my suitcase. I have seen with my own eyes a security guy tell a passenger that he could not bring a lighter on a plane (it was a zippo) and confiscated it. Once the passenger was out of site the guard picked it up, showed another guard, smiled and put it in his pocket. Moral is the rules can change for a number of reasons so don't be a fool and pack your tool.

 

[peckinpahhombre]

Putting a lighter into your checked baggage is a no no. I learned this the hard way last year when I went to Hawaii. After we got to the hotel and opened our bags, we saw a note from the TSA saying they had searched our luggage and had confiscated the lighter. I had drained the thing of butane and thought that was sufficient. I guess not.

 

[12pups]

I have NO damn idea how this happened. But the only thing I ever got busted for was a new tube of tooth paste that was more than 3 oz.
But wait till you see what got by.
My bag went through the scanner and the security woman grabbed it. She sent it through again. She had me stand to the side and asked if she could open it. (Yeah, sure). She grabbed out my shaving kit. Studied my face as she asked if she could open that. (Yeah. Sure).
She unzipped it. Flipped the cover back (my kit looks like a mini-satchel that has a hook to hang it from a coat/hat hook in a bathroom. Unfolds and, voila, there's everything you need).
In one of the vertical pockets was my new tube of toothpaste. She flipped the cargo-net-like bag above it up and grabbed it and, sort of like threatened me with it, asking if I wanted to take it back to my vehicle. And scolded me, this *always* should be in the quart-sized plastic baggie with other liquids and gels. (Yes, ma'am. Sorry. I got lax since last two trips were over-the-road).
Yeah, right. I just about made it through security at OMA and now I want to run back to Offutt Air Force Base to put a $1 tube of toothpaste in my truck? (Just toss it, please). She threw it in the trash.
No problem, right.
Okay, so I get to Chicago. In the morning I go to brush my teeth. I forgot I had no toothpaste. Damn. But in that little cargo-net-like thing... I had NOT seen this. I have no idea when/why I would put them there... but here were six handloaded .357 cartridges tipped with Hornady XTPs. Ho. Lee. Shi'ite.
Then I burst out laughing. How THEE hell did THOSE get in there? And she had moved them aside to bust me for oversized toothpaste. Did she mistake them for suppositories? The cool, refreshing relief of brass-covered Preparation H?
Whoa, talk about RELIEF! How would I have explained that if she had recognized what they were? How long would I have been detained? Would the handcuffs have left permanent marks? Wow.
Then a thought occurred to me. This was worth money. How do I get a message to Al Qaida that to sneak some surface-to-air missiles into the country, just put an oversized toothpaste decoy in your carry-on luggage.
Oh. My. GOD!!!! No idea how those got in there. Why... What would I have been doing.... HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET IN THERE?
Someday, Joseph. Someday... oh my.
I know their sensors work, though. I've been strip-searched for explosives after returning from a blasting site. It was just a walk-around tour with a same-day flight home out of Avoca, NY. So, I hadn't changed my slacks. Just swapped out my shoes. Alarms went off and I had to go in a little room. All those little round patch thingers. One for every stinkin' thing in my cyberbag and on my person. Cords. Attachments. Everything in every pocket. Two TSA guys and me, me down to skivvies.
Oh the fun of traveling.

 

[12pups]

And to add to that, here's the link again for convenience. It's very clear.(I just was always going by the signs in the airport security line. Obviously outdated. Didn't think to question it by looking it up).
TSA lighers and matches

 

[4dotsasieni]

Because of the inconsistency of TSA and foreign security checks, I always pack my pipe lighter in a Colibri "Tranzpack" in my checked luggage (see http://www.amazon.com/Colibri-Tranzpack-Approved-Airline-Lighter/dp/B000J0KUB0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405365524&sr=8-1&keywords=colibri+tranzpack for an illustration. It seems ridiculous to have to take such measures, but it's better than having a good lighter confiscated.
And, as Michael (Briarblues) pointed out, your appearance makes a big difference -- I got on airplanes several times with a lighter (for lighting candles and incense) in my Buddhist monk's bag, and no security agent ever said a word about it. So, if you want to carry on a lighter, dress in some sort of clerical garb, and you're home free!

 

[grouchydog]

So they'll take your toothpaste, hair gel, frosted cup cakes and all that dreck because it *just may* be a tube of plastique or some bio-weapon. What do they do with these potentially lethal instruments of destruction? It kills me that they just casually pitch 'em in an open plastic trash can with the rest of the day's 200 pounds or so of OTHER possibly-deadly devices...
I hope they never arm these clowns.

 

[brudnod]

I have the same experience as PipeFish. The different airport TSA personnel are SOOO inconsistent. I flew from Dulles (IAD) to Charlotte (CLT) and had a benign tamper and a tiny Bic lighter. No problem. When I was heading back the Charlotte airport TSA said the tamper was "suspect" and that I could not take the Bic on the airplane. The fact that I had just buried my brother put me into a less than compliant mood and I almost got thrown off the plane. I would have hated to have lost the tamper. It is pretty easy to figure out that TSA wants to make the target moving so that terrorists don't take a plane down but if they put out the rules online and expect you to follow the rules, they should as well. Sorry, just being pissy...

 

[trailspike48]

Only once did I run into a hassle checking in for a flight. I was told by the red cap that I had to check my luggage at the counter. I was pulled aside and told to stand on a tile with an agent guarding me while my luggage was taken into a room and checked. No problem found so I continued. I was given another full check of my carry on while going through the TSA scan, once again no problem. At the gate I was pulled out of line with the explanation that they randomly check passangers and if I didn't mind I would be patted down and searched including my carry on again.
Now I never wear a Detroit Red Wing shirt when I go through Denver International Airport.

 

[dochudson]

I always have a couple of Bic's in my pipe bag in my carry-on and have never been questioned.

 

[batdemon]

I have been stopped 3 times, at different airports, and told I could not take my Zippo on the plane. Each time I politely pointed out that according to the TSA website it was ok. In each instance the agent has checked with their supervisor and given my Zippo back to me and apologised.

 

[claypipesarchaeologist]

You guys can bring your lighters, but I can't bring my liquid facial wash!!!! Justice, indeed :evil:

 

[12pups]

There was this one time, The TSA changed its rules, and it told its agents.
True story.