I typically don't bother to remove "liquids and gels" from my baggage. The detection rate is less than 50%, and even then, they'll only find the most obvious offending water bottle (or whatever). You shrug, say "whoops", and move on.

You could probably claim contact lens solution as a "medically necessary liquid," which is exempt from the rules anyway.

>You could probably claim contact lens solution as a "medically necessary liquid," which is exempt from the rules anyway.

That's not a loophole that could be exploited. /s

On a side note, could one seek to get water treated as a medically necessary liquid? It is, and the rules say nothing about being limited to only counting medically necessary liquids that cannot otherwise be obtained on the other side of security.

> The detection rate is less than 50%

Far less. I, too, never remove this stuff and I've never been asked to.

This must be a TSA thing; every damn time at LHR I forget anything, it gets caught, they get irritable with me, it needs redoing.

I agree the security at LHR is far more intense. They caught a lighter and topical gel buried way down in a traveling medical kit I carry. I have gone through TSA 100's of times with this kit and they never once mentioned it.

I've (accidentally) carried contraband liquids through TSA airline security 3 times - been "caught" twice.

I've stopped taking them out as well. The detection rate so far has been 0%.

The detection rate on a flask with vodka in it is slightly higher, which makes me concerned as to what other things you could bring with you as long as it's in an xray-opaque container.

That's good to know about the contact lens solution. Thanks for the tip!

You still should remove contact lens solution from your bag and put it separately in the bins. It's just not confined to the fluid ounce size limit.

When I do this, they often will spray a bit of the solution and test it for something or other.

Although for the record, a large full bottle of contact lens solution is permitted. It's an exception to the liquids rule.

Half the time, the TSA misses my solution bottle. The other half, they find it, have me open it, wave it under a chemical detector, and then send me on my way.

Contact lens solution is categorized like medicine and is exempt from the liquids rules. Once they did swab the outside of the bottle (for whatever they swab for?)

I travel with an empty water bottle every time.

Explosives. It would be hard to empty a contact lens bottle and fill it with, say, C4, without leaving any traces on the outside.