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by Gary Leff on January 26, 2025

A couple of years ago Ben Schlappig, over at One Mile at a Time, wrote about security screening at the St. Kitts airport. It was his first time going through security with a bag, without having PreCheck.

• St. Kitts, like many countries, imposes carry-on liquid limits. In fact, flights from airports to the U.S. that don’t enforce liquid rules at security have to have liquid screening at the gate which is terrible because it means you can’t buy a bottle of water in the airport and bring it on board.
• The rule in St. Kitts is similar to the U.S. If you go through TSA, you’re supposed to have no more than one clear plastic quart-size ziploc bag containing liquid items that are no more than 3.4 ounces (100ml) apiece.
• You don’t need to take your liquids out at PreCheck, but most passengers have had to remove their liquids bag and screen it separately for years. This isn’t always enforced, and screeners don’t always catch it, but that’s the rule.
• Ben didn’t have a liquid bag. They made him leave security screening to go buy one. And he was livid.

Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport

Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport

I’ve been through that airport a few times since Ben posted about his experience. Earlier in the month there was a woman ahead of me in line with no bag for her liquids. She was told that if she wanted to take her liquids with her through the checkpoint, she’d have to place them in a ziploc.

• The woman asked if they had a bag she could use? No, she was told – she’d have to go buy a ziploc bag. They were available in a nearby shop for $1.
• The woman argues “but I’m a nonrev!” This was not persuasive.
• She goes to buy the bag and tells the security staff “don’t you move my stuff, hold it right here, I’ll be right back” wanting everyone behind her in line to wait for her to go buy the bag and return.

Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport

Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport

This woman was unreasonable. She was seated in front of me in American Airlines first class on the flight to Miami, and she was curt with cabin crew as well. 

I’ve been thinking about this interaction a lot. It’s unwise to act like an entitled jerk with airport security in a foreign country. But leave aside her attitude.

• You should expect to need a baggie for your liquids at airport security outside of the United States, flying to the United States. If you’re nonrevving you should be (and act like) an experienced traveler, although it amazes me how rarely that’s actually the case.
• TSA doesn’t need to offer free ziploc bags. While the agency itself is accountable to the executive branch of government, and to relevant committees of Congress, and those are loosely accountable to voters, they’re just not in a customer service-sensitive role. And providing poor customer service at the airport isn’t going to undermine national priorities.
• However, tourism is over 60% of St. Kitts GDP. It’s important to make the travel experience not a pain for visitors, so they’ll come back. You don’t want the last thing they remember about the experience to be unpleasant bureaucrats and a cumbersome travel process.
• In fact, the major limiting factor on St. Kitts tourism is modest air travel schedules and challenging connectivity. For U.S. passengers living outside of Miami, Atlanta or New York it’s already enough of a pain to travel there.
• So you’d really want to make the travel process easy – as a national priority. Invest in giving out ziploc bags and making the travel experience pleasant, or sell them at the checkpoint for $1.

St. Kitts has actually gotten a bit simpler to depart from with the elimination of paper departure cards you have to fill out and immediately hand over. Their security screening is a single line, dumping you into a small holding area with limited amenities. They need to enforce liquid rules for U.S. departing flights, but should provide much better customer service while doing so.

The U.S. can get away with enforcing rules and ignoring service. So can London and Paris. But for St. Kitts is far more inadvisable.

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When $1 Ziploc Bags Become A National Tourism Problem: Lessons From St. Kitts