Most Common TSA Airport Checkpoint Mistakes (& Which States Make Them Most Often)

If you have clients in Wyoming or North Carolina, you might want to remind them they’ll need to take their belt and shoes off at the TSA checkpoint in the airport. Have clients in New York? Remind them their laptops and tablets need to be removed from carry-on luggage at TSA.

While these are the travelers most likely to make these specific mistakes most often, more than 59% of all travelers across the U.S. have made a mistake at a TSA checkpoint in the last five years. Across all 50 states, more than a quarter have needed to be reminded to take off their belts and shoes when going through the checkpoint.

These are just some of the findings of a recent survey of 5,000 travelers across every U.S. state undertaken by USA Today.

Of those who have made a mistake at a TSA checkpoint, more than a quarter also said they’ve accidentally gone through the TSA scanner with their phone, keys, or other items guaranteed to set the machine off. (Alabamians are most likely to do this.) And just under a quarter said they forgot to remove electronics like a laptop or tablet from their carry-on. 

While having liquids in baggage did not rank in the top three mistakes that travelers make, the survey did find that residents from Connecticut, Oklahoma, and Oregon were the travelers most likely to get stopped for having liquids.

Another common mistake made at TSA? Having prohibited items such as pocket knives, firearms, and fireworks – with North Carolinians reporting they make this mistake most often.

If you’ve got clients in Alaska, New Mexico, and South Dakota, you don’t need to remind them of anything. More than half of respondents from these states said they haven’t made any of the most common mistakes at TSA.

Outside of the TSA checkpoint, another widespread “inefficiency” the survey found related to oversized carry-on baggage. Forty-one percent of travelers admitted to “regularly” struggling to fit their carry-ons into the overhead bins, with travelers from New York the most likely to have this problem.

New Yorkers are also the most likely to over pack, the survey found.