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Comment by SavantIdiot | Hacker News Reader

I would say: then don't buy it, don't feed the mania.

But you're a captive audience: flights have no food (or charge a fortune); security won't let you bring food through; and if you only have 20 minutes between long flights, you're basically S-O-L and must pay the prices.

I understand travel isn't a right, and air travel reaaaaaly sucks right now, but it's more than just supply/demand. The "Passenger's Bill of Rights" should extend to "thou shalt not extort a captive audience that you made captive."

Or we all just stop flying and reset the system? I have no idea.

EDIT: Apparently you can bring food through security. I haven't tried again since I was denied a while back, didn't want to waste it. Thanks 'astura' for the link: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...

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La Guardia was renovated/built with taxpayer/public money... and these guys are holding a captive audience which doesn't have much choice. At some point we should require some kind of decency, where the vendor can make some profits, yet it doesn't turn into a total shakedown.

NYC is full of these shady hustler/operator types, trying shake down or make a buck in a place that there is a 'new fool' coming in every day. I have experienced it myself even in harmless things like soccer leagues. People trying to squeeze as much profit as they can.

I’ve brought food through multiple times. They probably won’t let you bring in a cup of yoghurt or a can of sardines, but anything that isn’t liquid should be fine.

Sardines will definitely get through security, at least at SJC where I usually travel from. More times than not I get pulled aside for inspection though.

I've had a can of tuna confiscated. The letter of the rule is that you can't have liquids (including, apparently, a few drops of tuna brine/oil) in a container over 100 ml, regardless of how much liquid there is in the container.

> security won't let you bring food through

I can count the number of times I've bought food in airports on one hand. You absolutely can bring food through. I've been asked to throw out peanut butter once though.

Anything viscous (paste, etc) counts as a liquid. I've had them give me shit about mashed potatoes in LAS, and nutella in TXL. But solid foods are totally fine.

>been asked to throw out peanut butter

Because it could be used as a bio weapon?

Huh? There's no reason you can't bring your own food through security as long as it's not liquid.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...

Not sure why this is downvoted since it's 100% correct. I always bring food through security, sometimes it gets flagged going through the xray machine but all that happens is TSA has to manually look through your bag. Normally as soon as they see it's food they just let you go, I think it's pretty common.

Yes. I think pretty much anyone that has flown with young children could backup that you can bring food through. We bring all sorts of snacks for the kids. Fresh fruit, crackers, cheese, etc.

You could make most of these issues go away by eliminating the TSA, but its union is so powerful now that we're probably never going to get rid of it. TSA employees are basically their own political welfare class.

I've brought food on many flights, most recently one from EWR just two weeks ago (a sandwich).

I can't believe this is controversial. Go to any airport. You'll see dozens of people eating sandwiches from Ziplock bags. Do they look like they're from Wolfgang Puck?

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