O'Hare to Flyers: Send Your Bomb-Making Materials Through The Mail Instead

By Scott Smith in Miscellaneous on Dec 13, 2006 9:25PM

Just in time for the holidays, O’Hare Airport announced a plan that will no longer require travelers to think ahead.

Anyone who carries banned liquids or gels to the airport now has the option of mailing the items to an address or leaving them at the O’Hare Hilton. It costs ten bucks to leave your hair gel at the Hilton and $14 to send it home or to your destination via the U.S. Mail.

What an incredibly helpful service! Or it would have been months ago when the changes were still catching most travelers unaware, as opposed to now after the biggest holiday travel season of the year when even Chicagoist’s grandmother knows she needs to store her Aqua Net in her checked bags. At this point, anyone leaving liquids or gels in their carry-on bags probably isn’t ignorant, so much as they are obstinate. These are the same people who have a carry-on the size of Cee-Lo Green, and get pissed when they're asked to gate-check it.

Also, if the whole reason for not allowing people to take liquids onboard planes is because they might be used for some nefarious purpose, does it make sense to allow those same people to send them through the mail or leave them at a hotel full of hundreds of people?

The Transportation Security Administration offers other tips to make holiday travel easier like keeping your gifts unwrapped, arriving early and not saying “You know what would be awesome? Blowing up this airplane.” Also, please try to cover yourself before you get on the plane so this 112 year-old man doesn't have a heart attack.