Before even being allowed to queue, security cared a lot that I present some email of the company I’m flying with. I had just sent the QR code to my phone, but the person doesn’t have a scanner (so what is this going to prove?) and so she requires seeing the email for the privilege of confiscating toiletries. Of course the airline later scanned it just fine but I’d not have gotten on the airplane that day if I had given my laptop away as checked luggage (didn’t have email on phone back then)

Of course she didn’t more than glance at it, no identity card check to compare the name or anything. An invoice from my mom’s dentist would probably have done the trick. Balancing a laptop on a knee, trying to two-handed type a password that you only know as muscle memory, is the sort of reason they require you to plan two hours “just in case we come up with more bullshit than expected for you or a passenger ahead of you”

And yes, my backpack with electronics needed to be flagged, bomb tested, and the last sip of water needed to be finished because the bottle was theoretically capable of holding an amount over the limit. Makes sense.