Former TSA agent reveals little-known tips about getting through airport security, including taking frozen water bottles on a plane

Caleb Harmon-Marshall was a TSA agent for about eight years. He is now a travel influencer with 150,000 followers on TikTok, where he’s better known as Harmony.

He runs the travel newsletter Gate Access where he provides tips and tricks for air travel, such as how to properly use overhead bins, and which airlines have a “customers of size” policy.

Harmon-Marshall told Business Insider that airport security is nothing to fear, and staff are first and foremost there to keep you safe.

He said while working at the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, he heard many of the same questions and repeatedly sorted out the same problems. So his main objective with his newsletter is to help people know and understand their rights.

“People think that the officers are mean and they feel like their prisoners when they go through security,” he said.

“And I just wanted to let passengers know that this is here for your safety, they’re working for you, they’re not against you.”

Harmon-Marshall said he reads the terms and conditions posted by every airline and breaks them down for people who don’t have the time to sift through.

There are a few main tips he thinks travelers should be aware of, which seem to be little-known.

For starters, you can bring water, or any liquid, with you through airport security as long as it’s frozen. This is confirmed on the TSA website, which states that frozen liquid items are permitted “as long as they are frozen solid when presented for screening.”

“If frozen liquid items are partially melted, slushy, or have any liquid at the bottom of the container, they must meet 3-1-1 liquids requirements,” it reads.

Harmon-Marshall posted a TikTok about this a while back and it amassed more than a million views because so many people weren’t aware.

“If you freeze your water, you can take it past TSA,” he said. “A lot of people, they’ll get their own bottle, they’ll put their water in there, they’ll freeze it, and then they’ll just thaw out and they’ll drink it as it thaws out.”

Food is also permitted, he said, which some don’t seem to know — and end up spending excessive amounts on meals when through security.

“Why would you spend all your money on airport food?” Harmon-Marshall said. “It’s very expensive to buy anything at the airport. Buy something before you go, take it with you, and you can even take it on the plane and eat it.”

At the security screening, you also have rights that aren’t widely known. For example, you don’t have to go through the body scanner if you don’t want to.

“You don’t necessarily have to go through there if you don’t feel comfortable,” Harmon-Marshall said. “A lot of people feel like the radiation and all that kind of stuff can affect them. Pregnant women, they don’t like going through it.”

The radiation exposure is less than that of two minutes on a plane, but people are entitled not to use it, he said. Instead, travelers can opt for a physical pat-down by a same-sex officer.

The same goes for the baggage x-ray. If you have sensitive items that might be affected, like camera film, you can ask for them to be hand-checked.

“They’ll just take it and walk it over to the other side and they’ll check it by hand,” Harmon-Marshall said.

These rules are not overly publicized, he added, because they slow down the screening process.

“So they don’t really want that to be known,” he said.

A common misconception Harmon-Marshall said he wanted to correct was what happens when passengers are running late and their bags are gate-checked.

“They will take those bags and go through TSA, not knowing that they still have large liquids, gels, and aerosols,” he said. “They think that since the airline counter told them that they can gate check their bag, that those items can still go past security when they can’t.”

The majority of items that he saw getting thrown away by TSA were from these bags, he said.

“You can gate check, but you still can’t take these things past security,” he said.

Overall, Harmon-Marshall said it’s important to be vigilant before and during airport security. Never wear headphones, he said, because going through the airport before security is not secure — especially since record amounts of firearms were found at security during 2023.

“Anyone off of the street can go into those spaces,” he said. “You want to be very mindful of what’s going on in your surroundings.”

People complain that the process seems to change every time the go to the airport, but TSA agents do this on purpose, Harmon-Marshall said, as a safety precaution. So it’s vital passengers listen and do what they’re told.

“The key is to listen to that first officer that you see past the ID check, they’re going to tell you what to do,” he said.

“I know we tune them out because we’re so focused on: I need to make sure I’m doing everything, I don’t want to get yelled at. But really take a moment. Just stop, listen to what that officer is saying, and then proceed.”