An American tourist has launched a social media tirade against Heathrow airport, after security forced her to bin £236 worth of toiletries.
Chloe Jade Meltzer, 29, vented her frustrations to her followers after falling foul of UK security restrictions surrounding taking liquids on board in hand luggage.
Heathrow airport forbids liquids carried in containers of over 100ml, and demands that flyers pack toiletries into a single transparent bag no larger than 20cm x 20 cm (8 in x 8 in).
Chloe, who was passing through Heathrow on her way to Cotonou in West Africa’s Benin from San Francisco, said: “London Heathrow has a history of losing bags and I could not risk not having my bag.
Chloe is a travel blogger.
INSTAGRAM/CHLOEJADETRAVELS
“However, last time I connected through Heathrow, I had the same exact toiletry bag and they allowed me to fill up multiple bags with all of the same toiletries that I had on this day.
“But this time they gave me one tiny bag and I was required to only fill that one bag.”
A scramble ensued in which Chloe attempted to select her favourite toiletries, misplacing her sunglasses in the process.
Chloe said: “I had to pick and choose which were most valuable to me and which I needed the most because unfortunately my connections were pretty quick and I knew I was not going to have time to re-purchase any of the items.”
People queuing to go through security at Heathrow Terminal 2.
PA
Though Chloe had opted to travel with just hand luggage, extra liquids can be taken aboard in hold luggage.
Chloe continued: “I tried to take a quick video, considering I am a travel blogger, and when I did that a random employee came up behind me.
“I think he was in charge or overseeing and said that I was a threat to national security and force me to delete the video and then go to my deleted as well.
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“I totally understand this but the way that he did it was very abrupt and it was pretty dramatic and scary considering I didn’t realise there was an issue was filming since there are no signs around saying do not film while getting your bag scanned.”
Chloe caveated the rant by acknowledging she may have been affected by sleep deprivation.
She said: “Please note this was recorded on zero sleep and is incredibly dramatic.
“I do take responsibility for this but It does not make it any less of an unfortunate situation.”