Holy Polaris, Batman. It might take the combined forces of the entire Justice League to wrench United Airlines out of its latest pickle.
This weekend, comic book and entertainment fans who attended the super convention in San Diego known as Comic-con were met with an unpleasant surprise when they headed to the airport.
There, United had posted a sign, "Comic-con attendees, remove all books from your checked bags." Needless to say, fans-many of whom are also super collectors of new, rare and vintage comic books-were not pleased and took to Twitter to vent their dismay.
[CALLOUT]
United, the company who earlier this year promised Congress, "we will do better," responded to fans right away.
In their best Joker impersonation, they replied, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
Okay, not really.
Instead, their response was a slightly less interesting casting of blame:
Except, not so much.
Shortly after United sent their tweet, the TSA followed up with one of its own, denying that there were any restrictions on packing comic books.
"They are incorrect," said Lorie Dankers, a spokesperson for the TSA in an interview with The Verge. "There is no problem with [people] taking comic books, which are not a security threat, in their checked baggage."
[READMORE]READ MORE: 10 Biggest Panels at Comic-Con International 2017[/READMORE]
How the snafu happened is anyone's guess, but The Verge posits that United might have read and misinterpreted a 2016 TSA blog post written for Comic-con attendees that encouraged attendees to pack comic books in carry-ons as packing them in checked bags can occasionally set off alarms and slow down screening.
United later responded to The Verge with a version of their boilerplate, "we regret any inconvenience this may have caused" statement that is getting quite the workout this year.
The full statement: "While TSA is recommending that customers keep their comic books in their carry-on bags, there are no restrictions on packing them in checked luggage. We misunderstood TSA's instructions and regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers."
Incidentally, late last month TravelPulse published "The TSA Wants to See Your Reading Material" about a pilot program the security agency was testing which asked people to remove reading materials from their carry-on bags and place them in the plastic bins that pass through the x-ray machines.
In tandem with their Twitter response to United, the TSA also linked to a blog post clarifying that this was a limited test that "has run its course."
"We're no longer testing and have no intentions of instituting those procedures," wrote the TSA.
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