When you decide to go on a trip, you need to prepare for the actual trip as much as you do the destination. Here is the list of items you need to leave at home to make your trip as easy as possible.
Firstly, there are the obvious items like knives and other pointy or sharp objects. If you really need to have your favorite pocket knife with you on this trip then you need to stash it securely in your luggage and forget about having it with you or in your carry-on. When it gets picked up by the metal detectors or the back scatter or the x-ray, it will be taken away from you and you will be very unhappy.
Something doesn’t have to be dangerous to be taken away or questioned either. If you have to take your steel toe boots with you on this trip then you should pack them in your luggage as well and explain beforehand what they are. I wear steel toe boots with full puncture plates every day and it is easy to forget that there is really no way to get through a metal detector with them on. Happily, most airports require you to take off your shoes in the USA now. Maybe not happily, but at least I don’t set off any alarms.
Lighters can be found in many people’s pockets every day and it is best to leave them at home. These aren’t easily transported by stashing them in your luggage to avoid the metal detectors. If that lighter is anything you care about then you need to forget about taking it with you. That is unless you want to buy a lighter container for your triple flame butane torch that will make sure it is not affected by the lower pressure in the cargo bay. You aren’t allowed to fly with pressurized gas or accelerants and that is exactly what a lighter is filled with, so you need extra precautions to fly with them safely. It’s easier to leave it at home.