THANKSGIVING TRAVEL TIPS DON'T BE A TURKEY: BE CAREFUL WITH THE LIQUIDS YOU BRING.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

Before taking to the skies for Thanksgiving, pare down the perfume, scale back on shampoo and stow the champagne in your suitcase.

Hoping to avoid airport pileups of left-behind lotions and abandoned after-shave, transportation officials are warning travelers to pack their carry-on luggage with care as they plan for their holiday voyages.

After authorities foiled an August plot to bring down British airliners with bombs disguised in liquids, the federal Transportation Security Agency imposed severe restrictions effectively banishing most toiletries to checked luggage.

Though the TSA relaxed regulations the next month, allowing containers of 3 ounces or less in carry-ons, the agency still frets that ill-informed vacationers could cause delays.

``You've been to a liquor store, right? Target? Any liquid you can find there, we've seen,'' said Nico Melendez, a TSA spokesman.

``Drambuie, champagne, and just five minutes ago, I saw someone with a 32-ounce bottle of shampoo. Maybe someone was going to the Outback and was afraid they wouldn't have enough.''

The Automobile Club of Southern California estimates 429,000 people will make a Thanksgiving trip by plane, among nearly 5 million people nationally.

The TSA has put on more than 70 events to inform them of the new rules -- one quart-size zip-top plastic bag, filled with 3-ounce liquid or gel containers per traveler in carry-on luggage -- but airport bins full of forbidden liquids attest that not everyone has paid attention.

To counter confusion, local airports will have extra personnel on hand to explain the rules and recommend that fliers arrive up to two hours in advance of their departure to ensure long lines don't prevent them from making their flights.

``We expect, as much as we put the word out, that the holidays will attract unprepared passengers,'' said Victor Gill, a spokesman for Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. ``If people get all the way to the checkpoint and haven't addressed the issue, it's like a flat tire on the roadside. It just clogs everyone up.''

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

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Photos by John McCoy and Tina Burch, Graphic by Gregg Miller