onto a airplane i dont want to get it taken away or wut not. let me know.
To tell you truth, with air travel these days I don't think I would even pack a Arduion in the luggage let alone carry-on. Not so much for fear of being arrested but of having to make the choice of letting them keep it or miss my flight.
It would probably be worst then useless explaining to a security agent that it is a general purpose digital programmable controller. He asks " so it can be programmed to trigger things? " , Ah no, well yes or maybe, I can make it blink an LED. :-/
Just ship it ahead via Fedex or UPS.
Lefty
now im on the fence i mean i just talked with the editor of make and he said i will be fine just check it in when i get to the airport.
I've checked in a suitcase containing clothes and a big box of electronics...bundles of wires, tools, ICs, controllers, some large 7-segment displays (very Hollywood doomsday), and a 10-inch fake realistic tarantula. All the TSA did was neatly lay a notice of inspection on top of the tarantula.
so you think ill be fine, k lol i dont want to have to buy another arduino when i get to boston.
BOSTON? Oh no...delete all your posts, change your name, take all your electronics and LEDs and bury them in a remote place!
lol now im lost .
I'm referring to the Aqua Teen bomb scare in Boston...but seriously, you should be fine. Wouldn't suggest stuffing in your backpack, but pack it carefully in your suitcase and you should have no problems. I used to fly all over the country carrying weird looking equipment for work and usually got no inspection notice, either they have no reliable way to check all bags for suspicious stuff, or they're really good at checking it without opening the bag. You guess which one I think is true.
true so you dont think i should take the arduino in my carry on tho.
Seems like....less of a good idea. I think it's been done before. Honestly, I don't know which has a higher risk of losing your Arduino: sending it through the horrifying luggage handling system during the holidays, or trying to carry it on with you.
I agree with macegr. Never had a problem with arduinos in the luggage, even on transatlantic flights. My last flight between London and NY included an Arduino, a hand soldered prototype ATmega644 board, stuffed breadboards, LCD panels bristling with wires, old circuit boards I had picked up surplus for components. I also had some batteries and a radio control transmitter. All were in a suitcase. Never had a problem bringing stuff like this in checked baggage.
wut do you mean checked bagage.
baggage to be put in the hold at check-in, not carry-on
oh ok well ill just pack the arduino safely in my suitcase then.
I travel frequently with electronics, tools, ham radio equipment, etc.
The ham radio stuff I put in my carry-on. Only once have I been asked about it, I turned it on and made it make noises and they were fine with it. The tools, wires, and electronics I always check. No problems, just the occasional TSA paperwork left in there.
You probably won't have a problem with your Arduino unless you used it near gunpowder, or diesel fuel and fertilizer... :o
I've traveled several times with Arduino "stuff" in my carry-on bag without incident, one time even reprogramming a little Boarduino during the flight. I imagine my seat neighbor was initially a little nervous, but I tried to smile and seem as unradical as possible and everything was fine. 
Once on a long flight across the southeastern US I remembered that I had packed my USB GPS unit, so I had a little fun experimenting with it suctioned on the interior of the airplane window. I was a little surprised that it actually worked through that tiny window. It sure did confuse the Streets and Trips app. Later, I found that GPS units are one of those items that are supposed to be powered off during the entire flight. Oops!
Mikal
basically all i would have in my suitcase is leds, pots, wire and 2 bread boreds and i wanted to keep my arduino on my do you think that would be fine i have no tools nothing like that.
Pot(s)? I didn't think that was allowed on planes these days 
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But seriously, I was worried about this aswell, thanks for clearing it up