Thought I'd bring up a topic that has concerned me a number of times but I haven't written about it until now.

Generally speaking, I don't have an issue with the current liquids on board rules, but the way they're being enforced in some airports (Singapore, Kuala Lumpur) mean that simply being able to take some water to drink on board is impossible.

In airports like London Heathrow, the liquids check is just before immigration, meaning that once you're airside, you can take anything you like with you. That's fine. However, airports like Singapore and KLIA instead put the security check on the gate. You *can* take liquids on to your flight bought airside, but only those sealed at the point of sale in tamper-proof bags.

Now, this is no problem if you wish to buy wine or whisky from a duty free store, and it's no problem if you wish to buy any of the variety of gels and liquids available at drugstores, but if you wish to buy a humble bottle of water, you can forget it. This is because the duty-free outlets don't sell water (or soft drinks) and the cafes, bars, and newstands where you can buy water aren't provided with the tamper-proof bags.

Something here seems very wrong to me. Every bit of travel advice for remaining healthy on a long-haul flights recommends remaining well-hydrated, yet these airports are making this impossible. The situation could easily be solved by selling water / soft drinks in the gates, or even on-board the plane, nowhere's offering this.

Personally, I like to keep as well hydrated as possible on board a long-haul flight, and that involves taking my own water on. Flight attendants in economy (especially with a full flight to attend to) tend to think one small glass of water every two hours is enough to sufficiently hydrate - it isn't.

The joke is, the problem doesn't exist on low cost carriers where you buy your drinks - they're happy to sell you as many bottles of water as you can drink - a situation I'd be more than happy with. But on full service carriers, the option of buying water doesn't exist, and from airports like those listed above, the option of bringing it on doesn't exist either - leaving you with a nice choice: dehydrate, or take your chances and drink the water on the plane (and after reading a number of studies on plane water, this isn't an option I fancy).

Having chatted about this to a FA recently on an Air New Zealand flight, she agreed it was a problem - on this flight I was travelling in business so, they were more than prepared to give me a big bottle - but she did acknowledge that for passengers in economy, this wouldn't happen. In fact, on Air NZ flights, any spare bottled water is apparently kept for 'crew use', as the FAs and pilots refuse to drink the plane water, even though this is all that's offered to passengers.

I think this is a seriously under-the-radar issue that needs addressing: something seems wrong when I can take pretty much any liquid or gel I want onto a long-haul fight out of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur (or any of the other airports with similar ruels), as long as it's an expensive duty-free item, and not something simple like water.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum btw - wasn't sure where was the most appropriate one, mods feel free to move.