Liquids gate-confiscated at EZE, but duty free OK???
 

I googled around quite a bit and couldn't find any discussion of this.

Leaving Buenos Aires on AA 908 EZE-MIA last night (15 March), I was pulled out of boarding and directed to dispose of my just-purchased bottle of water and soda. These were purchased post-exit immigration and security. The security person indicated that "because the police don't control what is sold, we can't control it, so we can't allow it on." They were visible in the outer pouches of my backpack, but it looked like every passenger was going through some kind of hand-search so it's not like I was singled out.

At the bottom of the jet bridge, though, there was a cart and an agent from the duty free shop. There, all kinds of liquids were welcome onboard, if they had been purchased at duty free!! It was too late to go ask what the difference was, and I probably would have been singled out as some kind of troublemaker.

It seems unlikely to me that there is any kind of screening on the items for sale in the duty free shop versus one of the takeaway restaurants? Or is this just pure security theatre in that they say "oh, the duty free purchases are in sealed bags"? As if that matters even one iota once on board the flight.

It's this and many other DHS/TSA-mandated "security" procedures that should have all airline passengers howling for the hides of DHS and TSA. :td:

What Spiff said, these are TSA mandated "enhanced security procedures" for flights destined to the US.

And what do you think will happen to these ill-conceived, ill-communicated procedures when they are passed to ill-paid, ill-trained, ill-selected people to be (ill-)implemented? :D

Sorry for your water . . .

OK but..
 

I have flown international flights to the US from all over the world, and never been told sorry you can't bring water aboard to keep yourself hydrated before on a flight out of Europe or Asia or Mexico or Canada. Obviously you can't bring water through a security checkpoint, but water purchased after security? That was the part that was new to me. What makes EZE different?

Enhanced Stupidity. Between the use of fingerprinting for customs and "security" crap like this, plus the added reciprocity fee for US citizens payable only in advance, I've decided to give Argentina a big fat pass for the foreseeable future. It's not like they need my $. @:-)

FWIW exactly that happened to us a few years ago flying on UA out of PVR, after buying a couple of bottles less than 30 feet from the gate. :td:

We boarded feeling very annoyed but it helped Mrs. Fredd's need for hydration with her medication when a sympathetic FA immediately provided us with a liter bottle.

Of course it was also PVR where the clean-shaven security folks confiscated my Gillette Sensor Excel blades on another flight. :rolleyes:

Well I sure felt stupid about the revenue from the reciprocity fee while I waited 50 minutes at inbound immigration at EZE watching the various agents work for ten minutes, get up, talk to each other, take a break, move people into other queues (a bunch of people from the back of the line were channeled into Mercosur, leaving those of us who had waited longest to keep waiting), etc. And I must have been asked ten times about my proof of the fee at both entry ports. What was weird is I also took the BuqueBus to Colonia Uruguay on a day trip, and the inbound Argentina immigration there was completely perfunctory, no camera, no fingerprint. And I could have brought water :-)

This is by no means unique to Argentina.

Post-security liquid purchases have been confiscated in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Hong Kong... to name just a few.

In my experience, the private security firm that American Airlines uses in Buenos Aires is much more aggressive than the United/Continental side. They're usually incredibly pleasant; in fact, they're some of the kindest I've come across in the world

It used to be that duty free liquids were not allowed on flights from Israel to the United States, but that has been relaxed. They used to hand write "no liquids" on your boarding card.

Now, at least, you can bring duty free liquids through TSA checkpoints. It was always a problem. If you were connecting in the US, the announcements said that you weren't allowed to open your checked luggage in the customs hall. So what were you supposed to do with your duty free liquid purchases or airline amenity kits?

The amenity kit still has to be stashed in checked baggage, but the duty free is allowed as long as the seal is intact.

This happens to me regularly in PTY. It's quite annoying.

...particularly as PTY n:(w has X-ray machines at the gates. They used to have a crew of people pawing through bags. Those checks were pretty easy to defeat.

The normal-out of Puerto Vallarta - is to take liquids purchased inside security at the gate. If we purchase- we drink them prior to boarding plane

It may be common practice at this airport for flights going to the Paranoid "I failed Chemistry" States of America, but it's hardly normal. Rather abnormal, actually.

Nothing. I've had it happen at PVG, SCL, AKL, LHR and a couple of other places. It's random and reflects the stupidity of the "regulation".

Best example for me was LHR last week when I had a 1/4 finished drink bottle in one hand with my boarding pass and a full 500ml bottle of water on the side of my bag. ICTS took the one from the bag but didn't comment about the one in my hand.

Don't go through LHR terminal 3 then. Last week I watched the "security" staff open duty free bags so the contents could be put through the xray separately. The clear, contents-visible, and sealed bags. They really do try their best to compete with TSA for stupidity.