Screeners can see in the x-ray whether a container has liquid or not (shows up as dark blue on their monitors).

Additional layer of self-protection: Unscrew the cap on the bottle, reducing the chances of some hero screener calling for a bag check on an empty bottle.

Online camping stores like Campmor sell Platypus brand collapsible bottles. Two flat sheets of heavy plastic sealed at the edges with a screw cap on top. Empty it is lightweight, easy to bury in your bag, and virtually invisible on the x-ray. A little harder to use than a hard side bottle, but easy to carry empty. ^

I vowed never, ever to use drinking fountains after I saw a kid put his tongue on the spout thingy. It was gag-inducing.

dehyrated water? :confused: Is that like a vacuum?

Like this? http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/

Astronaut water. ;)

"For water, simply add water".......

If that ever happens again, keep the cap. Or step on the bottle and warp or break it before allowing him to steal it. Do ANYTHING to ensure that what the screener is trying to steal from you is useless to him.

If he's going to act like a spoiled little child and steal something from you, ensure that he has the best possible chance to demonstrate his behavior to everyone by frustrating his petty larcenous impulses, even if you CAN'T keep him from abusing his authoritah. Which, of course, is simply one more demonstration of his childishness when you get right down to it.

Security in Dubai will take them from you if the bottle is interesting or attractive to them.

I carry my water bottle everywhere. Never had a problem. as long as it's empty, they don't care. And I DO have a problem with paying for water....it's free.

or tell him it's the bottle you use for your twice daily urine test as you hand it over :D

Remember, ice is legal.

Really? Care to provide some proof of that? Perhaps you might want to start coming up with opinions based on what you think and not what you feel. The TSA people get fired for taking a penny. They would for taking a water bottle, even a leftover Aquafina bottle. I highly doubt that someone stole it.

Provide some proof or retract the statement.

thegeneral - I have never purchased a water bottle from a TSO but did purchase a lighter from an in uniform TSO several years back in front of the ISP terminal. I could choose from any of several. This was right in the midst of the lighter ban. I selected a Butane lighter for $1.00. Considering I had to surrender a Bic lighter before clearing security on the inbound flight, I thought I did pretty good.

As to the source of the various brands of used lighters, how would you propose I connect the dots?

How long did it take for that TSA guy who stole something like $200K worth of stuff, including a network-grade videocam belonging to CNN, IIRC? It was somewhere around 2 YEARS, wasn't it? Yup, that's some prompt corrective action there! :rolleyes::td:

And even if they DON'T personally keep it, taking something which belongs to someone else (and in this context, which is no possible threat to anyone else, I'll add) and throwing it away is still theft. A bank robber who immediately donates his illegally-taken proceeds to charity and gets caught after the donation, or who simply throws them away in the nearest trash can, will still be convicted for the theft he committed, general.

I've personally known people who've lost jobs based on performance issues like you mention, general - people in the nuclear-power field, whether military or civilian, are held to a standard of integrity which most people (including TSA) wouldn't believe. We could literally, in theory, be fired for lying about what we brought for lunch (on the grounds that it demonstrates a lack of integrity - not that I've ever known such a thing to happen). The people in question were removed from their positions THAT DAY, lost access to the facilities in question THAT DAY (one was during my Navy-nuke days, one was a co-worker at the civilian plant I was an operator at for over 8 years before I moved), the facts of the matters in question were established over the next couple of days, and they were removed from the ship and send to a shore brig (for the Navy guy) or let go from the job (the civilian) in less than a week from the initial incident. And neither of them stole and sold $200K from people they were supposed to be providing security for. The Navy guy, in a moment of frustration over a particular bit of bureaucratic stupidity, uttered an idle threat which he had the means to carry out as a result of his position, and the civilian had a pistol in his backpack coming into work (which set off the x-ray monitor, and the puffer alarmed on the gunpowder on his hands, as he'd been at the range shooting that afternoon according to him - security stopped him at the entry checkpoint. He claimed that he'd forgotten he put it back in his bag when he went to lunch, or something like that). And those are all the details of those incidents which I know, so I'll freely admit that I may not know all the relevant details - but the fact is that those who committed incidents violating workplace policy were IMMEDIATELY removed from their positions for investigation and were swiftly relieved of their jobs.

TSA, allegedly responsible for the security of our national air-transport system:rolleyes:, KNOWINGLY hires convicted felons, forces airports to give security badges to them, has institutional policies preventing ACTUAL security while encouraging abuse of passengers by their own personnel and preventing any hint of accountability or transparency (hell, we the people can't even be permitted to know what the rules we're supposed to be following ARE!:mad:), and keeps those personnel who've stolen items minor and major from those they're supposed to be protecting on the job (among the host of abuses inflicted on those they're supposed to be protecting) for YEARS after the incident in question.

Yup - THAT'S the way to engender trust in the organization... :rolleyes::td::td::td:

Hehehe... about that: I was flying LAS-SFO-HNL one day and did what you explained--brought an empty bottle through security at LAS and filled it there. Didn't drink much at all on the plane, and at SFO I exited security to visit another part of the airport. Came back, got in the security line, and was about to put my stuff in the tub--and realized my bottle (a bit bigger than a quart) was almost completely full! Not wanting to pour a quart of water into the nearby trashbag, I did the next most logical thing--chugged a quart of water. I'm very sorry to the pax in the aisle seat next to me (although it was in C so it wasn't too bad).

Gate security screener forced me to toss an empty plastic (16-20 oz Dasani style) bottle at KWI a few weeks ago. It was so absurd, I actually asked him twice of he was serious or not.