EMPTY water bottle???
 

ok, so if i bring something like

http://media.rei.com/media/ee/85f7a8...3309f0ba11.jpg

or

http://www.hookupyourdorm.com/assets...e_Nalgene1.jpg

with me, and it's empty to the airport, will I be required to leave it behind? note that it will be empty and i'll add water from the drinking fountains. i know, it's cheap/odd, but atleast i'll have MORE water than the 1 cup as supplied when getting food/munchies on my flights?

i'll be flying from iad to cdg (charles de galle) and then to lin (linate italy) and coming home, it's lin to bru (brussels) then iad.

i was told as long as it's empty, no problems bringiing such nalgene bottle.....thanks for any input on this (silly yet odd) question.

No issue bringing these, in any of the countries / airports you mention.

ty star_world.

anyone else get hassled for bringing an empty bottle onboard?

Never hassled.

Never hasseled, even with a bit of water < 3oz inside. Sometimes I leave it in the bag, other times I put it in bin so smurfs can see and/or feel it is empty.

I always carry an empty water bottle and fill it from drinking fountains before the flight.

THANKS guys (and gals!?).

I'll be bringing 1 of those 2 bottles w/me on my trip....

I was able to bring my empty stainless steel bottle on my flight out of YWG a few months ago no problem.

I always bring in an empty water bottle to fill once inside security. Just be sure it is totally dry before going through TSA....no water droplets on the inside of the bottle, and definitely nothing swishing around at the bottom.

I bring a nalgene every where that I go, including on flights. You won't have any issue, unless you have a bit of water in it..

Yeah. I had one of those confiscated (abandoned at the checkpoint). It was just a drop. Jerks....:(

So essentially a screener saw the bottle and wanted to take it home with him/her. No surprise-- why buy when you can steal from passengers?

I almost always carry an empty bottle, usually Gatorade. I eat sunflower seeds and use the bottle to spit seeds in. Never had a problem.

If I'm flying in the back of the plane, I usually bring two empty two-liter soda bottles in my carry-on, to fill at a water fountain, and have never had a problem, since the whole liquids ban started.

If you find yourself having to go through security again, simply empty it out (restroom/water fountain/outside, maybe) before heading into the new security line. If the empty bottles seem bulky, I'm sure there are some collapsible camping-oriented water containers available, which would take up less space in your carry-on when empty.

I've even considered taking my camelback through dry, filling it at a fountain, and just wearing it...:p

In order to obviate any problems going through security I usually fill an empty water bottle (it must absolutely be free of any moisture) with dehydrated water which as everyone knows is not a liquid.

With dozens of flights under my belt I have never had a problem.

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.

I've carried empty RumRunners though with no issues. Yes, empty. Heading home and they served their purpose. www.rumrunnerflask.com

If anyone questions you about it, say it's a medically necessary colostomy bag. Then watch how fast they drop it.:D

OK, you asked for it... In just a 30 second search on Google, I found:

TSA Thief Red-Handed and Arrested
Investigation into TSA Thefts at JFK
Why go to the drug store for prescriptions when you can work for TSA and steal them instead?
TSA doesn't like catching its own stealing on video and having to show it to the public
Hey, is that a stolen gift card in your pocket, or are you just happy to frisk me?
TSOs have expensive camera habits, and now we know how they can "afford" them
TSOs are Newark need to learn how to better fence stolen laptops
An interesting ABC News article about how TSA is under fire for its screener thefts
TSA sued over Rolex stolen by one of its agents
Whoopsie! One TSO stole over $200K worth of stuff, and now he's caught
Pizza and a punch: TSOs steal and assault a clerk
Here's one who was suspended and charged with stealing cash

TSA screeners and those who work around them are thieves, most of whom are not very well educated.

Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to prove my point about how likely people are to have things stolen by TSA employees if they don't keep a close eye on them while transiting through checkpoints.

So now, I assume that you can point to news stories that show how TSOs have been summarily fired on the spot for taking a penny? Well? I hear the sound of crickets chirping...

I was going through security at Singapore with a nearly full bottle of water. I Just wasn't thinking.

The security man spotted it. He said hes sorry but i cant go through with it. But he emptied it out for me, gave the empty bottle back and pointed me in the direction of the water fountain. :)

Official TSA position
 

I think we all know that, there just seem to be some inconsistencies. (strange but true!):eek:

Well, this could happen really anywhere though where there is hired servicing staff...NO?

I doubt that it could. Most places that hire staff to provide a service are concerned about their customers' experiences-- they want those to be pleasant, in the hopes of getting repeat business. TSA, on the other hand, has no such motivation... and that difference shows up in the actions of some of their employees and the majority of their employees' attitudes while on the job.

Also, I'm not sure about where anyone else works, but every place I've worked at had strict policies about breaking the law (i.e. stealing, etc.) and breaking any other workplace rules: they resulted in termination. With TSA, that doesn't seem to be the case all too often.

And how many other places have you heard of where employees steal $200,000 worth of items from their customers? Or go and rob convenience stores of their pizza after hours? Or steal gift cards and expensive cameras-- or Rolex watches?

TSA is an organization whose employees cannot be trusted, plane and simple... ;)

Idiocy
 

I flew out of PWM on Monday, as I was putting my bag through the x-ray I noticed I still had a bit of iced tea in a bottle on my backpack, so I looked for a place to dump it. I couldn't find one, so I downed the rest, and put the bottle back on my bag, after the TSO said "Hold on to that, save yourself some money on water". After security, I did just that, filling up my bottle at the bathroom sink.

At the gate, there was a secondary screening. They waved most people through, but everyone with beverages was pulled aside. I thought it meant a bag search, but all they asked for was my drink. I handed the men in blue my bottle of tap water, only to be told "You have to open it for us." Then they waved a piece of paper over it, applied some chemical to the paper, and finding that I wasn't a terrorist, sent me on to the plane. Sigh. What's the point of this? (Clearly, I know there isn't one, but what does the TSA claim this does?)

Don't ask questions, Komrade, it's secret security stuff. :rolleyes:

There is no point to it, of course, other than to harass you and make you think they're doing important work.