Empty water bottle to be filled on plane???
 

Hey-

Just wanted to see if any other FTers had tried to bring EMPTY water bottles through security (flying out of SEA) and what my chances of actually getting it through are. I'm flying F tomorrow, but I'd much rather just ask the FA once or twice to fill my bottle up than having to wait due to the FA's being involved with other pax and/or due to turbulence. The flight is a red-eye if that makes any difference. Thanks in advance.

Reports here have indicated that this is allowed.

I certainly would't have a problem with this and I don't see why any other FA's would (especially if it's a smaller bottle, 12-16 oz). I would actually encourage it if it helps ease the inconvenience of the bans and make PAX more comfortable. Just please try to keep it to the smaller size so that we don't deplete our supply filling a bunch of 1 liter bottles. Thanks.

Umm..... I certainly wouldn't want my water bottle filled on the plane. They won't be filling it with bottled water, that's for sure!

I brought one in at ORD and SJC earlier this week; ORD it was ignored, SJC the TSA guy opened my suitcase, lifted the bottle, said "oh, it's empty. fine." and put it back.

Since I was in F on DL, I didn't need it on board; they kept me stocked with dasani bottles. However, at each termination I filled it at the drinking fountain to have in the car while driving.

I'll bring one on AZ next week, since I'll be in Y and drinks are mostly self service. (they keep a cart in the galley, you go back and get your own).

Thanks to everyone for the fast reply. FT rocks!

Ah geez...for the hundredth time, on CO we would never (99%) use tap water unless telling you (especially when you're standing right there).

And for the hundreth time, NOBODY is fallling down, because of lack of water. It's there, settle down, it has always been there. So is your diet coke, sprite,and whatever else you normally drink.

but i want my poland spring :(

I see, so passenger comfort doesn't matter--they have to literally "fall down" before you'll care? Sheesh!

I used to bring 3 (sometimes more) 1.5L bottles of water on every flight. I haven't seen that amount of water made available to me post-8/10. So don't tell me "It's there." It's not. And there's no way I'm drinking that e.coli infested crap you pull out of the tank.

I'm sorry that the government has scared you so much that you think your customers' comfort is a threat to your safety. This brainwashing is not our fault. If possible, please try reading some articles on the scientific feasibility of the London plot before you continue with your "customer be damned" attitude.

BTW do you talk to your customers like children, too? ("Settle down"??)

I used to do the same thing. And its madness not to be able to bring your
own water.

It may surprise some of the younger folks here to learn there was once a time when personal water bottles pretty much did not exist. There was no such thing as Aquafina or Dasani, Poland Spring only came in gallon jugs, and Evian was a sort of snob joke. Nobody thought of toting one-liter water bottles onto airplanes or anywhere else.

This ancient era was ended fifteen or twenty years ago by genius beverage marketers. Now we have a culture where everybody seems to believe debilitating dehydration is always seconds away and has to insure a constant personal supply of water. In the old days, believe it or not, we went around without water bottles in our grip, trusting that (a) there would be some where we were going if we wanted it and (b) we wouldn't dry up and die in the meantime.

If people from the 1980s, who somehow managed to survive air travel, were to hear today's travelers insist they absolutely must have one, or two, or four liters of personal water at their disposal at all times, they'd think them insane.

I'm sure there werent many people who did back to back international
trips as they do these days. and I'm sure they would think flying
over 70-80k miles per month as a paying passenger is insane too - in coach!

Service was also much better even 15 years ago than it is now. You could actually count on the FA's to keep you comfortable and hydrated. With all the cutbacks and the airlines race to the bottom, we can't count on them.

You're right ... flyers from the 1980's would be shocked to find that once almost standard service for Y is barely available in F anymore.

Super

MCO-LAX on Song (Delta). TSA refused to let an empty bottle through due to causing fear on the plane. The reason given was that some passenger would freak out seeing a bottle filled with a liquid. I really want to be mad at the TSA for this but the reality is that some scared sheeple would probably freak out and try to make them turn the plane around. :rolleyes:

And in the 1980s, nobody had laptop computers. That ancient era was ended by genius computer marketers at IBM, Dell, and Apple... Should we ban those too?

Are you an FA, BTW?

So now there is officially no basis for the security rules at all. Anything that can scare a passenger is now officially prohibited? That is beyond outrageous. These days, young Muslim men scare the bejeezus out of a lot of travelers--much moreso than an empty water bottle. So should they be prohibited too?

It's one thing to have absurd rules. But you are literally setting up a lawless vigilante state when the only rule is "anything that might scare someone else is prohibited."

I keep thinking things can't get worse here, but every week they do. It's just amazing what irrational totalitarianism the TSA has gotten people to buy into. Worse, they've convinced screeners and passengers to try to "one up" the TSA by inventing their own, even stricter, rules and imposing them on their fellow travelers! This is like some kind of dystopian sci-fi novel.

delete

T-Shirts in Arabic aree no longer allowed either apparently. See this thread.

I think those passengers who were uncomfortable have every right to choose not to get on that particular flight. If you're uncomfortable then don't fly. Why do we as a society find it necessary to take away someones personal freedoms for their own comfort of imagined safety? Oh, by the way, if he was a "terrorist" why would making him change his shirt have any effect on his plans?

I think we should all start wearin Arabic shirts now. I found some that would be great. One says "Got Milk?" and another says "Don't Mess With Texas" (I am not sure the rules for posting items for sale so just do a search for Arabic T-shirt" if you want. I may wear a "Got Milk?" shirt on my LAX-IND flight at the end of the month. :D

They said the problem was that once it was refilled on the plane a passenger "could" believe it contained an explosive. :rolleyes:

So now, water was not just banned, but now its an explosive??? :confused:

Apparently that's why they banned all liquids and gels. The TSA/Governments say the mixture inside "could" be an explosive or something that can be mixed with something else to make an explosive. Anyways, that's the story they are telling about the supposed foiled attack on the planes coming in from London. I am having a difficult time swallowing pills this large.

People here are so critical of the TSA people, but you have to respect them. They have so much creativity and imagination, to come up with these rules and explainations, often on the spur of the moment.

So... even after the *enhanced* security measures, *they* are telling us
that the things past the TSA checkpoint may possibly be dangerous..
say water.. hmm...

Also you cannot bring water purchased at the airside onboard. Which implies
the things sold at the airside may not be secure. so whats the point of
TSA checkpoints?


I need to consult a second grader to explain this logic :confused:

That's perhaps the most amazing question I've ever been asked.

Certainly not. I'm a 46-year-old passenger/businessperson who remembers a recent era when people did not have to be ferociously irrigated every ten minutes -- in conference rooms, while walking city streets, and in airports and airplanes! -- for fear of collapsing. This whole idea that we must have constant access to a personal brand-label water supply is relatively new and IMO overblown. (As is the idea that our companies will collapse if we are not in constant cell/Blackberry contact, etc.) In our work and travel culture, the "minimum equipment list" of items we will absolutely, positively perish without gets longer and easier to make fun of with each passing year. Bear in mind that circa 1968 a businessperson traveled without cell phone, email access, personal computer, personal water supply, personal pager, etc.; he/she did not die, and business somehow still got done.

Sorry--you have a username similar to an FA who posts from time to time (I think it's Bear96 or something).

Your idea that we should allow the terrorists to force us to revert to 1968 (jeez, in your last message it was the 1980s--will the next suggestion be the 1800s?) is absurd. Laptops, iPods, personal water... It's your choice whether you use these things or not, and I'm not judging your choice, but for you to support the government forcing your lifestyle choices on the rest of us is extraordinarily selfish. Especially when they refuse to demonstrate the actual viability of the binary liquid explosives obtained from an airside vendor scenario that they are lording over us as the reason for the water ban.

My friend, please read what I posted. I never mentioned terrorists. I never mentioned government. I never said I want my "lifestyle choices" forced on the rest of you. I never said what my "lifestyle choices" are. I never said I wanted to go back to 1968. I never endorsed or condemned the TSA liquid ban.

All I said was that I think it is overdramatic at best to contend that going for an hour without a personal hydration solution at one's fingertips constitutes some terrible privation. And that a lot of us are guilty of characterizing accessories as necessities. And that in prior eras people didn't expire from lack of said accessories.

For the record, I think the liquid ban, like most window-dressing, Kafkaesque TSA rules, is completely moronic.

I like that now. Also being able to carry bottle of water onboard means
you dont have to look for or buy water for the road ahead. Its just
convenient and would save you a couple of bucks and a lot of time.

BTW do you talk to your customers like children, too? ("Settle down"??)[/QUOTE]

Only when they are irrational, assume I don't care, or assume I am scared. :D

"That's perhaps the most amazing question I've ever been asked.

Certainly not. I'm a 46-year-old passenger/businessperson who remembers a recent era when people did not have to be ferociously irrigated every ten minutes -- in conference rooms, while walking city streets, and in airports and airplanes! -- for fear of collapsing. This whole idea that we must have constant access to a personal brand-label water supply is relatively new and IMO overblown. (As is the idea that our companies will collapse if we are not in constant cell/Blackberry contact, etc.) In our work and travel culture, the "minimum equipment list" of items we will absolutely, positively perish without gets longer and easier to make fun of with each passing year. Bear in mind that circa 1968 a businessperson traveled without cell phone, email access, personal computer, personal water supply, personal pager, etc.; he/she did not die, and business somehow still got done."

This reminds me of the Grumpy Old Man skit that I see in SNL reruns. Given that you're platinum on two airlines, you probably don't understand how hard it is to get water in coach. Back there we don't have one FA/10 people. The first advice that people are given in travelling is to stay hydrated. Why should this surprise you? You travel a lot. Your body loses a cup of moisture an hour in the dry airplane environment. It shouldn't be any surprise to you that people want to have some water.

Not allowing an empty bottle is absurd
 

I have a medical condition where I require more water than the FA typically supply. I am planning to take an empty water bottle with built in filter so that I can have quality water even if I have to drink the water from the tanks on an airplane. However, if TSA does not allow me to take an EMPTY bottle with me to fill once on the plane, there might be medical problems. Do I need a PRESCRIPTION for water now?!? :(

Now if they would actually use that foresight to prevent a real tragedy instead of coming with farfetched scenarios that have a snowball's chance in hell of actually happening. :rolleyes:

I believe that any person who is afraid of an empty water bottle is a great threat to air safety and should never be allowed to fly. :rolleyes:

We need to post signs at each airport gate similar to what you see in amusement parks and on the back of your ski-lift ticket:

You are about to ride through the air at great speeds which may involve bumps, jolts, and in some rare cases, death. Persons with great or irrational fear of toothpaste, bottles of water, dark-skinned men with beards, or the inherent risks of life, should not ride this attraction.

With all due respect, we apparently travel in different classes (I am usually in the 'back of the bus'), and you also take much shorter flights than I do. The only flights I have ever taken that were only an hour were Hawaiian interisland flights. I admire folks like you who either only fly short hops or can go hours on end without water. I can't - in the air or on the ground.

It is a real shame that we Americans who fly only on domestic flights are deprived of drinking water because of Islamowhackos. Let's hope that TSA develops tests, specifically technology at checkpoints, that allow us to travel with water and other essentials such as shampoos and personal toiletries without being treated like we are criminal suspects.

empty bottle with filter?
 

I think that and a prescription is a good idea. What do you buy that has a filter?

From the stories I have read here, I do think a passenger noticing me using the water bottle I just had filled could indeed overreact. However I too plan on taking a small empty bottle - but I'm not flying any long flights until the end of October.

Sylvia

The water in the tanks on airplanes are known to have high bacteria counts. A water bottle with built in filter is nice because one can be assured that the water one is drinking is safe, no matter where the water originally came from. They can be obtained from almost any camping store.

I tend to be on longer flights which cross the country, so dehydration can be a problem.

Sporting goods stores that sell camping gear carry equipment that can filter harmful bacteria and pathogens from water. Maybe the answer is to buy such equipment and then also bus shares of stock in The Sports Authority and/or Dick's Sporting Goods.

I fly mostly on AA and drink the water every time. When the FAs use up one bottle, they open a new, sealed one. Does anyone think the airlines are filling these bottles with tap water and then resealing them?

Hellooo, McFly? With apologies to "Back to the Future", what do you think flight attendants do when the new, sealed water bottles run out? I do not want to burst your bubble, but I imagine that flight attendants merely fill water bottles with H20 from the tanks on the airliner. A recent study found that a large percentage of those tanks were contaminated with e. coli bacteria. The effects of many strains of e. coli are miserable - stomach cramps, fever, diarrhea, and other wonderful gastrointestinal problems.