Beware Of Taking Liquids In Hand Luggage!!!

BLUroma

Interesting comments...THANX! I tried to carry them in my hand luggage because liquids are quite heavy & on that particular trip I was trying to even the load between my main luggage & my carry-on. We are very restricted now on the weight of our main luggage as well, especially on discount/cheap flight operators like EasyJet & Ryanair. Quit often we do go for just a quick trip so it's necessary to put shampoo etc in my carry-on. Next time I do go on a short trip I will buy my stuff in the city I'm going to or use the hotel freebies. A colleague of mine, her husband went to Scotland & his labelled bottles were taken away from him there too, so it doesn't look like those will always be accepted either. PRETTY MUCH LUCK OF THE DRAW I GUESS. Just thought I'd try to help! THANX ~ BLUroma

taxi97w

moonrakerz wrote: »

The baggage hold is pressurized to the same level as the passenger cabin, if it's going to leak in the hold, it will leak in the cabin. I would rather it leaked over my socks and underwear than over my passport !

Oh, I didn't realise the air pressure thing.
Maybe it is the handlers then (rjm2k1).
Anyway less chance of something going gloop if it's in your hand luggage.

rubia1409_2

I work for an airline and travel through security alot. Many of the people at security are real jobsworths and take delight in making travellers lives difficult. If they are unsure about what the liquid is they are supposed to test the liquid first before throwing it away. There really is no excuse for their actions. I would suggest that the person who had problems in Scotland writes to the Scottish authorities and complains. It probabaly won't do much good, but if enough people complain, the security people may be more closely supervised.

~by the way, my plastic bag is always full of toothpaste, hand cream, moisturiser, eye gel, eye drops, make up etc!!! I just hate to be without anything!

*srjp*

rjm2k1 wrote: »

they might leak when your suitcase is dropped and then thrown from one side of the runway to the other by the baggage handlers tho!

I used to work as a holiday rep and have seen more than one suitcase oozing liquids when finally retrieved from the baggage handlers. Who wants to spend their first day on holiday finding a laundry or shop to replace their clothes? You could wrap your toiletries in multiple carrier bags but it's still easier to just carry them in hand luggage.

My solution is to just use the miniature sized bottles that you get as samples or from hotels - these fit in the clear plastic bag easily and are more than sufficient for a week or so away.

rubia1409_2

I travel alot and rarely have anything leak in my siutcase. If I do, it's usually because I haven't put the top on properly. Toothpaste is the only thing that seems to leak regularly

peterbaker

moonrakerz wrote: »

The baggage hold is pressurized to the same level as the passenger cabin, if it's going to leak in the hold, it will leak in the cabin....

How sure are you about that? Does it apply to your average Ryanair or Easyjet? I know that certain BAe146/RJ type aircraft have a separate small hold compartment that can be pressurised for carriage of animals but the rest of the hold is not pressurised as far as I know? Anyway, in the hold you have no control over which way up your bottles are carried like you do in hand luggage!

I do agree that if you are checking in baggage for the hold then thats really where your bulkier liquids ought to be, nevertheless. Personally I try to wrap them in more than one knotted airtight plastic bag to make the pressurisation/leaking effects minimal.

In France recently with the kids in tow, I accidentally failed to take my own advice and came through with sundry liquid items scattered throughout an untidy piece of handbaggage. French Security missed it completely. They were chatting amongst themselves too much to notice.

However, prior to that at checkin I was treated to a wonderful lecture about why it was necessary to nominate hold bags to each of my kids. It was actually a young Brit at the French check-in demanding this information. I said well the contents of the bags are mixed - we are a family returning from a holiday. That isn't the question he said, whose bag is this one? pointing to number 1. I said well we'll call that mine. And this? I turned to my kids and said "you choose". So they chose:-) ....

... it's because if there is a security alert over a bag they need to know whose it is, so they can call for them to identify it. I appreciate that I said, but my children are minors and in my care, and they aren't going to be called anywhere or spoken to by anyone outside my presence!

Then he tried another tack -

... it's because they might contain medication and if you need it then we need to know which bag to retrieve from the hold.

The whole system is a shambles of course, but its net effect is at least two-fold ... firstly the unpredictability of different regimes at different airports is a continuing deterrent to n'er-do-wells, and secondly, the volume and diversity of hand baggage items to surveil is kept at a manageable level.

I sympathise with the OP, but with hindsight of course, the first mistake was debranding the liquids. I appreciate that MoneySavers might buy their Chanel No 5 in bulk containers, but if you were in security, and had got as far as asking "What are these?", how on earth are you going to be reasonably certain that the Chanel No 5 isn't fake (I don't think I could tell!) or that the nail polish remover is what the passenger says it is unless you can pretty much match its smell and appearance for example to what you expect from its original branded container? Sadly for the OP, putting everything in unbranded containers is unusual. One or two, maybe. But all of it? By doing that, the passenger is already entering into potential mindgames with security.

I guess this all goes to show that the time-honoured KISS principle works best - don't try to be clever, Keep It Simple ...

stacey21_2

When I was travelling back from Ibiza they would not let any liquids at all, manufacturers bottle or not.

patwa_2

Just a point about security generally. I think part of the problem is the language barrier and some airports not having multi-lingual staff.

Earlier this year I could have had problems in both Norway and The Netherlands. I had a 500ml bottle of water which I need to take soluable tablets. Schiphol especially is very large, I'm partially sighted travelling alone and it's not easy to just get water without walking long distances. Anyway I was assured that the water was OK, I'd at most have to drink it myself to prove it wasn't poison, but there was clearly a medical reason. UK customs had no problems.

Arrive on the continent and try to explain. Uh oh, no go. They couldn't seem to understand my explanation, I think it was the fact that being on my own it would be difficult for me to find water in an unfamiliar airport. Now usually I don't try to show off if I can help it, but this was getting us nowhere. Switched to Dutch and Norwegian where appropriate and suddenly all is well and everyone's smiling again, and me and my bottle are on their way.

If they had staff that understood English fluently, this could have been very simply sorted out instead of the 20+ minutes it took arguing. I was actually quite surprised, as in the past these countries have always seemed to have a very high English fluency rate amongst the population, especially at airports.

H.

hbk2006

I find that really funny because coming back from Salou, I accidently left a bottle of water in my bag belonging to my son (500ml already opened) and it was never even mentioned never mind examined!

*srjp*

patwa wrote: »

Just a point about security generally. I think part of the problem is the language barrier and some airports not having multi-lingual staff. <snipped>

Slightly OT, but I'm in agreement. Back in summer 2001, I flew back from Barcelona after a robbery on the way to the airport without a ticket or passport, and only my university library card as identification.. Think it helped that I was trying to explain in Spanish rather than being a stereotypically obnoxious British tourist. I might also have put it down to the Spanish being characteristically laid back about regulations, but even back in the UK the passport officer simply said, "well get a new one asap" as he waved me through. Wouldn't fancy my chances getting past either of them now though!