Airport security confiscated an empty water bottle

[Brissy1]

Last week I got away with a small bottle of water buried under a puffy winter jacket in my bag

Mmm, in an authoritarian communist country.

 

[million_thanas1968]

Were you flying directly to Australia from SGN, HAN and HKG on those occasions?

From and to Australia. MEL, AKL, and HKG biosecurity have never given me issues.

HAN transit bio security is shared with departures—they seemed more interested in a bottle of duty free wine I purchased in MEL. Scanned it three times.

SGN was with transit biosecurity which could have been more lax. Perhaps they screen for plastic conventionally shaped water bottles in which case I will be more cautious in the future.

I’ve also taken my water bottles through Chinese domestic and international security with no fuss. This was at CAN and TAO. Same at ICN, TPE, HND. Travel in the last 2 years.

I will be extensively touring domestic China as well as more “strict” Asian airports such as SIN/KTI/SAI/KUL, happy to share more datapoints. But yes never had an issue with my metal water bottles.

For reference I have a 1080ml slim metal Memobottle.

EDIT: I recall your original post mentioned extra screening at the gate for specific flights. KUL has that, will be interesting to see what happens then.

 

[Mattg]

From and to Australia. MEL, AKL, and HKG biosecurity have never given me issues.

HAN transit bio security is shared with departures—they seemed more interested in a bottle of duty free wine I purchased in MEL. Scanned it three times.

SGN was with transit biosecurity which could have been more lax. Perhaps they screen for plastic conventionally shaped water bottles in which case I will be more cautious in the future.

I’ve also taken my water bottles through Chinese domestic and international security with no fuss. This was at CAN and TAO. Same at ICN, TPE, HND. Travel in the last 2 years.

I will be extensively touring domestic China as well as more “strict” Asian airports such as SIN/KTI/SAI/KUL, happy to share more datapoints. But yes never had an issue with my metal water bottles.

For reference I have a 1080ml slim metal Memobottle.

EDIT: I recall your original post mentioned extra screening at the gate for specific flights. KUL has that, will be interesting to see what happens then.

The reason I ask is that the particular LAGs checks being discussed in this thread are secondary checks at the boarding gate which are specific to inbound international flights to Australia (these are required by the Australian government, except when departing from certain exempt countries like New Zealand).

This is different to the general airport security checks, where I’ve also never had issues with an empty bottle of water.

 

[blackcat20]

We took water bottles through KUL, SIN and HKT recently without any issues.

 

[jase05]

From and to Australia. MEL, AKL, and HKG biosecurity have never given me issues.

HAN transit bio security is shared with departures—they seemed more interested in a bottle of duty free wine I purchased in MEL. Scanned it three times.

SGN was with transit biosecurity which could have been more lax. Perhaps they screen for plastic conventionally shaped water bottles in which case I will be more cautious in the future.

I’ve also taken my water bottles through Chinese domestic and international security with no fuss. This was at CAN and TAO. Same at ICN, TPE, HND. Travel in the last 2 years.

I will be extensively touring domestic China as well as more “strict” Asian airports such as SIN/KTI/SAI/KUL, happy to share more datapoints. But yes never had an issue with my metal water bottles.

For reference I have a 1080ml slim metal Memobottle.

EDIT: I recall your original post mentioned extra screening at the gate for specific flights. KUL has that, will be interesting to see what happens then.

As mentioned above these are secondary checks at the gates for flights departing to Australia.
At SGN this was at the escalator before going down to the gate and security was asking all bags and carry on luggage to be placed on a table and they had 6 staff there rummaging through the contents checking for water bottles and removing them and then they wave you through.
At CGK which we go through a bit the staff at the gate check for water and then put a little sticker on your boarding pass so passengers just give the water to their partner, go up and get checked then get the sticker before going back to their partner and swapping it over
It’s always funny to watch

 

[Forg]

As mentioned above these are secondary checks at the gates for flights departing to Australia.

I observed this at HKG in 2012 ... I'd been procrastinating during the 3hr wait between flights home over whether I wanted the hassle of carrying booze onboard given that the airside vendors weren't that cheap, checked the Dan Murphy's site & Dan's was cheaper so didn't bother ... then inside the wide upper section of the gate, security had set-up tables and were confiscating bottles. Was happy I'd not bought anything - dunno if the sellers were offering any warnings that were being ignored (nor similar in LHR where I'd considered doing the same), though.

 

[Beano]

I was on a trip from Port Moresby to BNE and they had secondary security at the gate. That is where they picked up on fluids greater than 100 ml. I had a small bottle of wine which was confiscated. I don't know about regular duty free. I was told this was because of flights to Australia.

 

[Mattg]

I was on a trip from Port Moresby to BNE and they had secondary security at the gate. That is where they picked up on fluids greater than 100 ml. I had a small bottle of wine which was confiscated. I don't know about regular duty free. I was told this was because of flights to Australia.

It’s definitely an Australian rule. And a very outdated one, at that.

 

[Beano]

I observed this at HKG in 2012 ... I'd been procrastinating during the 3hr wait between flights home over whether I wanted the hassle of carrying booze onboard given that the airside vendors weren't that cheap, checked the Dan Murphy's site & Dan's was cheaper so didn't bother ... then inside the wide upper section of the gate, security had set-up tables and were confiscating bottles. Was happy I'd not bought anything - dunno if the sellers were offering any warnings that were being ignored (nor similar in LHR where I'd considered doing the same), though.

There are always issues at transit. Vendors sell liquids in sealed bags to pass through secondary inspection.

 

[million_thanas1968]

The reason I ask is that the particular LAGs checks being discussed in this thread are secondary checks at the boarding gate which are specific to inbound international flights to Australia (these are required by the Australian government, except when departing from certain exempt countries like New Zealand).

This is different to the general airport security checks, where I’ve also never had issues with an empty bottle of water.

Ah, apologies for misunderstanding.

Speaking of the LAG checks, I haven't encountered these in years. Had them a few times at HKG and KUL, they were done post boarding gate on the aerobridge. Perhaps it's random?

 

[cwd]

They don't seem to do the gate LAGs check for Australian flights from HKG these days. Haven't seen it for well over 5 years.

KUL is a bit of an odd place to do it given security is at the gate anyway. Now that I think of it, haven't had it done at HIR - does it only apply to flights meeting certain criteria?

 

[Mattg]

Ah, apologies for misunderstanding.

Speaking of the LAG checks, I haven't encountered these in years. Had them a few times at HKG and KUL, they were done post boarding gate on the aerobridge. Perhaps it's random?

It's best on the origin and destination country. Australia requires this for inbound flights from most countries, but there are some exceptions (like New Zealand and USA - there are a few others as well).

Some inbound flights to the USA also have this, depending on the departure country. I had a bottle of water confiscated at the gate flying from Peru to USA, for example.