How to bring your own water on the airplane

7/24/07 - By Anna Fader

The whole ban on bringing water through airport security thing has been driving me mad. First of all, I think that they are not letting anyone bring water on airplanes because two idiots were thinking about trying to make gel bombs is just one of the worst examples of how we are letting the terrorists win.

In addition, I'm beginning to think that they are just keeping this rule around now because they realize how much money they can make by forcing everybody to buy $3 bottles of water now. You would think that airlines would take this opportunity to give out bottles of water on the plane, but no, now they STARTED charging for water on the plane. It's like, "yeah, we know we've got you over the barrel. Pay up!"

This is a pretty serious issue to me, not only for my own comfort, health and miserliness, but when traveling with kids we know how important it can be to have water on hand. I've actually seen them make a mother pour out the contents of a bottle. It's crazy. But, I finally figured out a solution.

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All of this has been simmering in my brain for a couple of months now. It's terrible to feel defeated by The Man. Then one day last week, I was staring at our new aluminum water bottles and I had a Eureka! moment. You're not allowed to bring full water bottles through security, but there's no rule that says you can' bring empty ones. So there's no reason you can' bring your water bottles through security and fill them up in the bathrooms at the airport.

Ha! In your face, The Man. We tried it out on our flight the other day. I was momentarily despondent when I found the bathroom faucets at JFK have pre-mixed warm water. I want to defeat The Man, but not by drinking tepid water. Then my brilliant husband pointed out that I could fill them at the water fountains outside the bathroom. Until The Man removes the water fountains, I will never buy $3 water for air travel again.