Avoid the hassle by giving ‘fly dry’ a try

MY new motto is “fly dry.” Pack all liquids and gels in checked bags.

I suggest you do the same, especially when flying abroad. You’ll avoid the stress of sorting out new rules that seem to shift by the second and can force you to surrender makeup, food, liquor and more at airports.

The restrictions were widely adopted in August after Britain said it had thwarted a plot that involved using liquid explosives to blow up airliners. Since then, the rules have been revised several times, and their enforcement -- even in the U.S. -- isn’t always uniform.

A bigger headache is that each country has its own practices. When flying from the U.S. to any nation, you may face one set of rules leaving the U.S. and another set coming back.

Eva Scalzo discovered this firsthand. I encountered the Newport Beach mother at LAX’s Bradley International Terminal the day before Thanksgiving.

On her way from the U.S. to Mexico, she said, authorities allowed her to take bottles and baby formula for her 1-year-old daughter onto her Alaska Airlines flight. But when she returned through the Puerto Vallarta airport, “they made us dump everything,” she said, except one bottle of formula.

When I asked agents at the Mexicana Airlines ticket counters at LAX whether Mexico restricted liquids in carry-ons, the first one said, “We’re not so strict” as the U.S., and the second said she didn’t know. (When inquiring, I didn’t identify myself as a reporter because I wanted to see how hard or easy it was for an ordinary traveler to get this information.) A call to the airline’s reservation number brought this response: “We do not transport any liquids in carry-ons” on any flight, except for baby formula and prescription medicines.

Even trained researchers can be flummoxed.

Chino Trinidad, a news reporter from the city of Mandaluyong in the Philippines, said he downloaded what he thought were universal rules for carry-on liquids before leaving Nov. 10 on a flight to L.A. from Manila.

But his zippered plastic bag, carefully packed with a tiny bottle of eyedrops and the smallest tube of toothpaste he could find, was confiscated, he said.

An airline employee at the LAX ticket counter confirmed the Philippines’ ban on carry-on liquids, as did Franco Leonor, an IT consultant from Los Angeles. On a recent flight from Australia to Los Angeles by way of the Philippines, he said, his carry-on hairspray and cologne passed muster in Melbourne, Australia, but not in Manila.

On another November trip, Leonor found India “very strict.” At LAX’s Air India ticket counter, an employee said India was banning liquids in carry-ons. India tightened security last month, wire services said, after finding a letter threatening attacks on airports.

Inquiries at other ticket counters at the international terminal brought various responses. A Qantas Airways employee said she thought carry-on rules for liquids in Australia might be more liberal domestically than internationally. Thai Airways said Thailand’s restrictions were similar to those in the U.S. A China Airlines representative wasn’t sure about Taiwan’s rules.

Andrew Tse, a ticket agent at Aeroflot Russian Airlines, said Russia did not restrict liquids in carry-ons on domestic itineraries, which, he noted, could cause problems for some travelers.

If you fly from St. Petersburg, Russia, to the U.S. through Moscow, for instance, “you have to be careful,” he said, because the St. Petersburg airport won’t restrict carry-ons but the Moscow airport will. With your baggage checked through, you won’t be able to repack in Moscow.

In Britain and much of the rest of Europe, restrictions on carry-on liquids are similar to those in the U.S., which, according to the Transportation Security Administration website, www.tsa.gov, requires that gels, liquids and aerosols each be in 3-ounce containers or smaller and be put inside a clear, plastic, zip-top 1-quart bag.

Also like the U.S., Europe generally makes exceptions for items purchased beyond security checkpoints, in so-called sterile areas, and for medicines and baby formula. But countries in some other regions may not.

Travelers are struggling to keep up with all this. Although all but two of nearly 20 fliers I interviewed Nov. 22 at LAX knew that carry-on liquids were being restricted on U.S. flights, many were vague on details and reasons. Some were taking small amounts of liquids onboard, but most were flying “dry.”

“I put it in my checked bags,” said Sheila Bliss, a Florida high school student in town for the Hollywood Christmas parade. “I didn’t want to have the hassle.”

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