My bottled water was taken in Santiago, Chile as I was boarding a flight to the US.

I'm just back from Europe. I flew yesterday from Frankfurt to Houston and they did not take my water. I suppose it depends on a few factors as to why some airport workers will take your water and some won't, but it certainly does not apply to ALL flights to the US.

I've never had it happen coming back from Europe either. Only out of Mexico, in my personal flight experience. I never knew exactly why but fly from Puerto Vallarta often enough at least I now expected it (not like others who buy beverages after security then are disgruntled they can't take it on the flight).

There was a secondary screening at the gate at FCO last week (Delta), but it was just a few days after 9/11. I didn't encounter a gate screening last year at FCO.

I cannot remember where I read it or what city it was about but it said that liquids, such as perfumes, duty free alcohol was confiscated AFTER going through customs/immigration and security. Some in the story said they bought expensive alcohol at the duty free store only to be told 5 mins later upon boarding that they would have to throw it away.

MissGreen - That can happen anytime when there's a secondary screening at the gate for flights going to the US. These secondary screenings can be regular at some airports and random at others.

At those airports where the screening is regularly done, the dutyfree shop will have a service to deliver the liquid items to the gate AFTER the secondary screening. You don't just grab a bottle off the shelf.

In the last year, I have flown to the US from Frankfurt, Munich, and Toronto without secondary screening and brought water aboard.

However, when flying out of Singapore (to Bali and Tokyo), water was confiscated.

november_moon - SIN has security set up just before a cluster of gates, after the shops and restaurants. Those are their MAIN security, not secondary ones. You definitely cannot take over 100ml of liquids past those security. Similar to AMS.

rkkwan - I realize that. I was just offering up an example to show that not being able to bring a bottle of water on board isn't due only to the PITA USA TSA.

Don't remember all airports, but in Copenhagen I was taken aside at the gates - and I said, I have a bottle of water, they said it's fine, keep it. They swabbed my hands and purse for explosives, walked me through the metal gate, don't remember if anything else - but they didn't take the water bottle.