vettaman

Hello all,

My wife and I are flying Air France from Boston to Paris in about 3 weeks (early September).

She gets dehydrated very easily. Thus, she is very worried that because you can not bring your own water on board, that Air France will not give her much more than a drop.

Does anyone have any experiences flying tranatlantic since these latest restrictions?

Please help me reassure her.

thanks,

Peter

rkkwan

I just mentioned this on another post. Watermelon. Many pieces of it. Hahahaha...

galileosdaughter1

Hello,
I would suggest that you call the airline ahead of time and explain the situation - perhaps ask that it be treated as a type of special meal request. They have an obligation to their passengers to provide these types of basic necessities, but that's not always a guarantee, unfortunately. How sad that it has come to this...

janeg

vettaman-
"that Air France will not give her much more than a drop."
Do you really mean that you have actually asked for water and the FA would not give you more than a quarter of a cup (my estimation of your drop)? Bring a large empty paper cup, march down the aisle & asked for it!
Before the plane takes off.
But I do love the watermelon.

J62

Would that be the normal type of or the kind from college party days, enhanced with some Russian import of the grain origin?

janeg

I guess so, since jello shooters are out.

P_M

Uh-oh, wait until wally hears about putting booze into a watermelon. He'll be lugging several melons as his carry-on items, especially if he has to fly a domestic airline where booze isn't free.

mrwunrfl

huh. That reminds me of the Three Stooges episode where a spy had microfilm and he stuck it in a watermelon. Wasn't the watermelon a carry-on? on a train. IIRC, Shemp got sick on the w-melon. The bad guy pronounced film as filim.

Marsh

I understand your wife's concern. I am a "waterholic"! I always have my water bottle with me, but I think I have a solution. Walmart has on sale for 75 cents pretty acrylic water bottles that will hold about 16 oz. I plan to take an empty one on board & ask to have it filled. Those tiny cups of water they hand out are not enough for me!

dutyfree

The airline that I fly for has always come through the cabin every 20-25 minutes with glasses of water throughout the flight. I just received an email that they will be boarding even more water bottles for our passengers-BUT its a USA airline. I would strongly suggest that the day before travel she drink at least a liter or two of water before she flys which will get her hydrated for the trip. I always do that everyweek before I fly.Marsh-if you are asking them to fill the water bottle,then make sure its not from the tap?

Kate_W

Marsh: Current carry-on restrictions (which could be relaxed further in the near future) ask passengers not to take containers that could be used to carry liquids on board the plane. I expect some screeners will interpret that to mean "No you can't take an empty water bottle on board the plane". Even if they don't, carrying such containers through security could slow down the screening process, which has knock-on effects for other passengers.

yettaman: I expect that the FAs will be willing to supply enough liquid on the plane. If they don't pour a lot at once, you should just go back to galley and ask for more. As your wife is no doubt already aware, the other thing she should do is in the 24-36 hours before the flight, try to super-hydrate and avoid diuretic beverages (cut back on coffee, tea, sode etc) and salty food. This should alleviate the symptoms somewhat.

AAFrequentFlyer

Couple of days ago the major airlines were asked that exact same question - are you provisioning more water/liquids?

All of the majors came back with a simple answer - no.

Here is their reasoning:

Up to the time that liquids were banned, most flights would land with about 50% of the originally provisioned water/liquids still unopened, so even if people consume more these days, the flights are very well provisioned.

The final statement from the spokespeople at different airlines - if you need more - just ask.

dutyfree

On most of my flights to and from Europe,we never have any unused liters of water so I am pleased to hear from my airline that they have definitely put more water on the flights.Now the lavatory lines will be longer??????

wally34949

I've seen water fountains on BA's 747's. Jetstar (Qantas--Australia) advertises water fountains on their planes.

doug_stallings

vettaman, the flight from Boston to Paris is only 7 or 7-1/2 hours. With 2 meal services and beverage services, your wife should be able to get sufficient liquids. AF hands out a small, 4-oz bottle with both meals, and you could share yours with her. I don't think you need to worry too much. And if you ask, I'm sure you can get more.

vettaman

Hi, thank you alll for your kind replies.

My wife is a little calmer!

rkkwan

For the record, I never bring my own water/drinks/whatever on board. So, with the new security, I am not consuming any more liquid provided by the airline then before.

Am I think I am in the majority. I seldom see people pulling out their own water apart from my mom. So, relax and don't worry.

Merseyheart

Dutyfree, glad to hear from you. I'm thinking of you, flying up there between the States and the U.K. I'm not surprised your airline is loading up on more bottled water. I think many of them will. After all, there will be lots more room in those overhead bins!

dutyfree

Merseyheart-am proud to announce that I survived my first trip back to London (just got back this afternoon). The flight was uneventful(always good) and the screening folks in the UK were very decent to all the crew members-last week a different story of course! My flight today was a first-completely deplaned in less than 10 minutes after landing...its amazing when you don't have the carryon luggage to haul how much quicker everything goes? Back to London on Tuesday-

Merseyheart

Dutyfree, glad to hear you are doing well. I sympathize with the flight attendants and gate agents and anyone else who works for the airlines, and is just as stressed as the passengers are. We live in frustating times. I leave, myself, for England on 9/13, on United, and I hope things calm down by then, and the airlines are able to adjust to any security rules that are being enforced. Keep us posted....