h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's the most liquid you've managed to cram into one of those little bags to take on as hand luggage? In theory, you could take 10x100ml, but in practise you wouldn't normally manage that...unless you had ten squidgy containers or something. And yet there's no online references to someone trying it.

A colleague of mine once tried to fly with several plastic bags. This would never have occurred to me, but she thought it was perfectly normal.

I have never had much liquid in my hand luggage, my aim being to have a little as possible, so I can't compete. What would be the advantage of taking 10 x 100 ml? Unless it was all prescribed medication, but, then again, someone needing THAT much medication probably shouldn't be flying anywhere.

(My colleagues superfluous plastic bags were confiscated, of course)

I have six prescription items in my hand baggage, but they don't go in a liquid bag. As a diabetic I'm allowed a small bottle of Lucozade in case I get a low. Ironically I have to put lipstick in the little plastic bags in case it counts as a gel.
I recommend being a doddery biddy with a stick. On my Easter journey the security people did all that sorting for me and found me a wooden stick while my metal one went through screening. I also got wheelchairs without asking

Soak a sponge with liquid, fight the system!

>>What would be the advantage of taking 10 x 100 ml?

Well I'm more interested in seeing if anyone has actually managed it, rather than particularly needing to do it myself; but I must say, if you fly with only hand luggage, there is an incentive to be able to cram in a few more liquids. I know you can buy 5x100ml vials which fit neatly in the plastic bag, and that's a vast improvement over what I managed last time, which was to fit in about three irregularly shaped containers. Also, I had to discard a 200ml tube of sunscreen on my way back from Spain, which I'd have happily decanted, if I'd been able to.

In my experience, the less liquid you carry on flights, the less chance there is of it getting out of the containers and damaging the stuff you don't want contaminated .

If I need toothpaste and/or mouthwash, I wait until landing in the destination airport and then buying it at an airport shop. Apart from medications and cleaning solutions, what liquids could you possibly need that wouldn't be available at some store at the other end?

Also, unless you are (a.) a masochist, or (b.) counting every penny, why would you want extra weight to carry around any longer than is necessary?

last time I flew, I put my lipgloss and my hand sanitiser in a bag, and they told me I didn't need to do that at Frankfurt and Seoul, but in Düsseldorf they nearly had kittens that I'd not put by lip balm in there (I forgot I had it, it's the type in a tube of miniscule proportions)

I rarely fly with only hand luggage because it means I have to leave my penknives and other stuff behind that I routinely schlepp around in my handbag. Last time I did that it was like that scene in the film of The Two Towers when Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas go in to see Theoden and have to give up their weapons. With standing there taking it all off me going "where's the scredriver? what about the small Swiss Army knife? And that knife for sharpening pencils? Now are you sure you've given me all your knives?" while the people around me started to slowly back away.

>> unless you are (a.) a masochist, or (b.) counting every penny, why would you want extra weight to carry around any longer than is necessary?

Here's a real-life example; a friend was given a complimentary bottle of whiskey at his hotel while staying abroad, and rather than just abandon it, decanted it into smaller vials to take in his hand luggage, since that's the only luggage he took.

Worst attempt I ever saw was a polish gentleman trying to take ten litres of dripping ( used cooking fat) in plastic bags in hand luggage. Gave the X-ray operator a heart attack when it came on screen! What the need was to take that yellow gunk home I will sadly and rather gladly never know!

Dunno, but my wife seems determined to test how much she can get away with every single time

I agree entirely with Paul about wanting to carry as little weight as possible and there's nothing (including toothbrushes ) that you can't buy at the other end.

As described by Lanza here: A87709387

I'm probably just lazy , though I try to put my laziness to good use. It's probably not just me, though. You may have noticed that computers and portable phones have tended to get smaller and lighter over the last tow decades. Most people seem to prefer carrying around less weight.