Can you pass through airport security with a lovely bunch of coconuts? Travellers share tips on avoiding being parched in departures. Photo / Unsplash, Joey Nicotra; Arkin Si; Asham D Silva
Can you pass through airport security with a lovely bunch of coconuts? Travellers share tips on avoiding being parched in departures. Photo / Unsplash, Joey Nicotra; Arkin Si; Asham D Silva
Carry on restrictions are the bane of travellers’ lives. No sooner have you emptied your water bottle to pass through airport security screening than superettes hike their prices for drinks and the public fountains are always mysteriously out of order.
However, savvy travellers have revealed ways you can fly with liquids. Flying within the rules of civil aviation security, here are some ingenious hacks people have used to beat being parched in departures.
Take a coconut through security screening not a water bottle
It’s a travel hack that sounds a little nuts but some travellers swear by it.
Bottles or cartons of coconut water greater than 100ml are not allowed through scanners. Whole coconuts, on the other hand, are approved by the TSA for transport via carry-on or checked luggage.
They might not be readily available, depending on your location, but whole coconuts are allowed. There is no stated limit on the number of coconuts you can take through screening. Passenger weight allowance doesn’t become an issue until you reach the gate, and is managed by the airlines rather than security screening. You might get some hard questions if you turn up looking like you’re about to set up a coconut shy.
One traveller, Paul Saladino, tested the hack and was able to take a bag full of coconuts through an airport “no problem”.
TikToker Paul Saladino said travelling with coconuts was 'no problem'. Photo / paulsaladinomd2, TikTok
It’s a sneaky travel hack but one that might backfire.
Other travellers say that some security screening agents are not a fan of the hack. Replying to Saladino’s TikTok video, one said he tried flying through Florida Airport with a coconut, “they stopped me like I had a bomb and took it”.
Freeze your water bottle before travelling through airport security
Here’s a cool tip from veteran travellers. It sounds like it shouldn’t work but, if you freeze your water bottle prior to travelling, you can take it through airport security.
The US TSA confirm that this is the case “as long as they are frozen solid when presented for screening”.
Though, you’d better hope for speedy screening. If your water is partially melted, and turning to slush, they must meet the TSA’s “3-1-1 liquids requirement”. This means that it must contain less than 100ml of liquid and fit inside a plastic bag.
Does toothpaste count as a liquid?
Toothpaste is treated as a liquid by airport screening agencies. Although it’s a substance that causes debate on the border of solids and liquids, you’ll have to find a tube that is under 100ml to take it as carry-on.
Recently a traveller opened a whole can of worms by asking the TSA if peanut butter was a solid or a liquid. The TSA’s official response was that “peanut butter is spreadable and therefore a liquid” and would have to be checked to fly.
Get your cosmetics, beauty products through security screening
Many more expensive beauty lotions and cosmetic products don’t come in travel size. Woe betide you try to take your $200 moisturiser through screening, only to realise it is over the 100ml rule.
One jet set beauty influencer came up with the perfect DIY travel-friendly makeup kit, using only cotton pads and plastic Gladwrap bags.
Soaking the cotton wool pads in a range of cleansers and toners, and wrapping them individually, she was able to fit her entire beauty regime in a plastic ziplock bag.
Just don’t forget to close those bags tight.
Unusual items you can’t take through security screening in New Zealand
Due to the objects passing through our airports, New Zealand has developed some very specific guidelines on objects you can and can’t take through screening.
For example, carved pounamu or stone Toki can be taken through airports, but the moment they are attached to a handle they are considered to be a potential weapon. There is no specified size for when a toki is deemed too large, providing they are worn as a pendant.
“Some passengers would like to take culturally significant items into the cabin of the aircraft with them,” says the NZ Aviation Security Service. “This is not always possible, as some items are restricted from entering the cabin of aircraft due to security concerns.”
