Can I bring a thermos on a plane?

Placing an empty water bottle in your carry-on baggage will prove very useful after you clear customs.

When traveling abroad by plane, you might sometimes find yourself with a bottle of water when you're about to go through customs. You have to throw it away, but after you get through customs, you're waiting for your flight and you start to feel thirsty again. You find that there are water dispensers everywhere, but no bottled water, so you have to buy water. This is an experience that many people have had.

After completing immigration and customs checks, you can get a water bottle and fill it with water in the waiting area.

Most international airports have very consistent regulations regarding thermos flasks: empty flasks are allowed, but flasks containing liquids are restricted. If a thermos flask contains water, it's not a waste to throw it away. An empty thermos flask is an excellent tool for traveling abroad, especially in cold countries like Japan and South Korea, or hot Southeast Asia, where carrying water is more important than you might imagine.

Airport security check (illustrative image / Shutterstock）

Passengers are advised to bring empty thermos bottles through security and refill them at the airport water fountains in the waiting area. For carry-on baggage: only empty bottles are allowed; bottles containing water, soup, coffee, etc., are not permitted. Full thermos bottles are allowed in checked baggage, but the caps must be tightly sealed to prevent leaks or misjudgment by security. If the thermos contains carbonated beverages or pressurized liquids, it is still recommended to avoid checking it in, as changes in cabin pressure may cause it to burst.

▲XTRA -The W Sport insulated bottle is extremely lightweight, making it perfect for carrying around.

Before even entering customs inspection, everything is checked (illustrative image/Shutterstock).

Lighters must be carried on board with your carry-on luggage; each person is limited to one. Selfie sticks, various 3C tripods, and camera tripods with a tube diameter not exceeding 1 cm, that are extendable and whose folded height does not exceed 60 cm, are allowed on board. (A small reminder: almost all commercially available tripods exceed 2 cm in diameter, so it is recommended to put them in your checked luggage.) I have seen cases where someone's luggage had already been checked onto the plane, and then during customs inspection, a seemingly expensive camera tripod was prohibited from entering; the only option was to discard it.