Q – I have been reading this material religiously but I keep coming back to one piece of advice you gave some time ago. Wondering if you are still suggesting that it is really dangerous to drink coffee aboard an aircraft. If there was an issue – it would seem like the airlines would have fixed it by now. Are you really suggesting that I bring a cup of Starbucks aboard my future morning flights?
A – Dangerous may be too strong a term. Let’s just say that those savvy travelers who do their research, stay away from coffee and tea cooked aboard aircraft using tank storage water that has not been properly brought to the boiling point. That makes it possible for storage tank well-documented bacterial content to exist in the water. Our own investigations into this subject have never uncovered a single aircraft where care was taken to boil the water being served to passengers. We have never, for example, encountered an airline that used sealed bottled water to brew coffee in coach. You drink their coffee and you take your chances! This is very much a budgetary issue. The cost of using bottled water versus the storage tank water filled by airport maintenance crews would be significant. This is a bottom-line issue. So, yes, absolutely board with your own Starbucks.
