I would have assumed flight attendants like Diet Coke because it isn’t sticky if and when it spills.
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How would that happen? I don’t think the sodium and caffeine content of Diet Coke are nearly high enough to have this effect.
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I’m just always in a state of awe about how people can even drink that diet stuff. IMO, tastes terrible!
More and more, I’m getting into the (good) habit of bringing a reusable water bottle (eg, Nalgene). It’s empty going through security, then I fill it at the becoming-more-ubiquitous water bottle filling stations inside the terminal. Up, up and away, and I have my beverage right away, not at the appointed refreshment time above ten thousand feet!
Now about those snacks… I hate honey glazed peanuts. Roasted, salted, please. Or pretzels, two or three of them little bags, please!
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I just made it up.
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When I was a kid I thought that any Soda was The Nectar of the Gods and the bubbles were infused by magic or some nefarious witchcraft.
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Someday in the not-too-distant-future, when robots have replaced flight attendants, they will look back with fondness at the days of waiting a few extra seconds for fizz to settle down.
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Following on from that scenario:
Someday in the not-too-distant-future, when the tumbrels roll up to the guillotine, the bosses will look back with fondness at the days of paying people to work for them.
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It took me all of five seconds to find that you can buy Diet Coke by the flat in 7.5 oz cans, which might make them less reticent about handing out full cans by default.
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I wouldn’t want to be the guy responsible for explaining why airline-issue soda contains acetic ester of monoglycerides or polysiloxane or such; but anti-foaming/defoamers are definitely a thing in food so I’m sure that such a formula would be doable.
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This is been my family’s habit for a long time, but completely failed in Costa Rica. They had a search team on the jetway checking for full water bottles, obviously long after you had gone through security. It seemed utterly insane. If a passenger had managed to fill their water bottle with something nefarious inside the terminal, they had much bigger problems. They also insisted it was complying with a TSA regulation!
I have to watch my hydration carefully, extended dehydration can bring on a diverticulitis attack.
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I don’t know about now, but there was a period when the TSA would (at least sometimes) not allow containers larger than 3.4oz, even if empty
Yeah, this is all security theater, a dance that’s performed thousands of times daily so as to give the public an impression that “someone is doing something about safety”. Comes in all forms.
@Urbanacus Sorry to hear they squandered your water. It’s worse if they confiscated your bottle, too, leaving you dry not just for that flight, but possibly all the others on your itinerary.
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Yeah, confiscation and just plain losing bottles is why I just reuse disposable bottles, preferably with the Smartwater type sport top. The Poland Spring type will pop open under pressure. Fortunately theres some off brands in that type bottle so I don’t have to pay for fancy water to get my bottle.
Once I was in the airport with no bottle and picked the Iceland glacial water because I liked the bottle. I nearly had a heart attack when they rang it up for $5!
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Being airline companies, they’re more likely to scrap the drinks service entirely - saving money which can be invested in cramming extra seats into every row.
Seems like just handing out little Asian size cans would be a good way to stop the hate.
Here’s an old bartender’s trick for Diet Cokes over ice:
- Ice in the cup.
- Douse the ice with clear water.
- Dump out the water.
- Pour in the Diet Coke.
Miraculously, there will be very little foaming, even when the Diet Coke is at room temperature.
I don’t know why this works. You’ll have to ask Bill Nye. He knows everything. I wouldn’t like that – it would take all the mystery out of life. 
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Soda is sticky stuff that somehow creates a dry film over everything it touches. It feels refreshing while you’re swallowing it (if it’s cold), but 5 minutes later you’re thirstier than you were before. Or at least, that’s how it is for me, I assumed it was that way for everyone, and that it was designed that way to sell more.
For years, I always had either a Gatorade or Powerade bottle (sometimes I drank the ‘ade’, sometimes I just poured it out to have the bottle). Way better than those flimsy water bottles. Now I have a nice Camelbak, but I leave it empty when boarding the plane.
But I get diet coke because of the fizziness…
You can superheat water in a microwave so it doesn’t boil because it is so still. Then when you do something to it the boiling happens all of a sudden. There was nothing to germinate the bubbling.
This is probably how the watered ice trick works. Regular ice is microscopically very rough with lots of sites to germinate the bubbles. The water smooths the surface and probably warms the surface to reduce temperature differential.
It seems like good bartenders spend most of their time pouring foam off beers and otherwise dealing with foam. They must have an intuitive understanding way beyond mine.
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Sadly that trick won’t work for flight attendants because they don’t have anywhere to dump the water in their little rolly cart.
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