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carry on luggage


paul_andreassend

30-May-2009
10:59:37 PM

anyone had any issues taking on climbing gear as carry on luggage on international flights???? ive packed cam,hexes, nuts, pullies, rope, a little heavy but she'll be right. i dont want them taking it off me thnking im going to dong someone over the head with a hex....
any advice?????

tastybigmac

30-May-2009
11:33:15 PM

i carried gear in the mid 90's in my hand luggage. i'm not sure if they will like it these days.

Wollemi

30-May-2009
11:40:08 PM

Coming back from Christchurch after a ski-mountaineering trip in 2006, Jetstar insisted
on weighing EVERYTHING I had in one go. $10 per kg excess.
So I posted my used tech gear this year to central South Island 7 days before I wanted
it. It was sent to Auckland instead, and GST was demanded for my import. Didn't see
the ice axes and screws nor stove for 2 + weeks.
Coming home, I ensured I got to the airport early, smiled lots, psyched myself to
happily pay excess luggage fees, volunteered that my briefcase held ice-axes and
crampons that they may be deemed weapons and so, no, I could not carry it on as
Pacific Blue asked me. Seconds later it was decided it was sporting gear and it went
as allowable sporting gear (and not 'general baggage') for free.

Summing up; if the cams are not recognised as everyday stuff, and you are flying with
ropes, it may be seized as items of concern if in your hand luggage. If your hand
luggage is bulky, they may weigh it.

A young German saw me chilling out after I got off the train at Sydney Airport, prior to
checking in - he asked me to mind his many books while he checked in to avoid excess
luggage fees. This prompted me to get him to mind my 1.5 kg of food while I checked
in (I was picking up a hire car after midnight in ChCh and wanted dinner and breakfast
with me). Maybe if you are travelling alone, you could try this.


Zebedee

31-May-2009
12:05:37 AM

http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=Display&ForumID=3&MessageID=6368&Replies=10
"Climbing gear as carry on Baggage"


muki

31-May-2009
8:35:26 AM

So let me get this straight, a pair of nail clippers are a dangerous weapon, and as such are not allowed.
But a pair of ice axes ! are sporting goods, and so they are fine..... yeah that makes sense.

patto

31-May-2009
9:09:16 AM

In 2007 on a climbing/travelling trip in the states I accidently carried my swiss army pocket knife onto a flight from Vegas to New York. This was despite my foreigner/lastminute booking singling me out as a "VIP" worthy of thorough bag searches! My knife didn't set off the metal detector for some reason!

My next flight I again forgot to pack my knife in my checked luggage and so I chucked it in my cabin luggage. X-ray didn't pick it up.

So I ended up carrying a large knife onto two US flights un challenged. Security i measures are a joke, if they aren't done properly then they might as well not be doing them.


paul_andreassend

31-May-2009
11:30:50 AM

cheers everyone, im hoping she'll be right.
now, anyone in the market for a great deal on a 04 holden vectra CDX????


muki

31-May-2009
11:33:33 AM

A very lethal blade can be constructed from fibre glass, this is impossible to detect by any currently
operating scanner/metal detector !
I was challenged shortly after 9-11 by one of the many newly recruited security staff (rent a cop) at JFK
for having steel shanks inside my Ice climbing boots, when I tried to explain that this was normal, he
insisted on cutting them open to verify this fact.
Finally I had to enlist the help of a patrolling army officer, he was happy to verify that yes this was
normal (his brother ice climbed) and that he too had steel plates inside his boots for land mine protection.


IdratherbeclimbingM9

31-May-2009
11:39:21 AM

bomber pro wrote;
>A very lethal blade can be constructed from (snip)

Does this mean one would be very dead if it was used, as opposed to just being dead?

~> (emits high pitched squeal as exits stage right ...)

>steel plates inside his boots for land mine protection.

Can see it now; ... old soldier says (in a strange voice) my feet are OK, but talking through my tibia is a bit of a worry!
... Adds a new dimension to picking one-self up by their bootlaces?
Heh, heh, heh.

;-)

Wendy

31-May-2009
3:15:18 PM

I never take my climbing gear as carry on because they are too fickle about it. Enga always used to, and on one trip out of Charles de Gaulle when she hadn't actually put her rack in her carry on, they kicked up such a stink about one biner she accidently had on her that she had to throw it out or miss the flight. Since then she prints out a copy of the airlines regulations and carries it with her to demonstrate what she is carrying is ok. I rang qantas about it last year and got told that regardless of whether it would be considered possible to use as a weapon or not, you were only allowed to take such things as you would need on the flight on so they wouldn't accept and climbing gear. I figured there were plenty of other things I could justify putting in my hand luggage - sleeping bag and mat, lots of clothes, books and the soft bits of the tent probably wouldn't get noticed in all that ... you can easily get to 7 kg with that. I have been accosted going through customs (so well after I had checked in my bags) and had my hand luggage weighed - they didn't like the 11 kgs I had. Fortunately, this was before the liquid restrictions and I had 2l of water which I offered to pour out (and promptly filled up again at a drinking fountain on the other side).

I have a small person gripe about luggage restrictions. my pack and I combined weigh less than an average male. Let alone some fat people. I reckon there should be a combined person and bag total - say 100kg. Fat people pay excess. Small people don't get hassled for a bit of extra luggage. Everything averages out.

surfinclimb

31-May-2009
10:33:54 PM

Typical small person comment there short arse ;-). At 6'3" and 88 kilos I am most definately not fat Wendy but with your theory I get 12 kilos of baggage and you get about 40 kilos. Then if I get a short fat person they still get more luggage than my superfit 6'2" 100kg mate who with your theory now gets no luggage for free.
Something to think about.

Wendy

1-Jun-2009
8:14:10 AM

Well, ok, make it a bit more then ... but it still shits me when I'm getting hassled for a few kilos of luggage when the combined total of bag and me is around 75kg.

dave

1-Jun-2009
9:21:15 AM

On 31/05/2009 Wendy wrote:
>I have a small person gripe about luggage restrictions. my pack and I
>combined weigh less than an average male. Let alone some fat people. I
>reckon there should be a combined person and bag total - say 100kg. Fat
>people pay excess. Small people don't get hassled for a bit of extra luggage.
>Everything averages out.

I think of this every time i fly. I think its a great idea. They could make the limit 120kg- then a 60kg person could carry 60kg baggage! Only problem is that the plane wouldn't get off the ground!

egosan

1-Jun-2009
12:25:59 PM

I very recently did a quick trip across the Tasman. Certainly MEL and AUK are not
Heathrow, however, I packed my rope, shoes, harness and a light rack in my carry on.
Security did not blink twice in Mel, in Auk on the way back the Uniform wanted to take a
look at my nut tool. No big deal.

I did however learn that carry on bags are Maximum 7kg on Virgin. I had to do a little
swapping around. I had my pack and my rope bag. my pack was 7.5 kilos and my rope
bag with my all my climbing kit inside was 13kg. I just wrapped it up tight and made
sure I carried it so it looked like it was 3kg. They wanted to weigh my pack, but didn't
blink at the rope bag.

Good luck.

gfdonc

1-Jun-2009
1:04:49 PM

I discovered a technique on the way back from Qld last week. Take a laptop bag. Stuff all your heavy stuff in it. Then take it on.

Laptops are excepted from the 7kg rule, but they didn't open the bag to check that it actually contained a laptop. This was at the check-in counter at Maroochy - they were very picky about everything else including weighing each carry-on item.

In my case, well, it did have a laptop .. plus some books, a clipboard, personal items etc etc.

Wendy

1-Jun-2009
1:13:00 PM

Qantas international is an outrageous pain for faffing luggage - not only are lap tops not exempt from the 7 kg rule, they are counted as your one and only piece of hand luggage - ie they won't let you take a lap top plus a day pack, although you can get away with lap top and a large "hand bag". And I had to take my lap top out for seperate xray all the time.

widewetandslippery

1-Jun-2009
1:22:09 PM

Did Carry On Luggage have Sid James in it?

Seriously though I think it depends where you are going to how far it would be sensible to push it.

I had my swiss army knife confiscated in Pakistan over 10 years ago and somehow managed to convince them the crampons and rope were ok! It could of really stuffed the whole trip.

DSPIES

1-Jun-2009
3:51:54 PM

we had issues in thai land & Kuala Lumpur with this. flying air asia.
by memory our bag weighed in over, so we put our QDs and rope in carry on. they said no prob and weighed our bags again. they were still over so we paid a nominal amount.

then when we got to security they said 'no chance' to all our climbing gear that now made up our carry on, so we had to pay for a second bag to be checked in, and we had to pay for the additional weight. it actually worked out quite expensive, plus my rope was in a rope bag so when i checked it in, i wasn't able to lock it. As compared to when i had it stuffed in my back pack.

Moral of the story: if flying air asia, don't listen to the people at the counter, just check it in. and put your other heavy stuff in your carry on.


EJ

1-Jun-2009
4:05:38 PM

>I have a small person gripe about luggage restrictions. my pack and I
>combined weigh less than an average male. Let alone some fat people. I
>reckon there should be a combined person and bag total - say 100kg. Fat
>people pay excess. Small people don't get hassled for a bit of extra luggage.
>Everything averages out.

I kinda agree with you Wendy, I just got slugged $140 by QANTAS this morning. They no longer give you and extra 8kg for sporting equipment, whereas Virgin do. The excess baggage charge is $10/kg on QANTAS and $8/kg with Virgin...... guess who I'll be giving my business to in the future.


nmonteith

1-Jun-2009
4:12:36 PM

Use old Duty Free bags - and stuff them with whatever you want. Works for me. I had more than 3 large pieces of hand luggage on several Qantas international flights last year including laptop, large SLR camera bag with 4 lenses + big duty free bag + jacket with pockets stuffed!

There are 27 messages in this topic.