Airline carry on baggage

[Chris Galvin]

All,

I am off to Goa next week and am taking my 500/4 with a 1D MKIIn. Has anyone on the list had any problem with taking their photo gear on board when flying from UK airports.

I am flying with a charter airline (First Choice) and they have the ridiculously low hand baggage allowance of 5KG.

I am using a LowePro Computer Trekker AW and with just a 40D (without grip) attached to the Canon 500/4 and nothing else in the bag this weighs 7kg. So only God knows what I am gonna do with the laptop, spare batteries, chargers other lenses etc.

I would appreciate to hear what other experiences UK photographers have had recently when trying to get their gear on board.

Cheers

[Clive Watson]

I've taken my 600mm f4 to Finland and Shetland so far as hand luggage, using a specially made canvas bag with shoulder strap. I place jumpers and the like round the lens as padding. By using a soft bag it fits (just) into the maximum dimensions. Camera bodies and converters go into coat pockets and the tripod has to go in the main luggage. I'm sure that it's over 5kg though, I'm not sure what can be done about that. I would recommend using a coat or jacket with lots of pockets to stuff cameras and other bits and pieces in, it's not very comfortable but that weight doesn't seem to count! Can't help with the laptop, I've never taken one of those on a plane. I hope you get there though, Goa is great. I wish I'd had my current gear when I visited in 99.

[Outboard]

In October I did a transatlantic trip on Virgin Atlantic flights carrying my Lowepro Nature Trekker AW II. No hassle from anyone.

[Chris Galvin]

Thanks guys.

Clive, I have a photovest that I have used before and will stuff the converters and spare batteries in but hoped not to have to resort to that. It looks like I may have to use my wifes allowance and get her to carry some of my stuff.

[scary-canary]

leave the laptop at home and buy more memory cards

[Gordon]

Hi Chris,

I'll be in Goa from November 24th - Marinha Dourada - maybe bump into you?

cheers
Gordon

[graham catley]

Chris

may be useless info but when we went to Canada in August the hand luggage limit was 5kg and mine was well over; what I noticed though was that they were weighing hand luggage IF your hold luggage was near to the limit and if it was well below then they didn't bother possibly along the lines of a combined weight allowance? so mine never got weighed; by contrast we went from Stansted in Feb and they weighed every item of hand luggage before you went through security ie not the airline---it seems to vary from airport to airport; a few years back one of our group was stopped with a 13kg bag on a 5kg allowance; took out just about everything and put in in his pockets--thats fine now sir--walked through the gate and then put it all back in the bag! severe lack of common sense and logic seems to be the criteria for working on airline check in

[James Eaton]

Chris,

Be careful, I got checked at Birmingham through Emirates in August, my hand luggage was full of camera equipment - 15kg in just a rucksack so I had to put 10kg of it in checked baggage, I have noticed over airports (ie KLIA) with scales at security so best to get it down as much as possible. I use a camera vest and fill it with stuff, I also carry my SLR and lens on separately over the shoulder, just in case.
I guess in most circumstances you would be fine, but it only takes one check to mess up your plans.

[Chris Galvin]

Hi Chris,

I'll be in Goa from November 24th - Marinha Dourada - maybe bump into you?

cheers
Gordon


That will be Bill Baston, Kit Day, You and myself there at the same time then. See You there

[Chris Galvin]

leave the laptop at home and buy more memory cards

I already have 60gb of memory cards but still gonna take the laptop to back up all my images. I will also take a small portable USB powered 250gb external hard drive to back up the images for a second time. I have several friends that have experienced problems just leaving images on their cards. One friend lost ALL his images from Costa Rica doing precisely as you say Scary Canary. So it will be belt and braces for me I'm afraid

[Chris Galvin]

Chris

may be useless info but when we went to Canada in August the hand luggage limit was 5kg and mine was well over; what I noticed though was that they were weighing hand luggage IF your hold luggage was near to the limit and if it was well below then they didn't bother possibly along the lines of a combined weight allowance? so mine never got weighed; by contrast we went from Stansted in Feb and they weighed every item of hand luggage before you went through security ie not the airline---it seems to vary from airport to airport; a few years back one of our group was stopped with a 13kg bag on a 5kg allowance; took out just about everything and put in in his pockets--thats fine now sir--walked through the gate and then put it all back in the bag! severe lack of common sense and logic seems to be the criteria for working on airline check in

Thanks Graham,

The "Put it all in your coat" situation has happened to me before. I have also my camera gear totally ignored and not weighed before too but that was three years ago.

I am lucky that my wife has agreed to not carry any hand luggage but will be carrying another camera bag with my gear in

[Clive Watson]

That will be Bill Baston, Kit Day, You and myself there at the same time then. See You there

That should be a good combination! Wish I was going with you! My trip in 99 was fantastic in every way EXCEPT the photography (film in those days) which I totally messed up (much poorer lenses then too). On a different note, I've never heard of images being lost from a card before. I thought they were pretty much indestructable. Is this a common problem? This could be an issue for me, as I don't have a laptop.

Totally agree with Graham. The utter idiocy of airline baggage policy beggars all belief or logical analysis. It's got to the point where I dread flying these days because you never know what total cretin you're going to encounter next. When going to Fair Isle I fell foul of the British Airways 1 piece of hand baggage policy. I had on a money belt in place of my wallet (very useful for cards, batteries etc as well as money) which apparently counts as an extra bag. I stuffed it in my camera bag and that was apparently OK. It's the same weight!

In your case using the extra allowance of your wife is clearly the solution to the problem. Not all of us have that option!

[K-Lex]

I know this reply is late and you're probably on your holiday now having a much better time than I am at work. With carry on I keep anything valuable with me, lens, body, cards and hard drive and stick tripod and everything else in the hold. I use a Tamrac 777 which I've never had a problem with. 5kg is a bit stingy though - that's basically a body and 2 lenses.

Keith

[hummerman]

I had originally posted this Elsewhere on the forum,but am still interested in peoples opinions..


After a holiday Experience this year i think we as a birding Group should try and exert some pressure on aviation Authorities, to allow "Birders" extra baggage alowance.my Friend who is a diver said that diving has now been excepted as a sport and they can take 25kg.
The Signicant number of"Birders"carrying heavy Camera/optical equipment should merit this,considering the Eco/tourism value to the travel industry,when you get clobbered for Excess weight at the start of your trip it seriously starts off on a bad footing.
comments welcome

[albatross02]

Hi,

via London, LA I head a flight in November to Auckland ( Air NZ ).
One Canon EOS 300, Camcorder, Canon Powershot, CD player and bino, I took in a 35 L backpack.
Nobody from the airline had problems with this size of backpack.#

Best regards
Dieter

[Swissboy]

I had originally posted this Elsewhere on the forum,but am still interested in peoples opinions..


After a holiday Experience this year i think we as a birding Group should try and exert some pressure on aviation Authorities, to allow "Birders" extra baggage alowance.my Friend who is a diver said that diving has now been excepted as a sport and they can take 25kg.
The Signicant number of"Birders"carrying heavy Camera/optical equipment should merit this,considering the Eco/tourism value to the travel industry,when you get clobbered for Excess weight at the start of your trip it seriously starts off on a bad footing.
comments welcome

I fully agree with this. I recently met a chap who could take all his fencing stuff along as extra baggage. There is no sensible reason why other sports equipment can get higher weight allowances. Birding is a sport, there are even competitions. So now we only need to convince those who have a saying! But that still leaves us with the problem that much of what we need can't go into the checked luggage. No problems for tripods, but I'd certainly not want to do it with optics or hard disks.

As for the weight of the carry on: I have started to split it into a backpack plus a hand bag (substituting for a ladies "purse"). When they weighed the carry on, they only did it with the backpack. After the security check, it all went back into one piece of bagage, though.

[Vectis Birder]

I have taken a back pack with a lap top, Nikon DSLR, 28-100mm, 70-300mm and 170-500mm zoom lenses, batteries, associated cables, memory cards, etc, as carry on with no problems whatsoever. The stuff weighed a ton, but the bag fitted ok into those basket things they use for measuring and I had no problems.

I don't like birding being called 'sport', but if it meant that we could carry more stuff with us, then fine.

[Outboard]

Birding is a sport, there are even competitions.

There are pie eating competitions, marbles, cards even sptting comptetitions none of which can be called a "sport". Calling birding a sport is ludicrous.

[Swissboy]

There are pie eating competitions, marbles, cards even sptting comptetitions none of which can be called a "sport". Calling birding a sport is ludicrous.

It's not what WE think, but what allows us equal rights for our hobby. It does not make sense to favor some hobbies over others when it comes to air travels. And come to think of it, why is chess called a sport, or golf? It takes some practcing, some brains, mostly, but not that much regarding muscles. And that is exactly what birding is all about, as well.

Sports in general are hobbies just as birding. And in both cases, some people make it their profession.

[Outboard]

It's not what WE think, but what allows us equal rights for our hobby. It does not make sense to favor some hobbies over others when it comes to air travels. And come to think of it, why is chess called a sport, or golf? It takes some practcing, some brains, mostly, but not that much regarding muscles. And that is exactly what birding is all about, as well.

Sports in general are hobbies just as birding. And in both cases, some people make it their profession.

So by your definition if it's competitive and people get paid for doing it then it's a sport.

I cant wait for Naked Womens Mud Wrestling to become an Olympic event.

[Vectis Birder]

I don't like birding being called a sport either, but it is ludicrous when some people can carry far more stuff on a plane with them - just because they like to ruin a good walk for example - than we can. Maybe they should widen the definition to hobbies - after all aren't amateur sportspeople merely practising their hobby?

[Outboard]

I don't like birding being called a sport either, but it is ludicrous when some people can carry far more stuff on a plane with them - just because they like to ruin a good walk for example - than we can. Maybe they should widen the definition to hobbies - after all aren't amateur sportspeople merely practising their hobby?

I dont disagree with the disparity of the airline baggage allowance but birding is just not a sport and never will be. It's a pastime or hobby, even though twitching can get a little energetic chasing after rarities.

[scary-canary]

I dont disagree with the disparity of the airline baggage allowance but birding is just not a sport and never will be. It's a pastime or hobby, even though twitching can get a little energetic chasing after rarities.

Does it matter?

[Outboard]

Does it matter?

Not really. I see you like Canaries, now this could be the totally useless bunch of cripples that attempt to kick a ball around a patch of grass in Norwich. Or it could be that you like those tweety yellow sparrow things that people keep in cages.

Does it matter? You decide.

[John Gibson2]

How do you carry bins, camera, heavy lens, back-up storage and scope/tripod? I wouldn't carry anything valuable and thievable in the baggage hold. What would be helpful, perhaps, would be some arrangement where one could borrow a scope/tripod at the destination in return for a reciprocal arrangement for a visitor to the UK.
I'm going to Atlanta, USA in a few months time. My scope is a Leica on a carbon-fibre Manfrotto tripod.
Any suggestions?
John Gibson

[Alan G]

The UK carry-on baggage rules are set to change from this Monday (7th January) to allow more than one item of hand luggage per passenger.

This will allow for one carry on bag and a camera/scope body per person.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagcabin/public/en_gb

[Barred Wobbler]

The UK carry-on baggage rules are set to change from this Monday (7th January) to allow more than one item of hand luggage per passenger.

This will allow for one carry on bag and a camera/scope body per person.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagcabin/public/en_gb

I notice that the list excludes Newcastle, Alan and it only applies in this instance to British Airways. Are other carriers following suit?

[Alan G]

I notice that the list excludes Newcastle, Alan and it only applies in this instance to British Airways. Are other carriers following suit?

I'm under the impression its not just BA and applies to all passengers regardless of airline from those airports that are equipped to deal with it - something to do with new Xray equipment being fitted from what I can gather.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4789593.stm

http://www.holidayextras.co.uk/news/hx-travel/hand-luggage-restrictions-lifted-at-some-uk-airports-11200.html

We're flying from Manchester on Monday (the first day this comes into force) but with information as sketchy as it seems at the minute we're just carrying on one bag each as normal (a travel bag and my camera bag) as its not worth the hassle of getting there and finding out we can't carry on extra.

You'd think this would be made more common knowledge and transparent?

Wouldn't be surprised if the reluctance to advertise is down to airlines and airports trying to avert chaotic check in procedures in the early stages?

[Barred Wobbler]

I'm away in February. Let's see if they've got themselves sorted out by then,

[Alan G]

The UK carry-on baggage rules are set to change from this Monday (7th January) to allow more than one item of hand luggage per passenger.

This will allow for one carry on bag and a camera/scope body per person.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagcabin/public/en_gb

Be nice to think Newcastle will have seeing as Cambridge, Wick, Stornoway & Benbecula have !