UKC

Hello,

Has anyone travelled recently with Easyjet and taken climbing gear as hand luggage?

I was thinking of taking:
Harness
Screwgates
Quick draws
Sling
Belay device

But wondering whether those items will be allowed...

Hope someone can advise!

Cheers

In reply to Jimrich88:

I assume the search function isn't working as this comes up at least once a fortnight!

However, assuming you're being serious, then no!

In reply to Jimrich88:

Can't believe this is still being asked.

Somebody will come on and say "check with the Airline" or "I got my gear on board with no issues last week". All of which is academic as it's down to Airport Security and in extreme cases the specific official that you encounter. Some time ago I was with a party of four and we had two ropes. I got on board with mine but my mate had his confiscated because he went through a different security check-in. You can argue the rights and wrongs and fairness of all this but if it ruins your holiday what does it matter. My advice is do not risk it.

Al

In reply to Jimrich88:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/general/search.html?cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&a...

In reply to Oceanrower:

Also, the airline doesn't matter. It's airport security and customs who search and screen your bags.

In reply to Jimrich88:
Don't risk it. Whether you lose all your gear (or your trip) will be down to the discretion of an individual security person on the day. They have the absolute and non-overridable right to decide (like sale of alcohol at supermarkets, escalating to their manager *will not* override their decision - the decision of the individual member of staff is final and binding). And they will be justifiably quite paranoid at the moment.

Check it in. If you can't afford a tenner for a check-in bag, you can't really afford the trip. (It's like people who say "can I get away with no travel insurance?" then complain when they are caught out when something goes wrong - self-insuring is fine but you really do have to be conscious of the consequences of doing so).

In reply to Jimrich88:

I guess that the Op is really appreciative of your answers. Good effort.

In reply to GridNorth:
^ This
I think different airports have different policies on this.

Not sure I agree with this. Worst case, you have to pay to check the bag in. It's more expensive to do it at the airport than in advance, but the marginal cost is worth the (in my experience small) risk. That's a personal decision though, and I can see why one might come down on the other side.

I expect it will continue to be asked as long as people have differing experiences and there's no formal, published policy anywhere.

In reply to Jimrich88:

As stated already, it's not the airline's decision. I think airports may have policy on it, but they don't seem to publish it anywhere and ultimately it comes down to the discretion of the person looking at the X-ray monitor.

My personal experience is all the items you mention above have been fine at the following airports:
Bristol, Gatwick, Agadir, Malga, Geneva, Boston, Dallas (Fort Worth), LAX
I did have them rejected at Barcelona recently, but when I went to the Easyjet 'help' window they checked the bag in free of charge. That may not be the norm though, because they had problems that day with French strikes: lots of cancelled flights. They probably just wanted to get rid of me ASAP!

I've never tried with a rope, but an Italian guy at Barcelona got it through. He seemed to have been advised that ropes are ok at BCN but not quickdraws (correct in this case, as it turns out!) I also know others who have travelled to Kalymnos and Turkey with a rope and quickdraws in hand luggage.

In reply to n-stacey:


??? What are you talking about?

The op hasn't answered themself!

In reply to Nick Russell:



I don't think so, at least not with any significant differences.


No worst case is that you do not have time do this or it is impractical to get it in a hold bag.


On that we can agree.

Al

In reply to GridNorth:
It's just a hunch, and not something I intended to present as fact! Hopefully the OP knows to take this kind of advice with a pinch of salt, rather than as fact...

Yes, I suppose you're right. This risk can be mitigated by leaving an extra half hour, and making sure the bag you're intending to carry as hand luggage could be checked in if necessary!

In reply to Nick Russell:


It's not that straightforward because by the time you get to security your hold luggage will already have been checked in.....

As others have said it's not worth the risk/hassle, just pack it in your hold luggage at the outset and be done with it.

In reply to Trangia:

Ah, I see where the confusion is!

I'm not suggesting it's a simple case of repacking your hold luggage: as you point out, by the time you get to security that has already disappeared down the conveyor belt. (Also I agree that if you have space/weight allowance for the climbing kit, I it would be a no-brainer to just pack it in there in the first place.)

I was simply trying to point out that if get turned away at security due to climbing kit, you can go back to the airline and pay to have an additional bag checked, this additional bag being the one that just went through the X-ray and was rejected. As Gridnorth observes above, this is only a good fallback if the bag you are carrying your kit in is robust enough to be checked in (surely we're not trying to carry a Sainsbury's bag full of quickdraws on the plane) and if you have left enough time to get back to the bag drop if it comes up.

To the OP: sorry if this discussion of the practicalities of airport travel has derailed your thread a bit.

In reply to Nick Russell:
If doing that I would recommend going through security about 3 hours before departure, as you'll have to queue at the check-in desk and then queue at the customer services desk to pay for it (I think it's that way round, then customer services re-issue the boarding card) then at security again.

Personally, all that hassle isn't worth the £10-£15 a checked bag costs on easyJet. If it is (they do say you either have time or money, though if it's a crack of dawn flight a bit more kip has a pretty high value to me at least) then just ensure to leave enough time.

In reply to Jimrich88:

My advice would be to check a bag in. If you are travelling in a group (I don't know if you are), it wont really cost that much for one hold bag between 2/3/4 people, just put the ropes, slings, screwgates and quick draws in for the group, it requires a bit of pre planning/packing, and take your clothes in your carry on bag. harness would be fine as carry on.

You might try and get this stuff through as carry on, but you just need to get the wrong person at the wrong time of day to not get it through.

Is it really worth starting a climbing trip on a downer?

In reply to lostcat:

However, a friend recently had an avalanche bag 'gas' canister given the OK by security who spotted it in hold luggage but WizzAir refused to accept it when returning from Romania despite having used the same airline on the outward flight. Consistency and logic don't come into some of these decisions.