UKC

Have been doing some searches here and found that the following was the most relevant: -

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=81497

Just wondered if anyone had any recent experience of travelling between the UK and US with a rack, rope and other assorted bits and pieces. Is there anyway to get your hold luggage pre-screened - we are contacting our airline, but much seems to be down to the discretion of the security / customs people involved. We are travelling with Virgin Atlantic.

We'd prefer to take our helmets as carry on - anyone had any problems with this?

Finally anyone been caught for exceeding baggage weight allowances and how much did it cost? There seems to be some specific allowance for "sporting equipment", but climbing isn't one of the sports listed (golf and skiing are).

In reply to TRNovice:

I'm also interested in the same answers for CLIMBING kit :-o

In reply to TRNovice:

I've taken all that stuff out to the US several times in the last year - last time about two weeks ago - various airlines. No problems with security or anything else. they are very familiar with what climbing kit looks like. Unless you are on a charter, then you have 60 kilos (in practice unlimited) allowance - so put everything in the hold. Hope this helps.

In reply to Jonathan Lagoe:

Thanks for the advice - it's good to hear from someone with experience. We're on a scheduled flight so I guess we should be OK.

Just wondering if you put your helmet in the hold. I have a nylon fabric (not a hard shell) suitcase and was worried that the helmet might get damaged (it has polystyrene infills).

In reply to TRNovice:

To back up what Jonathan said, I took a load of kit to the states a month ago and had no trouble. If it's in a rucksack and has to go through a different x-ray machine then you sometimes get raised eyebrows as a big chunk of metal shows up, but they do know what climbing gear looks like and probably get lots of stranger things going through.

I've always taken my helmet in my hand luggage and never had any problems. To be honest, I think it hardly shows up in the x-ray machines! I certainly wouldn't trust the baggage handlers with it. On that note, it's probably also worth making sure your rope is in the middle of your bag rather than against the outside, and spend five minutes checking all your gear is undamaged before you climb!

Have a good trip,
Pete

In reply to Skinny Pete:

So, helmets are so fragile they need to be kept away from baggage handlers. Sounds daft to me, they are designed to stop damage to heads so should not get damaged in a bag if they are any use.

In reply to sutty:
but one of the ways they stop damage to heads is by breaking instead of the head, particularly the modern lightweight ones.

In reply to sutty:

As Simon says, we have Petzl Elios's [sic.] which have a polystyrene skull cap between your head and the helmet shell - it's more this that we are worried about getting damaged.

As an aside regarding baggage handlers. I had landed at the back of beyond in Heathrow and was being bussed back to the terminal. There was a tractor pulling a long line of baggage carts behind it. As we caught it up, the tarps on the rear cart burst open and deposited most of the contents onto the road. The guy driving at least noticed, stopped, walked back and threw them all back in and drove off. I guess it was all in a day's work for him. It's also interesting to see them unloading another plane if you have a window seat and are waiting to take off - it seems common practice to drop suitcases 10 - 20 feet.

In reply to TRNovice:

I know what you mean, it just seems ironic to protect a protector.

I was buying a case once and was assured it would take anything thrown at it. I suggested filling it with clothes and throwing it out of the first floor window of the store. They were horrorstruck and said it will not stand that. I pointed out that was exactly what happens at a lot of airports.
There was a website with details of Palmas carousel delivery chute, a 40ft drop onto the conveyor. The poster said not to pack china in your baggage

In reply to sutty:

Saying that - I've never had anything break in a suitcase, maybe only because I haven't put anything really fragile in it

In reply to TRNovice:

Just to confirm what most people have been saying - I called Virgin Atlantic today and they said that they allow climbing equipment as long as it can fit into a suitcase and each passenger is allowed two bags of up to 32kg each.

Sounds reasonable. I guess they are more generous with trans-Atlantic baggage allowance vs. short trips to the continent.

I will however be putting my helmet in my hand luggage and thoroughly inspecting everything before climbing as suggested.

In reply to Jenn:
Took my kit with me to the States a couple of weeks back. The security guy on the luggage x-ray machine in Chicago actually asked if we were going on a climbing trip, having recognised the rack during his scan.

No problems experienced, and with 2 x 32kg sacks, you're going to have to take a hell of a lot of kit before you're using your full allowance.

In reply to Stuart S:

It can't happen very regularly, but we took a small rack of stuff up to Glasgow from Heathrow over Easter. It got completely and utterly mawled by BMI. (After a bit of arguing they agreed to pay replacement costs.) We are talking about a 60m rope into about 20 peices, harnesses (each) into about 10 peices, half a shoe left out of two pairs and crabs broken. In a rucksack which was in a ruck sack "protector". (We couldn't work out at the end whether or not the outer protector bag was still there, the bags were in so many shreds.)

The problem is that by the Warsaw convention airlines are limited to a payout on hold-luggage of £13 per kilo. If they argue about paying up, you have to Prove that they deliberately or recklessly caused the damage (which is obviously pretty difficult after you have given it to a lady at the check in and the next time you see it is 1000 miles away). You could, of course, go on to your insurance, but then there are all kinds of other difficulties.

I will think very hard about ever taking expensive stuff in the hold again. I would do my best to investigate what they will allow on the plane and take it that way if possible.

Definately Do Not take your helmet in the hold, take it on the plane.

In reply to Carrie Bolton:
America is one place you don't need to worry about baggage allowance. We brought back 2 tents, sleeping bags, 4 skis, ski boots, 2 snowboards and boots, camping gear, bouldering mat, big plastic box, 2 ropes, huge desert rack, clothes for skiing, climbing biking, four helmets.
etc

managed to fit everything into 4 bags (including the bouldering mat, boards and skis!). Each bag was a bit less than 32 kg.

The North Face huge Duffels are truly amazing.

In reply to TRNovice: Has anyone flown with zoom to or from north america yet. only have 20kg limit but i have a lot more than that due to rack. Also i take it ice axes have to be on the inside of you bag?
cheers

In reply to rjs:

<TRNovice borrowing Jenn's account> Info. from Virgin Atlantic - they are very used to climbing kit (hope US immigration is as well). We each have two cases, each of which may be up to 32 kg - 128 kg sounds more than enough to accomodate our needs. </TRNovice borrowing Jenn's account>

In reply to TRNovice:

Two things: 1)wrap your lid in your clothes and pack it in the centre of your case (it is more at risk in the cabin locker on a long haul flight)and 2) DO NOT lock your case, if security see something that they think needs further investigation they will destroy your luggage without compunction to gain access. Recent trips to California lead me to believe that US security (probably understandably) are particularly "aggressive" on this matter.

In reply to Carrie Bolton:

That sounds scary. Do you know why this happened?

In reply to Faitch:

The Virgin website states that while it against their recommendation, you should not lock your bags when travelling to the US.

I think that you are right - we might be better off not locking our luggage particularly since we will have lots of odd looking kit. We already had our locks cut once because of computer equipment.

In reply to Carrie Bolton: Sounds like they chucked it into the engine instead of the hold. Did you find out what actually happened?

In reply to TRNovice:
I had grief going out and coming back to Spain with Ryan Air, late March. in stanstead we were pulled up for haivng rope and draws in hold luggage and made to check it, no extra charge but a lot of extra pain having go back to check in and then back through security. On the way back we had to check and weigh the lot and they tried to sting us for excess baggage. Luckily they relented in the face of a determined effort to wear / carry every item of clothing we could manage.
I've used RA lots in the past, but never again.

In reply:

Several years ago, I flew from JFK to Heathrow with Virgin Atlantic. Had a tennis racket in my suitcase which was broken during transport. It wasnt even at the edge of the suitcase, so goodness knows what happened to it.
(And no, they didnt pay up for the damage)

In reply
I wouldn't take anything you can't reasonably expect to survive a 30ft fall on to tarmac as hold luggage. This damages crabs and most hardware, so I'd wrap it in as much soft stuff, like clothing, as possible.
When flying to the south of france from glasgow last year, I saw a worrying sight from the departure lounge. A baggage official came to a snowboard at the end of packing the hold, must have missed it as they'd already taken down the conveyorbelt thing that carries luggage up to the hold. He through it up about 25ft, aiming for the hold, and it came crashing back down to the tarmac. He repeated this about 4/5 times before his mate got a ladder. Tw*t. Ishudder to think what kind of damage that would have done.