Flying with Gear

Hey Everyone..
I am flying down to Red Rocks and I am bringing my rack with. Has anyone ever experienced any issues flying with gear? Can you bring cams on with carry on luggage? Should I pack them away carefully so the luggage handlers don't crush my gear? Any tips or tricks gleaned from your years upon years of climbing and flying experience?
Thanks!
Greg

Carry it all on if you want it to stay safe. I have checked my rack before and ended up with many bent wires, plus you don't have to worry about the wieght. The worst they will do at security is ask to look at it. I have flown into LAX, Dulles, National, Boston, Utah, Las Vegas, and PHX to name a few. Taking 2 sets of freinds, 2 C3, stoppers you name it. Last time my carry on bag wieghed in at over 60 lb. Don't swet it, take anything you think you may need. It is also fun to see the look on the guy x-raying your stuff if he hasn't seen climbing gear.

Robert A. Schwarzmann

Maybe carry a pic or two of yourself climbing to satisfy them you're legit?

depending on weight of checked luggage (limit 50 lbs) may carry cams or not. I do carry-on my harness & personal gear (& toothbrush) just in case bag gets delayed a day I can still climb with a smile. If I bring a rope, I'd rather carry on the rope then check it ~ call me paranoid about letting my *soft-goods* out of my sight

when I have checked through cams, I always get searched but it's cool to have yer equipment inspected ~(:

The only thing that hangs me up at the airport is my nut tool. They always suspect that it is a knife. They've let me through every time though.

Just did it this summer. Had to carry on to keep the weight down on the check ins. No problem, although it is funny to see them pause.

what about flying with ice gear??

Actually i know you have to check that haha.
I have to fly standby and it wouldn't be fun to fly with any of my gear, especially my ice rack. It's a good thing I live near the san juans, i can get anywhere in two hours.

It's not that bad. Me and Steven just flew into San Jose last month with tons of gear on our way to the valley. When we arrived at the airport both our checked bags weighed about 65-70 lbs each. We had to dump a lot of gear in our carry-ons to get them down to 50 lbs. Frontier didn't seem to care how much our carry-ons weighed. They were freakin' heavy.

Coming back, security looked thru our bags which were full of cams. I was asked "what the heck is in here" when he tried to lift the bag onto a table. Climbing gear I said, he just gave me a puzzled look.

When I flew to Salt Lake in September, I put my rope, nut tools, knife, finger nail clippers, and chalk bag in my checked bag. My carry on had everything else including a double rack, harness, helmet, draws, runners, etc. On my way to Salt Lake the TSA agent just asked if I had a lot of carabiners in the bag and set it aside for a chemical swab test. On the way back they just passed it through.

A quick search yielded this thread about the same thing.

I've always put my gear into the checked baggage mainly I didn't feel like hauling my gear around on long layovers. I've flown to San Fran, Reno, Seattle, Canada and Alaska for ice climbing/expeditions and never had a problem.

I'm surprised that people were able to get through security in Boston with gear in the carry-on. When I would fly out of there when I lived in Boston, the TSA would confiscate anything that would look like a weapon. They were definitely PITA's there!!!

and suffin some yayo in your chalk bag is an awesome way to stay awake for the duration of trans-atlantic flights
WOO YEAH!

swanson, i knew this post was from you before i even read it.
red rocks here we come! your 5.8's aren't gonna know what hit em'!

You'll need to know what the maximum reimbursement is on a piece of luggage for the airline you're flying on. Make sure that you spread out the valuables into more than one checked bag.

I put everything that would be too expensive to replace on the trip (and will fit) into my carry on. Rope, shoes, gear, harness.

Tent, pad, and other camping gear gets checked. Since I could replace all of those things at Wal-Mart for under $100 I don't worry about it. You can claim insurance with the airlines later if anything is lost or broken. The stove gets checked because it HAS to be checked. You don't want them x-raying and finding it. If you're flying with an empty fuel bottle leave it open to the air for a couple of days to get rid of any fuel. Put it in checked baggage too. If the airline reps ask, you don't have any flammables in any of your bags and you aren't carrying a fuel containers, the container is for water and the stove doesn't have any fuel in it. I don't remember if you're still allowed to have a cigarette lighter, but I know I've taken them many times in checked luggage recently.

Thanks Everyone..I'll take this all to heart...
And thanks Tytonic..I did search for this topic before I posted, but I guess my searching sucked...
Good Bye Portland rainstorms! I'm off to Vegas!

I can never get a straight answer from the airlines, so they usually just recommend to check it. But to say they are clueless is an understatement!! When I told them I'd have a rope, they acted like I wanted to carry on a Nepalese Snow Tiger!! Rope???? Uh yeah..I'm a climber?!?!?

As for ice gear, obviously checked. But expect to pick it up in that NSA room everytime. My bag got search at every single airport due to my sharp stuff.

Last time I flew out to Colorado I checked all my gear. It all worked out but I tried to make sure I could insure all my gear ($3,000 worth) and the Delta website said I could address this at the ticket counter. I got there and the ceiling insurance was less than online and the counter person had no idea how to mark that I wanted to purchase extra insurance and I had no time to haggle. Carry it all on if you can. Majid from RC.COM sells a security device to avoid someone grabbing a stray piece from your bag. Basically if you take a swagged cable and run it through all your cams, wires, harness and then padlock the loop closed inside your bag you can eliminate someone trying to grab a couple of pieces and pocket them. No one is going to try to take your whole rack as there are honest folks in baggage who would be asking questions.

In the past two years, I have flown into Vegas and San Fran. I like to carry on my rack because I can't readily replace that. I check my rope, harness, helmet etc. with the idea that they could be easily replaced if my bags are lost or delayed. I was screened leaving sfo, the agent swabbed my daypack, good thing I wasn't holding... No real hassles.

Just wanted to add my recent experience flying from Denver to Houston (IAH) to Monterrey, Mexico and back.

The harness (shoes and helmet) plus biners went in the carryon.
The QDs, rope and light rack went in the checked duffel.

Security didn't say a word or give me a 2nd look or search anything when I went through security in Denver and Houston, or customs in Mexico.

On the way back, Mexico searched the duffel before it got checked. No problem and it was a very light search. Carryon got a light search at the gate. They do this to everybody.

Again no problem going through security (xray machines) and no issues at customs in Houston. When I say no issue or problem, I mean absolutely nothing happened.

Last time we saw the clipstick (in a fishing pole carrier) was in Denver. The airline lost it the whole trip, and now, weeks later, say they'll deliver it.

Taking the biners onboard risked a TSA person saying no to them, but I decided to go for it based on the list of prohibited items on the TSA website. In this case it worked fine.