dick_ginkowski Posted September 16, 2001 Share Posted September 16, 2001 Please relate your experiences and suggestions for photographers at and before getting to the airport? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe_fuhrman1 Posted September 16, 2001 Share Posted September 16, 2001 I have not flown yet but am very interested in your question as I fly to Reno, NV in 2 weeks. I was planning on hauling my Lowe PRO Treker with 600mm lens. I live in L.A. and spoke to an airport policeman who told me "you better make sure your carry on really fits in the sample box/"template" the airlines provide". I think the smaller the better for carry on. I am also convinced that film must be xrayed-no exceptions. It does not look good for those who want to bring lots of photo equipment as carry on-enough said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobatkins Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 I think we should be prepared to make some sacrifices at this time. At the very least try to make things easy for the security people (remove film from boxes etc.). Unless there are new FAA regulations you are entitled to request a hand inspection of film. However at this point insisting on your "rights" may not win you many friends. You will lose the argument anyway. If I were flying I'd contact the airline about carry-on, I'd arrive at the aiport an hour earlier than suggested and I'd try to keep my carry-on to a minimum and not "push" the regulation size limits. I have heard rumors that some airlines may further restrict carry-on luggage, but I've seen nothing in print from any reputable source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel_ck_chan Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 <HTML><HEAD></HEAD><BODY><P>Hi, I've also planned to Kenya by 29 Sep from Hong Kong via Dhabi of UAE. Not only the new security of airport but the safety of airport in Middle East make me nervous. Anyone have experience and comments on these? Many thanks.</P><P>Daniel Chan</P><P><A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/danielchanhk">www.geocities.com/danielchanhk</A></P></BODY></HTML> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rich long Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 I haven't flown yet, but will be attempting to do so in a few weeks. Depending on what I hear between now and then, I may choose to ship most of my gear by FedEx and not attempt to take it on the airplane. At least with FedEx, I can insure it and track its location. It's a bad spot we're in at the moment. Most of us don't trust the baggage handling system with our expensive gear, but we may not be able to carry it on with us. I'm all for as much security as we can get right now, but we do need to find a way to travel with our gear and film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowan stark Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 Here are some suggestions from <a href="http://www.luminous-landscape.com/flying.htm">Luminous-Landscape's website</a>. I've got a trip planned to the Southwest at the end of next month. Depending on how the carry-on thing pans out, I may end up Fedex-ing the film both ways. Even if they still allow limited use of carry-on luggage, you can bet you (and others)are going to be delayed while they go through all that stuff. As far as the equipment goes, Fed-ex may be a very expensive option. I'm going to look into the status of my insurance coverage and consider packing it all in foam in an old hard sided suitcase and take my chance on checking it. It's definitely going to change and we might as well get used to it. I'm not going to gripe about increased security measures at this point either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casimir_artmann Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 Security for domestic flights in Europe are also more stringent since last week horrible disaster. I was not allowed to bring my Manfrotto (Bogen) monopod with me as carry-on luggage. I brought it with me without problems on several international and dometics flights thru Europe the weeks before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavin_hellier Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 I will be flying from Copenhagen to Montreal with Air Canada in a few days. Recent reports have been that many airlines are not allowing any hand luggage at all. Everything has to be checked. Thinking of taking an empty suitcase for the Lowepro and tripod, if needed. With regard to film stock - if no hand baggage is allowed and that has to be checked in, it will be exposed to the high intensity checked baggage machines and fogged. For now, its best to purchase and develop locally wherever possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_sonewald Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 1. A coworker flew from Frankfurt to Atlanta to Knoxville last Friday. He was allowed carry on luggage (including a cuckoo clock) at both airports. He notifed the inspection people beforehand that he had the clock, and other than a thourough inspection of it had no difficulty. 2. A relative returned to Cleveland from Denmark over the weekend (route unknown). She was allowed only a purse. No other carry ons were allowed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg_beeton1 Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 I flew back yesterday (to Gatwick UK)from Malawi with British Airways with 20 kg of camera gear as carry on including a 600 F4 all in a protrekker. Security was much much tighter as expected, the staff were actively trying to minimise hand luggage and initially insisted my gear put in the hold as it was was too large. However after I spoke to the BA representative in charge and she inspected the nature of my gear I was allowed to carry it on the flight without further difficulty. Other airlines seem to be banning all carry on, each is reacting differently. I will be investigating hard cases and foam in the next few weeks as I am sure my days of carring on such as size and weight of gear are limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe_boyd Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 Moose Peterson made the following recommendations in his "Moose-News" #117 (9/14/01). I believe these recommendations are based on talking to the airlines and prior experience, rather than actual travel after 9/11/01. "Air Travel The information I have received so far when it comes to security checks at airports is nasty, here's my thoughts on traveling right now. The Pro Trekker is out, period! The sheer size of the Pro Trekker is more than the system can take and I suspect will delay you considerably. Expect to have all of your camera gear removed from its bag, all lenses checked by their being looked through with no caps attached and camera bodies test fired. Don't even consider taking film with you, Fed Ex it to your destination and give yourself a couple of extra days as Fed Ex planes have been grounded just like all the rest. My plan for getting my gear around by plan for the short term is to take it in a Kelty Redwing 2900. This is a largish dayback but much smaller and much more innocent looking then a Pro Trekker. In it I can pack: D1H 300f2.8AFS II or 400f2.8 AFS 28-70f2.8AFS 17-35f2.8AFS 14f2.8AFS SB-28dx 8 - CF cards 256/512MB This all easily fits into the Kelty. My support camera gear, cords, chargers and the like will go into my checked luggage. Expect the x- ray at both security and check in to be cranked up folks! Some airports/airlines are saying they are going back to the one bag carry on, some even saying small bags only. Best be prepared!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m._huber Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 How effective are Film Shield lead laminted pouches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stan_murawski__jr. Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 Dick I�m flying out tomorrow the 18th on Northwest. They are saying one carryon plus a purse or briefcase. Hopefully my Pro Trekker AW will go. Otherwise I might just stay home. I had a photographer friend Email from the gate yesterday; his flight was canceled on Saturday. Haven't heard from him since so I assume he left OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry_walker1 Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 On Sunday 9/16, we flew from Portland,OR through Minneapolis to Madison, WI on Northwest. NW had signs posted at the check-in counter saying that they were enforcing a limit of one carry-on item (and not defining whether that allowed a purse/briefcase item in addition to the one "real" carry-on). They did not appear to be enforcing this much at all, though on the second flight they did stop someone with a wheeled carry-in, a piggie-back wheeled case and a back-pack. Not sure how many of these he had to gate-check. Much to our surprise, they were still allowing the use of the e-check-in terminals ("Click here to say 'No, no one has given me anything to carry'"). There was an extra check right before the security/x-ray station, asking for your boarding pass and photo ID. They did not ask for ID again at the gate, despite reports that they would. We saw only one bag get opened and searched at the security check-point. They were wanding only people who set off the metal detector, but that seemed to be set pretty sensitively. I had put my tripod in a hard-sided checked bag, and carried a Mini-Trekker on board without any issue. Overall, we were surprised at how little difference there was from the trip out (pre-9/11). Some obvious changes like no curbside check-ins (and barely even allowing curb-side drop-offs) and signs about no knife-like objects of any kind. Some not so obvious changes like waiting for the whole crew to arrive together at the gate and be vouched for by the captain, then gate personnel escorting the crew to the plane as a group. But mostly the individual passenger didn't experience much difference or much delay, at that airport anyway. We had a feeling we were lucky to be traveling from a minor market, and suspected that the experience was likely to be much different at LAX, LGA or ORD... Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eosbob Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 Hello all, I flew from Detroit to LAX on Friday the 14th and after close scrutiny was allowed to carry-on my roller bag and brief case. Security is confiscating ANYTHIG remotly dangerous! The man in front of me was asked to surrender his nail clippers. One of my co-workers had to surrender the double edge razors from his shaving kit (Not Bic type, but the old style you see used with cocaine in the movies). Upon landing in LAX I witnessed a Northwest gate attendant turning back anyone with carryons larger than a typical laptop briefcase. Roller bags were being refused even if they fit in the sizing box. I returned through LAX yesterday and after checking in via an e-ticket terminal was allowed through security again with my roller bag and briefcase. While waiting for the flight several people, who had checked in with an agent at the terminal counter, asked me how I had been able to get through with my roller bag. They were specifically told that any large bags had to be checked. I was very attuned to this since I have a Photo Treker that I want to take to Phoenix at Thanksgiving. The "rules" are not being uniformly enforced. I would also like to add that everyone, passengers, airline personnel and airport security were more polite than I have ever encountered. Everyone was very nice to everyone else. All I can suggest is that you keep your bag within carry-on specifications and then very politely ask that you be allowed to carry it on. If refused ask to speak to a supervisor. Hopefully someone will identify with your need to keep $$Thousands$$ of dollars worth of fragile equipment close at hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_roaldi Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 Just curious about shipping FedEx (or other). I believe someone sugested shipping film to the destination to avoid the high intensity X-raying of checked luggage. Don't they scrutinize the FedEx parcels the same way? Made me wonder what security is like generally with parcel carrier airlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
william_sharwell Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 I have the Photo Trekker AW and up until last week was about to purchase a ProTrekker. One thing that is really important with the LowePro packs is to avoid over stuffing the lid compartments--otherwise it might not fit the template. I have also norticed that dressing neatly and wearing a casual blazer seems to help in getting good treatment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippe Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 My response has to be taken as a general information/remark in this context and for the archives, since it is not a direct experience after the terrorist atack. In fact I flew back from the Southwest to Europe on the weekend before the terrible atacks happened. Having booked an American Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Chicago was no problem: I got my bag with about 60 Films (and some paper stuff) handchecked and the Lowepro Photo Trecker AW went through the maschine. Then in Chicago I had to change onto a Swissair flight. The checks were ok, but they took the limitations to carry only one bag very serious (and will now certainly handle it more stringent). This is the case for most (if not all) european airlines. At the counter, next to the gate they asked all the passengers that have 2 handbags because they come from an american airline connection to show up. Then any dicussion was refused - the films or gear, no matter what it is, should have gone through the chick-in controls from right there. Only hiding the film-bag behind my backpack worked when walking through the gate... So, flying with most european airlines seems to require new "travel-aproaches". Now certainly even more and also with all other airlines! The facts about how checked baggage is handled does for me totally exclude checking the cameras and lenses in. Buying film at the destination might be possibilety at many places, but developing them there is another question. FedEx could be an option. Looking forward to other ideas, experiences and aproaches. Philippe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m._huber Posted September 18, 2001 Share Posted September 18, 2001 Since there was an oversea's alert for a vew months prior to the WTC bombing, did you think this security was new or normal for those airports? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippe Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 For what I described in my thread above, I think it is a general handling of most european airlines (I heard similar stories about Lufthansa, KLM and others) and not an additional secrurity. Fritz Poelking has on his website an article about it in german (www.poelking.com) that describes similar situations. Furthermore, in european airports you have to argue much more to get your film handchecked. At least in Switzerland I get it only after longer argueing (it worked in Geneva, but in Zuerich only rarely). This is probably due to the fact that the people behind or next to the X-rays are specialists from national policedepartments, whereas in the US, as far as I heard on TV, they are emloyed by the airlines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philippe Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 <p> There is an <b>unarchived</b> thread on photo.net right now, that describes some experiences from after the terror atacks. Have a look <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001eaw">here (http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001eaw)</a>, before it gets deleted.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_smith Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 In the hysteria to lock the barn doors after the horses have left we are at the mercy of the stupid and paranoid among us. Confiscating anything that can be used as a weapon... fingernail clippers? A one inch scissor blade from a key chain? Why not pencils as they make great weapons, one through the eyes into the brain is quite effecive as a weapon, Or shoelaces, they are great for strangling someone.If the airlines follow the simple rules already in place few problems will come up. Every time there is an incident the rules get stricter & more open to interpretation by low paid and poorly trained morons at the gate and our gear is ever more at the mercy of the gorillas & baboons who handle & steal the luggage.Hand checks for photo gear are not difficult. Losing the ability to work in the name of 'airline safety' isn't much of an option and that is what is happening if we have to check all our gear and film. Those of us who do this for a living will have fogged film and stolen cameras when we get to our shooting destination... try explaining that one to a client. And before the 'buy your supplies where you are going' crowd gets into it, we often take tested film & supplies with us and much of our gear is not readily available in most locations.We will still try to be polite & arrive early. Airline safety is what we want. But when computers are allowed through with a hand check because the xray machines can ruin them, why not film & cameras? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anne_pohli Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 As I suggested in a response to a similar thread on the unarchived forum, I have thought for some time that airline "security" is a joke. I would certainly be grateful for decent security. However, as is usual in situations like this, the response seems to be knee-jerk overreaction. I agree with Bob that some sacrifices are in order, and I'm perfectly willing to arrive at the airport earlier so that carryon baggage can be properly checked. I accept the fact that proper inspection means I will have to repack it. However, I wish the powers that be would approach this more reasonably. If the new limitations are as restrictive as posts above suggest, we will be forced to choose between checking our film and having it ruined, or checking our equipment and likely never seeing it again (and we know how much responsibility the airlines accept for that). If they really want to, they can insure safety and still allow reasonable carryon space. I suspect the airlines are using this as an excuse to restrict something they were tired of messing with in the first place, namely people who carry too much on board simply because they don't want to stop at the baggage carousel at the other end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karl_lehmann Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 If I can't transport film without risking x-ray damage, I won't be flying much anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinesisphotogear Posted September 20, 2001 Share Posted September 20, 2001 Also visit these two pages on this topic: <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/photo/nature/carryon.html"> luggage carry-on talk</A> on photo.net (pre 9/11/01) or<A HREF="http://www.kinesisgear.com/survey.html"> this page</A> for direct links to all the US Airlines' baggage spec pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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