How bad is it...

[fishoutawater]

Yep, I use zip ties too.
And Kim, FWIW, when I read Jon C's post, my immediate impression was that the "idiots" he was referring to were the terrorists. Not Englishmen. And as far as 'profiling' passengers, I think they should concentrate on that certain segment, and to hell with political correctness. Some may call it racism, I just call it cause and effect. Those terrorists seem to be rather racist themselves IMO. I have serious doubts that a terrorist attack will ever be perpetrated by an elderly British church lady, and therefore searching her bags is a waste of everyone's valuable time.
But I digress, I don't consider myself a racist at all. As a matter of fact, I make an effort to sit right next to them on aircraft, trains, ferries and buses.

 

[Lamnid]

Maybe we should start photographing and fingerprinting everyone who wants to enter the UK no matter who they are and what they are coming for - just like the US does. What's good for the goose and all that.....

whoa yeah - that'd free up some housing and benefit money, eh!

Back to the checked luggage - why don't you guys check regs etc in as fragile items? that's what i do with stuff that might break easily and it's always been okay so far.

 

[victor]

Back to the checked luggage - why don't you guys check regs etc in as fragile items? that's what i do with stuff that might break easily and it's always been okay so far.

Back in the bad old hays of Heathrow marking something as fragile was a guarantee that they would use it as a football before ensuring that it was under the heaviest lugage they could find.
:lol:

I normally use a generic samsonite hard case with no distinguishing marks except a band to make it easier to recognise. However my housing is not going to fit so I am hoping I can take it as hand lugage. but with a camera and a laptop. That might be pushing it. Maybe I can borrow the brother in laws laptop when I am out there.

 

[Darnold9999]

Do you think the damage was caused by the pressure in the plane on by poor luggage handling (or luggage beeing crushed?). I always try to put my hard gear well padded in the middle of the suitcase. I never measured but I am sure that it can take tons of crushing without any problem.

The camera housing when I packed it was between my backplate and the rails at the back of the suitcase. Packed for protection with wetsuits and bubble wrap. I think it was just weight not handling that did the damage. The way it was packed would have handled the weight, but it looked like the inspection moved things around enough so that the weight was no longer evenly distributed and instead of being supported around the housing, the pressure went onto one side of the housing. Part of the problem was that the suitcase was not completely full which made it easy for things to be shifted when inspected.

 

[Ishie]

whoa yeah - that'd free up some housing and benefit money, eh!

Back to the checked luggage - why don't you guys check regs etc in as fragile items? that's what i do with stuff that might break easily and it's always been okay so far.

No way... after what those sticky-fingered halfwits did to my guitar case (from the way the wood was completely split down the neck, I can only assume they dropped it directly on the nut end from a height of 20 or 30 feet, and perhaps then attempted to kick in the end to make it fit better, though fortunately the guitar itself was spared by the selfless sacrifice of the case), there's no way I'm marking my beloved dive gear as "fragile". If anything, I'm marking my luggage "Old rags and old diapers" or perhaps "venomous snakes" (SNAKES on a PLANE!) which may be the only way to ensure my stuff isn't used for hockey practice.

 

[Damselfish]

We just got back a few days ago, checked our regs both ways. American lost our 3 checked bags on the way back so they went through customs without us. Got the bags 2 days later - 2 of them were opened by customs. They broke off the TSA locks and didn't even put on a zip tie, I guess customs doesn't have the TSA keys even though I'm sure the bad guys do. Looked like they removed everything and balled it up and jammed it back in the bags, including my BC. Makes the TSA folks look careful in comparison. I used to rely on careful packing and padding with clothes but if I'm going to be checking more stuff I'm going to have to work on my packing strategy.

My husband carried on his camera and housing in a hard rollaboard as usual and no problems, though he did get it opened and swabbed down on the way back. (And that was after they had called our names for our flight which we barely made, because we had spent too much time waiting for said checked luggage, since American didn't have enough of a clue to tell us (many of us) that they hadn't put our bags on our flight and it took awhile for them to figure it out.

 

[CubaFan]

I don't understand what this has to do with carrying a regulator in a carry on or in checked luggage. I assumed jiveturkey was concerned about TSA not letting him through withh it or it getting damamged or stolen from his checked luggage.

Joe

I think the concern is the compass, depth and presure gauges all have liquid in them.

I am surprised so many people check their regs. My last dive trip I had all my dive gear carry on except the fins. No problems on the way there but on the way back our luggage was delayed by two days.

 

[TheRedHead]

We just got back a few days ago, checked our regs both ways. American lost our 3 checked bags on the way back so they went through customs without us.

I've had very bad experiences with AA. Luckily, they only lose my clothes.

 

[scubabrn]

the only time I carried mine on , the TSA agent happened to be a diver himself. The only reason I was stopped was because of all the other junk in my bag made it look suspicious.

 

[wldflwrs03]

We just traveled from Nashville to Antigua with our dive gear--We carried our regs (to include computers) and did not have any problems. One security person (in Altanta) did ask what they were and conferred w/another coworker. I was a little afraid about carrying them after the latest security increase, but was more afraid of having our trip 'ruined' from our regs getting messed up.