Is it safe to take a SS BP with carry-on?

[*Floater*]

Has anyone had their steel backplate confiscated by customs? Would you recommend taking it with carry-on?

What about lights?

 

[*Floater*]

Well, I just checked North West's site and it says:

Scuba Equipment
Northwest accepts scuba equipment as checked luggage only. Scuba equipment is not included in a customer's free luggage allowance and is subject to a charge of $80.00 USD (each way) per item.

One (1) item of scuba equipment is defined as one (1) or a combination of the following:

One (1) empty scuba tank
One (1) pair swimming fins
One (1) scuba generator
One (1) snorkel
One (1) tank harness
One (1) knife
One (1) tank pressure gauge
One (1) speargun
One (1) diving mask
One (1) safety vest

Scuba tank must be empty. If the spear gun has a CO2 cartridge, the cartridge must be empty.

Northwest does not accept liability for loss, damage, or delay of scuba equipment. Excess valuation insurance may not be purchased for transport of scuba equipment.

What's a scuba generator and tank harness?

P.S. Mods, maybe it would be best to move this into general questions. Sorry that I posted it here.

 

[RICHinNC]

I carried my bp & wing on my last trip to Barbados and I am going to carry it....with my regs and computers....as carry on when I go to Hawaii in January. About 3/4s of the time I get searched and that's to be expected. Although, I have noticed that when I put my bags up on the Xray conveyor belt and the TSA person asks....Do you have any camera gear in the bags? I will say no movie camera gear but lots of dive gear. They normally turn to the person at the station and say dive gear coming through. And, my searches have gotten less.

But I have not heard of anyone having dive gear confiscated. Having said that....DO NOT try and take a pony bottle as carry on ... and dont try to check it in with valve still on it. I have heard of horror stories there.

 

[herman]

I would not worry about carring any of it on. I don't use a BP but I do carry regs and the like on board all the time. Once in a while I get checked but not often. I would suggest if you are going to take a steel BP, put it in the upper part of your luggage so the TSA does not have to dig deep to see what it is. As far as the airline is concerned, the key here is not to declare the scuba gear in your luggage. They are just looking for a reason to charge extra for it. Strange that golf clubs do not count as luggage. They are not going to pay anyway if they loose it or it gets stolen

 

[PacketSniffer]

There is some discussion currently going on regarding this. See here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=1375882#post1375882

 

[*Floater*]

Since Northwest doesn't allow any scuba gear in carry-on I've decided not to push my luck. I'll put it in all my checked in luggage. I won't declare it though because I think it's unreasobale to have to pay $80 for a dive knife - if they find it I'll claim it's a regular knife. Snorkel is also $80. Also, I'm taking several pairs of fins with me to try out, so I'd get hit three times over with the $80 charge if I declared them.

All other items that require extra charges are oversized items of diffcult shape such as surf boards, bikes and such. Don't know why Northwest has it in for scubadivers. Oh, and the golf clubs are of course okay because they don't want to lose their business customers.

 

[BabyDuck]

$80 for each thing?!?! **** that!!!!

 

[lostplanetairman]

The TSA still has compressed air cyclinders as prohibited items. I just checked the website.http://www.tsa.gov/public/interweb/assetlibrary/Permitted_Prohibited_9_6_2005.pdf

 

[herman]

I would carry on board reguardless of NWs policy. Only the TSA searches your baggage, carryon or not and they say scuba gear is OK. As long as it's allowed by TSA, NW really has no say in what is in your carryon as far as I am concerned. I can promice you they will not compensate you for stolen gear. Carry your regs and camera equipment. I have flown for years with and without dive gear and no one at a airline counter has ask to search my stuff. Leave the knife in the checked luggage and use the don't ask and don't tell policy and you will be fine.

 

[lastprettyone]

Hello! I just flew NWA. Checked all my dive gear except regs and computer. Had one carryon for regs and a briefcase with my laptop. The only issue was the tools I had left in my reg bag. I had to repack those in my checked luggage.