Checked bag; suggestions?

[nippurmagnum]

Older thread kinda on the topic: How do you pack your gear for travel?

Trip to Hawaii coming up and would appreciate suggestions on what to get. I will put dive gear and a few articles of clothing into the checked bag.

Last time I went to Hawaii, I brought the weight-belt...

I'm thinking about doing so again, but it's another 20 lbs.

Whatcha think about bringing bringing the weight-belt?

I regularly take my weights on dive trips, when they are not provided by the boat. That is the case on my Florida dive charters, as well as obviously my FL shore dives. And the California charters I dive also do not provide weights with their tanks. I fly Southwest, which provides two free checked bags per passenger, so I have plenty of space and weight allowance to take weights.

I did two separate dive trips to Kona, where I did mostly shore diving (which was excellent), and my daughter and I both lugged our weights all the way to Hawaii.

In my experience, rental charges for weights are NOT cheap. Dive shops know that you need the lead, and they charge accordingly -- I've seen charges of around $7-10 a day, per person.

As for how to carry them, I usually spread them around my checked bags and carry on. I only need 12 lbs so it's not a big deal. I will warn you though that you are 100 percent guaranteed to have your bags checked by TSA if you are carrying lead. But I've never had a bag delayed that had lead in it, FWIW.

 

[outofofficebrb]

For everyone that carries everything on all the time with no checked baggage, including all your scuba gear.....Do you have weight limits for carry on or do the carriers not weigh your bags?

When flying internationally on non-US based carriers, they are regularly and often enforced. It is 7kg for all cabin baggage which would include your carry on and personal item. They actually weigh them at check in. That isn't much. I get away with it with a 7kg personal item and a 16kg camera bag which gets the wave through due to electronics/fragility but everything else goes in checked bags apart from electronics and primary dive mask. I ensure that there are no quick connections but not layovers that are too long that has a bag sitting and forgotten. For an international connection (international arrival, departing for another international destination), a 3 hour layover is ideal for me. For domestic, 1.5 hours minimum as my home airport is susceptible to delays for departure due to fog and wind and other possible miscellaneous issues.

Over the past 10 years I have average 4-8 international flights (mostly transpacific) a year for personal/work and since I have picked up diving, I average 14. I have never had a lost bag. I'm not saying it won't ever happen and am not discrediting the efforts or idea of doing carry on only for that reason but in many cases such as mine, it is not feasible due to the carriers I have to take to get to where I want to go.

 

[formernuke]

Life support equipment stays with me. They give any s^$$ about it (I take a stainless bpw) I ask them if they want to be responsible for the 4k value and the lawsuit if I get injured or dead because of having to use inferior gear, shuts them up real quick once explained that I am limiting there potential liability.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Life support equipment stays with me. They give any s^$$ about it (I take a stainless bpw) I ask them if they want to be responsible for the 4k value and the lawsuit if I get injured or dead because of having to use inferior gear, shuts them up real quick once explained that I am limiting there potential liability.

Unfortunately, in the Philippines, I have seen some passengers turned away with regulators in their hand carry luggage. It is officially outlined in their aviation law that it is not allowed as they think it can be a weapon but I do know that enforcement is poor at best and it is very hit or miss. At that point, do you just check it in and continue your way or do you try to insist and perhaps miss your flight and possibly derail your trip? The passengers I have seen turned away chose to proceed with option 1. I think that is the only place that I have heard of or seen any issues with it being in carry on, though.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Ah yes, the Filipino regulator nunchuks concern.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Ah yes, the Filipino regulator nunchuks concern.

*grabs the second stages with her right hand and swings the first stage in a circular pattern above her head like a lasso and asks what you're talking about*

 

[Diving Dubai]

I have seen some passengers turned away with regulators in their hand carry luggage. It is officially outlined in their aviation law that it is not allowed as they think it can be a weapon but I do know that enforcement is poor at best and it is very hit or miss.

Ah yes, the Filipino regulator nunchuks concern

It's a valid point, given the restrictions on cabin items. I've had cable ties (zip ties) removed from my hand baggage.

I like a nice easy stress free check in and customs inspection

I once sent my gear to Thailand as checked in a mesh bag - not an issue.

Pack it right, and all you have to worry about is the bag being lost or turning up late. I personally just take electronic items and things I need for the flight, plus a small selection of chargers and emergency kit to sustain me for 24 hrs if my luggage gets delayed.

But given I only make 5 or 6 international dive trips a year, I'll bow to those with more experience

 

[homerdoc]

My brother packs his weights on trips because he likes mesh weights in his BCD pockets, most dive operators only have lead belt weights.

For me, I don't care and am fine dumping square lead weights in my BCD pockets.

My limited diving experience has been that the dive operator always has the weight rental cost buried in the tank or dive cost.

 

[Shasta_man]

Wow, I'm amazed to hear that dive ops would charge separately for weights (talking about paying an operator to take me out for a dive). I suppose, conceptually, an overall amount is the sum of whatever individual amounts go into the overall service so we were paying for it all along. Like the luggage charges, we were paying for it all along, it just wasn't called out separately in the bill. Only once it appeared separately on the bill did it become an OMG number. I suspect that while they pretended to give us the opportunity to lower our cost by making luggage separate, we're ultimately paying more for the whole package than if they would have left it included in the price.

IMHO, the risk of luggage issues is overplayed. I think the social media method of equating an anecdote with a verifiable trend was responsible for this feeling. Losing luggage happens but is usually temporary while the occurrence of theft is probably pretty low compared to the volume of luggage. Since lugging my electronics is enough weight to deal with, I just check my suitcase. Yeah it sucks if it gets lost but the important stuff is in my backpack with me.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Wow, I'm amazed to hear that dive ops would charge separately for weights (talking about paying an operator to take me out for a dive). . . .

I believe that the operators who charge separately for weights are those whose clientele are mostly locals. Any dive op whose clientele mostly fly in from other locations provide weights and tanks.