Griffo
Contributor
The other issue with carrying on a lot of gear is weight limits. US carriers are pretty generous about this, but most other carriers are not. They usually have rather low size and weight limits, and many definitely enforce them.
Not sure I agree that US carriers are more generous. The only airline I've had issues with weight due to scuba gear is AA. You get what, 20KG checked and once you go over it's like $200 each way per bag? Most airlines you get betwen 23 and 32KG and the over-weight costs are far more reasonable and charger per KG over, not some blanket charge.
The only time in dozens of trips overseas we've been hit with excess charges is the Dallas to Coz leg on AA.
Also never had any issues with regs on carry-on. We did have one Filipino security guy take exception to our can lights, but his superior over-ruled him when we pressed it.