Baggage Allowance when taking skis

thanks all, hasn't really allayed my concerns but all interesting stuff. I guess I'll have to pick up the phone to the airline for clarification.

Bandit,
As always you are right! I forgot we are in "post-9/11" security mode!

I am sure my swiss knife will not pass security now!

Nor will the two bottles of water I always carry! Never mind the grapes and cheese I eat also!

That is why I am converting a Volks vanagon with four wheel drive for my trip to Utah next year! Yes slower but I can bring my skis, my boots, my food and yes bed!

Seems we are back into the 60's with Peace volks and propane heaters!

An interesting Airline Story!

I planned to do some windsurfing for 1 month with 10 fanatic surfers! We rented a house on the beach and since we were going to do serious windsurfing I insisted on bringing my "sinker" from Hawai! Called airline and got dimensions for kit!

At 4 AM at airport, the kit is refused due to "security" risk! Never mind that 8 of the surfers were RCMP officers! I had to open my board wrappers and all kit was inspected there! Seems my board looked like an American missile "stinger" launcher!
What is this world coming too!

Yes we had great month! Never saw TV never listened to news!

this is worrying...normally i take snow train to france, the 2 flights to canada had no trouble with board bag, but this year we're flying with first choice airlines to europe and apparently your board bag can't have anything else in it. i was planning on ignoring this as my coffin board bag is used as my only bag other than hand luggage. after reading this am i going to get away with this? or do i have to buy a small board bag and take extra luggage. so annoying!

I would have thought if your board bag was your only bag and it was within your standard weight allowance then I can't see why that would be a problem.

I think they don't like other kit in with the board if the board was being covered by a winter sports supplement charge but in your case, if the weight was ok, it wouldn't be.

But then these airline peeps do always have their own view on things.

Send them an email and if the response is positive then print it out and take it with you!

Not skis but boots: I have just been on the blower to Bournemouth airport (flying with Austrian Airlines) and they say that I can take the boot bag on board as hand luggage but it must be below 5 kgs, otherwise it must go in the hold as part of my main luggage allowance.

The boots tip the scales at 4.7 kgs!

Hamish wrote:Not skis but boots: I have just been on the blower to Bournemouth airport (flying with Austrian Airlines) and they say that I can take the boot bag on board as hand luggage but it must be below 5 kgs, otherwise it must go in the hold as part of my main luggage allowance.

With Easyjet you would have to rebag the boots so that they are in the '69' position as it were instead of side-by-side otherwise they wouldn't fit within their hand luggage dimensions. Interestingly, within reason, Easyjet don't have a hand luggage weight limit.

Some of the airline companies are ok on the skiboots as hand luggage issue. Not all airports behave the same way,and you have to negotiate the securidee numpty before you reach the gate. If you ask "why?" when refused an item, you won't be surprised to hear reasoned responses such as "Because"*

My funniest personal experience was at Valencia where the staff expected me to remove the zip from my trousers because it made their "wand" go off
I offered to remove the trousers since they cost me a packet, along with any other items of clothing that they deemed suspicious.
I'm convinced some of these folks just enjoy trying to humiliate travellers for their own amusement. I got to keep my trousers on, along with the rest of my clothes.

*With apologies to any airport security staff who can string a coherent sentence together.

It was late February 2007 and I was flying BA from Munich to London Heathrow after a couple of weeks in Sankt Christoph Am Arlberg.

We arrived at check-in and were informed that whilst we had been away BA had changed its baggage policy and now no single bag was to exceed 23kg. As all four of us (Wife, 2 children and me) take our own ski boots in a single bag, along with wax iron, box of tools etc, etc you can guess that this bag was over weight. (Interestingly our total baggage allowance was not exceeded).

The officious lady who was “here to help” refused to let us check-in. I offered to buy another bag and redistribute the weight but this wouldn’t do because there was a total bag limit!

So there, in front of hundreds of bemused fellow travellers we unpacked our boots and we all put them on. Now the bag weighed less than 23kg and all was well.

As a family we walked around Munich airport in our ski boots, through passport control AND security without them making any comment. We boarded the plane and again no one said anything!

Now my boots have the type of clips that end in a “T” are made of Titanium, Plutonium, Uraninium or some such fancy metal and could easily be used as a fairly handy weapon. Not to mention the fact that just by wearing the boots I could have probably kicked my way through the cabin door to hijack the plane.

You will be glad to hear that I didn’t do any of these things but I did discuss the issue with the Chief Steward and he was totally amazed at what he heard. All of which leaves me wondering about the real point of airline security …

Here is a pic of us AIRSIDE at the airport … (note the ubiquitous B 08 sign in the background!)



Happy flying,

Jan