Checking in Dive Gear? Or Carry-on?

[Damselfish]

To echo what someone said above, lost baggage is not THAT common, and more often a bag just shows up a day late. I can tolerate rental gear for a day, even a week if I had to.

That’s a good point, a simple delay is more likely than actual loss. (One of the arguments for arriving early for a LOB in a distant location.) A delay on the way is a pain but rarely the end of the world, and if on the way back not such a big deal.

In 30+ years of dive travel we’ve never lost anything. Had bags delayed twice. Once where half the bags for the plane were left in Curacao, and arrived at our house late the next night (hours apart, with new tags indicating they had visited different European airports on their way to Boston!?) The other when the Barbados airport was under construction and our bags didn’t get on a flight to St Vincent. We saw that one coming as it was obvious luggage handling was a complete dumpster fire at the time. And it was LIAT.

 

[FishWatcher747]

Great info! I'd looked into flying into CUN as an alternative since there are far more flight options but saw that it's further away than I thought. I'll come up with a game plan based on your info in case my flight gets canceled.

If you can I would fly to COZ as your plan A if the cost differential is not too severe. But sometimes your flight from SFO may get delayed coming into Dallas and miss the flight to COZ. Then the bag drag would get you to Cozumel same day.

On my first trip to Cozumel I had to pull this off and because of the discussions on SB prior to the trip I knew how to pull it off. Got to Cozumel same day and dived the next morning.

 

[gmerick]

Hand carry what is required (lithium batt, prescription meds), or what you're unwilling to dive without (computer, prescription mask, regs, tunes). Purchase trip insurance with missing luggage coverage for checked items you're willing and able to rent/buy at the destination (clothing, BC, fins). I carry the necessary items to convert a sidemount reg into a backmount setup, so the BC ends up checked.

 

[Jaaron82]

I put my regs, computers, lights in a carry on.
My harness/ wing , drysuit or wetsuit, fins , cutting devices and anything else gets checked.
Last trip my checked bag weighed 47lbs just under the 50lb allowed for standard checked bag on JetBlue.

 

[ThatDogDontHunt]

I'll look into these! I've heard about them but never given them a shot. I'm a relatively tall dude, so I always find it difficult squeezing a week's worth of clothes in a carry-on. Thanks again for the tips!

Measure the length of your fins. Then check the airline carry-on bag dimensions.

 

[GF99/99]

There are people who will try and carry-on everything for a dive trip. Personally I don't see how it's possible (while actually staying within the rules) and have no desire to try.

Lost luggage does happen but it's actually pretty unusual, and I think technology has improved the situation over the years. There are tons of existing threads on this subject with good information. And various ways to decrease your chance of issues. Some of this is location specific. No regulators in carry-on is a Philippines thing, not sure if it's an issue anywhere else. Non-US carriers usually have smaller size limits for carryons, and rather small weight limits for them that tend to get enforced. If you're on a small plane along the way you will probably need to check more for that flight and want to be prepared for it. OTOH, some carriers will give free or cheap allowance for a bag of dive gear. You have to figure out the best way to pack for each trip for you.

Pay attention to rules about different types of batteries. Cozumel it's illegal to take in Sudafed, much discussion about that here lately. There are different quirks for different destinations you should look into.

Thanks for the location specific tips! TIL you can't take regulators in a carry-on in the Philippines. Seems like an odd rule.

Never heard of this rule be for. Last time I went to Chuck Lagoon I spent 2 weeks in Philippines and then flew direct to Guam from there with 5 first stages in my carry on. No issues.

I put my regs, computers, lights in a carry on.
My harness/ wing , drysuit or wetsuit, fins , cutting devices and anything else gets checked.
Last trip my checked bag weighed 47lbs just under the 50lb allowed for standard checked bag on JetBlue.

This is usually the best way to go. I fly internationally a lot! With all kind of diving gear. I always put all electronics and heavy crap in my carry on to keep the weight of my check bags down. 32kg (~70lbs) is the max limit for a checked bag so its hard to keep your luggage under that unless you put as much heavy stuff in your carry on. I travel with a rolly bag and back pack so I can carry on as much crap as possible. Big canister batteries, all your first stages, rebreather heads, camera stuff, ipad, batteries etc. all in the carry on. Never had an issue. Most of the time my rolly bag is about 25kg and my backpack another 8kg.

The only thing that about 80% of the time security really likes to check on is large canister light batteries and surprisingly the US in the 20% that really could care less about, TSA usually takes a 5sec glance at it and waves me through. But for the rest of the world it can be a mission. They have to fully inspect it see how the light turns on check the wH like 10 times, ask there supervisor to check the wH another 10 times and ask me again what its for so then I usually show them a quick video on my phone of me underwater with it and then they will sit there and discuss it some more and finally let me through. But regs I have never had a problem and I have been a lot of places.

 

[Franek]

We take all diving equipment on trips. We put 2BCD fins, wetsuits, spare masks, SMB and everything you need for diving into the checked baggage, the second check-in suitcase is our clothing.
In addition, we take two suitcases to the smaolot and put lights, batteries, gopra, laptop, medicines and the rest of our clothes into them.
As personal luggage, we take complete regulators + mask + computers, 2 phones each.
We have not yet managed to fall within the limit of 23 kg, no one weighed our hand luggage. Sometimes the wife also has a 10L backpack. Of course, we have Scuba jackets postponed through the hand suitcase (they have a little weight but a revelation on boats)
Hands without lying is +/- 10 kg overweight as if he went on the scales

 

[DM-Seantm]

Hey folks,

I'm pretty new to recreational diving, and I have my first destination dive trip coming up next Spring. I asked around in my dive club about luggage recommendations for dive travel and got some useful answers but one thing I'm torn on is whether I should carry-on most of my expensive dive gear or check most of it in?

I travel carry-on only whenever possible when it comes to regular travel, and I'm honestly terrified of the airlines losing a chunk of my expensive dive gear in transit. However, I've been told that many international destinations have extremely limited carry-on allowances, so in those cases I'd need to check bags regardless. I've also read somewhere that people have had the TSA stop them because of their regulators and forced them to check their carry-on?? Has anyone else been forced to check-in dive gear at security for oddball reasons like that?

This upcoming trip is just to Cozumel with a US airline, so I think I'm good with respect to carry-on allowance, but I'd like to hear other people's opinions on check-in vs carry-on.

Thanks!

Seems as though flights are getting more & more restrictive these days & charging for whatever they can. Still, I always opt to carry on my mask, reg, DC and if at all possible, fins & if your a photo buff expensive cam gear. Not ideal, or most comfortable but in a pinch the rest of one’s gear can be substituted,

 

[Mike_4635]

I have my reg, mask, dive computer, meds, couple of t shirts, swim suits, underwater camera, strobe, batteries, iPad, pc computer, and set of charges in my carryon. I can always rent the rest of my dive gear. Still have enough clothes to get by in the short term. I also ensure I have at least digital copies of reservations and insurance (trip and dive). Add passport and money.

 

[Doc]

Carry on everything, or surely it will be stolen out of your baggage,

Just look at all the threads here, decrying all of the theft. Everybody is posting all the time about the various airlines and thievery that has already occurred. It’s just flooding the Internet beware beware beware.

And if they don’t steal it, it’ll surely get broken because regulators are very delicate. I used to pound nails with them (but now that nails are so expensive i switched to drywall screws) I use hammers or rocks on regs for kwikee field repairs. Always put my fave rock in carry on, too.

Just look at the high value for resale, all that pre-owned scuba gear,

man, no wonder they steal it.

/jk

Check everything,
see if your gf can squeeze into that roller bag.