Hawaiian Air: Scuba Equipment as Baggage

[Uncle Pug]

Going to Maui on Hawaiian I had the carry on and the fins. Going to Fiji on AirPacific I had the carry on, my laptop, and my Jets. Going to Alaska on Continental I had my carry on, a drysuit bag and my Jets.

thankfully I never did have to put my carry on in the rack.. it wouldn't have fit. On the Fiji and Alaska trips I took all my dive gear as carry on and checked the clothing.

 

[SeanQ]

You could always put the fins on if they tell you they're too big for carry on luggage. Problem solved.

 

[alm]

As promised, here's a brief report on how I did:

Didn't declare anything to Hawaiian Air; no problems.

On the trip out, carried on pony per. TSA regs; no problems at PDX (but BOY were
the TSA folks interested, 2 or 3 came over to watch my guy give my
pony a viz and an explosives check ).

Trip back; checked the pony at Hilo HI.
No problems there, though in other areas: my dive light
got emptied of its batteries (found rolling around in the luggage) and one of my
regs got the first stage plug opened. Oh, and I'd carelessly left a hard lead weight
in my carry-on which was declared a "bludgeon" and so I lost it.

Thanks again to everybody who posted.

 

[DiveMaven]

Thanks for the update, Al. We also fly out of PDX and are usually searched by the TSA folks because of our regs/computer as carry-on. It's nice that the big x-ray machine is in the lobby so you can watch your checked luggage searched too, which happens to us once in awhile. Hope you had a great time in Hawaii!!

 

[mer]

Regs, lights that look like bombs, computers, camera housing, and even backplates in carry on... lots of questions but no problems.

Exposure suits, fins, knives, etc in checked. No problems, but make sure that you are under the weight limit. If you are going to go over, check the airline policies before you go. Sometimes its cheaper to have 1 bag 20# overweight, than 2 bags 10#s over... depends on the carrier.

As for declaring checked bag contents, I don't declare it's scuba gear. But then again, I am not transporting tanks.

I do declare my carry on has scuba equipment in that, but then I'm speaking with the TSA. Whenever I'm in front of airline personelle, my carryon is closed and looks like regular luggage.

Kona is stickler for outgoing weight limits. Had no problems in Maui. Hawaiian is a 50# limit, which of course makes things difficult. Never had my carry on weighed though... I think our carry ons weighed more than our checked.