Is it possible to carry-on a full set of gear?

[Veronica]

yes and yes carry on your own bag..My dive buddy and myself went to mexico a couple of times..Just make sure that your bag is the correct size to fit above or under seat.. Beware we had our computors and HD lights which had a canaster ,duck tape around the batteries and they thought it was a bomb..They just check and recheck our bags. The only thing we didn't bring was clothes LOL one shirt and one pr of shorts..stayed one week.. Make sure to hang on tight when you get off the plane, because they will try to take your bags out of your hands to carry.. We had to pull back and hang on..telling the locals no,no we will carry them.. It was crazy ,but lots of fun.

 

[dkktsunami]

Yes, this is possible. Just returned from Little Cayman with carry-on and small "personal items" back pack. Carried wing with 5# steel plate, fins, full 3 mil suit, regs, compass, booties, mask, computer, swim suit, shorts, tee shirt, etc, my entire dive rig. No questions, no fees but TSA took away my wife's tiny cuticle scissors.

 

[cave_diver]

There is nothing preventing you from carrying most of your dive gear with you – if you are willing to pay for it. Exceptions are scuba tanks (in my experience no chance to get them on an airplane, even if they are empty), and batteries (i.e. in dive lights). If you have a dive computer, carry it in your hand luggage. If you have one of the Suunto computers, they may mistake it for a watch and you may not even have to turn it on. You might be out of luck with a VR3. Don’t even bother to explain how to do gas switches on the fly!

Check the rest of your stuff and you should be fine.

 

[fel]

Yes, this is possible. Just returned from Little Cayman with carry-on and small "personal items" back pack. Carried wing with 5# steel plate, fins, full 3 mil suit, regs, compass, booties, mask, computer, swim suit, shorts, tee shirt, etc, my entire dive rig. No questions, no fees but TSA took away my wife's tiny cuticle scissors.

wow, I was thinking they would give you problems because of the steel back plate...it's good to know they don't

 

[The Anchor]

If all else fails, you could always ware what dosent fit in your bag. If you had the Omega fins, you shouldnt have any trouble walking. I don't think theare are any regulations against wearing a wet suit on an airplane, but you might get some funny looks.

 

[Geoff_H]

Don't you guys in the USA have weight restrictions on carry on?

Most airlines in Asia limit you to 8kg carry on, 20kh checked.

 

[smw]

I have too much computer, video and photo gear to carry on.. I pack everything else. Last trip our luggage was "delayed" for a day. My video housing was in the checked bag. I have a light weight hard case. Sure, I didn't like diving with someone else's gear, but the worst part was not being able to film the batfish we saw the first day diving.

No, really, the worst part was not having my safety gear. Anyway, from now on I'll carry my housing and my mask with me. Since my reg only works with my BC I'll continue to check it. And since I'm checking a bag I might as well bring my favorite wine, etc.

My credit card covers my gear in the event my stuff is lost forever. American Airlines says:

($3,000 per passenger for domestic travel, and $634.90 per checked bag for international travel)
I pay $60 a year for my CC. I charge my tickets with it and get an airline mile for each dollar spent.

Lost Luggage Coverage
Charge the entire common carrier fare to your Citi card and get up to $3,000 in lost luggage coverage for you and your dependents. This benefit covers lost, stolen or damaged baggage or personal articles checked with a common carrier.

My gear weighs 45 pounds - I don't want to haul it around for connecting flights. Hopefully, the credit card company would make up for the rest.

I'm more worried about someone PUTTING something in my luggage. I wish we could lock our luggage up but the airlines won't let you lock a checked bag. An Australian woman got 20 years in an Indonesian jail. She states that her surfboard bag was used by smugglers and she got smacked for bringing in 4 kilos of pot.

SMW

 

[Damselfish]

Don't you guys in the USA have weight restrictions on carry on?

Most airlines in Asia limit you to 8kg carry on, 20kh checked.

There are weight limits, but generally much higher than the ones you're used to. And it's rare (if ever) they would actually check unless maybe you can't stand up straight while carrying the thing. So most people have perfected the art of carrying a heavy bag while making it look like a feather.

 

[Scott M]

Technically we have two carry-ons allowed. One carry-on and one personal item which for me is a large back pack. I can put most of my heavy gear in the back pack because they never check the weight of that. I usually carry my regs, masks, computer (dive and laptop), and fins (even larger fins will fit in a long back pack). The rest can easily go into a carry-on which for me is my wet-suit, boots, hood, B/C, save-a-dive kit, dry bag, boat bag and then I divide up the clothes in both. One other thing I do with my boat bag is on the way back if I bought something or if I am too lazy to carry it all back on my back I will roll it in dirty clothes in the gear bag and check it through. If a theif wants what is in there enough to go through week long dirty clothes they can have it and deserve it.

 

[stcroix2]

If all else fails, you could always ware what dosent fit in your bag. If you had the Omega fins, you shouldnt have any trouble walking. I don't think theare are any regulations against wearing a wet suit on an airplane, but you might get some funny looks.

Funny you mention this, we are heading out to Cozumel next month and I've been thinking about doing just that! Not the wet suit, but what are TSA and the Airline (in our case, American Airlines) going to do if I put on my BCD, throw my reg and computer over my shoulders? The wet suit, fins, mask, snorkel and rest of the diving gear can then fit within the weight/size restrictions for the carry-on and checked baggage.

Being scuba divers, the airlines and TSA will soon learn our love-of-gear is an incentive for some very innovative means of traveling with all the weight.