Regulator, hand luggage or checked in luggage?

[Alex_Garland]

I returned from a diving trip to Cozumel a few weeks ago. I chose to put my regs in my hand luggage both ways. I had no problems going down, but on the way back at the Cancun airport one of the ladies working at the metal detector station took my regs out of my carry on bag and had a good, long, quizzical look at them as if she'd never seen anything like it before. She eventually let me through with all my stuff intact, but having read your post below prior to the trip, that moment was a little unsettling. Given how popular Cozumel is as a diving destination, I would never have expected that. I think I'll be sticking my regs in my checked baggage on future international trips.

Just so you will know, we had encountered several problems with airlines in the Philippines where they do not allow regulators to be in your carried-on luggage. It appears not to be in the airline regulation but you would not want to argue and ruin your day with airline security on whether or not a regulator is a peril on board a flight, would you? And since Philippines is composed of 7100 islands, we have to travel and fly locally to dive from one place to another. We had been checking in our regulators together with the rest of our diving gears. We just made sure it's properly cushioned and protected so that no damage is done on the regulator. So far, no harm is done on any of our regulators...