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Anyone fly with their Battlefoam bags?

how do they hold up?

do you place them in cargo?

overhead bin?

any info or recommendations appreciated

Keep anything you value in the cabin with you

at least that way you can explain what it is if customs/security want to open and look at it, and make sure its properly closed afterwards

you also avoid the pretty regular 'bags got lost' action n airlines seem so prone to doing

I never check baggage anymore. If I can't carry it, it doesn't come with.

I travel with my battle foam flames of war bag regularly but I carry on. There is NO WAY I would check it. The models would be in pieces before they made it to the plane!

I have flown for years and never lost a bag when checking them.

However, that applies to clothes. A lost suitcase of clothes is not the same as a lost suitcase of miniatures. Make sure you have some sort of insurance if you check them.

Second, there is a very good chance they will be damaged if you check them. If you ever get a chance where your seat lets you watch them view them loading the plane you will see how many F***s they don't give when loading.

A soft bag will be tossed and banged around, very good chance your mini's could be damaged. I don't believe battlefoam can handle that. However, I have shipped mini's via a plastic footlocker when I was in the military. The mini's were in in foam trays stored in a hard case wrapped in towels in the plastic footlocker. Everything arrived safe and sound.

Last I heard Romeo is suing all airlines for using the term Bag as he owns that trademark.

I've flown a bit with my Pack 1520 (at least the top part) and have had no issues, but I do carry it into the cabin and check my clothes for the trip. You get some funny looks from the TSA agents that x-ray the bag but other than that no problems at all. As a bonus it fits near perfectly under the seat.

 pities2004 wrote:
Last I heard Romeo is suing all airlines for using the term Bag as he owns that trademark.

Just a note - the majority of battelfoam bags are not of the proper size to be a carry on.

A bag needs to be about 14 x 24 (at most) to get on the plane without a fuss. (or fit).

Now, you might see people TRY to bring bigger bags on the plane (as security does not check as much) but they usually get caught at the gate.

A 720 would be very tight to get into an overhead.
The smaller bags (or the backpack, or the top part of a 1520) would be fine.

You could put about 10 inches of foam into a standard "rollerboard" suitcase, and have a small amount of space for some clothes or dice etc.

I travel as part of my job (about 90-100 times a year) so yes, my experience is current and more than just "a lot".

I have only had bags lost twice (I have more miles than nasa....so, twice is not bad) but still, as others have said, packed bags get banged around a lot.

I would suggest putting them in hard case (or tote) or in a pinch I have seen people using coolers.

best of luck!

Most people here have covered all of the basics with flying with miniatures.

But there are some other options, depending upon where the flight is going (Domestic vs International).

If you are flying domestic, you do have an option available that is not ridiculously expensive that will allow you to get large numbers of miniatures to a destination without having to fly with them:

Specialty Shipping.

This is usually ground shipping, but it is through an agency that is used to dealing with special cargos that need special handling (artworks, scientific equipment.... And miniatures).

At Historicon, when I was running demo games for a rules set that had been released by a guy in Greece, I had to bring four to six armies with me.

For the first year I went, I tried to bring them on the Airline, and that produced a HUGE amount of hassle, as not only were they extremely heavy, and hard to carry, but it seemed that security would always be overly interested in digging through them.

The Hotel in Lancaster informed me, when they (the concierge) found out what I was doing, that they had a number for a shipping service that was used often by people at the conventions and conferences held at the Lancaster Host Hotel and Conference Center.

When I called them, and asked for rates, it turned out it was only around $100 for shipping the armies from SF to Lancaster (but it would take nearly a month), and that they would insure the miniatures arrived in the conditions I specified, and they had really cheap insurance.

The time involved was not really an issue, since they would arrange a specific delivery time and date (you could specify: 2:31:33pm on June 21st, and they would be there at that time).

If you google:

• Specialty Shipping
• White Glove Shipping Service
• Special Handling Shipping Service

You should find something.

FedEx and UPS both do White Glove Services, but they are both at the high end of cost (FedEx is the better of the two).

It is a bit more expensive, but I found that it was worth the price of not having to worry about the miniatures while I travelled and that they would tend to be cared for just as carefully as if I were handling them. And if anything broke, they paid for it.

MB