US Air Travel with miniatures.

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**fsupadre**

Anyone used the larger GW army case as carryon? I've gone to the US Air website and it lists that the case is 3 inches too deep, but I really thought someone had mentioned using that larger case as carryon - help?

**grizgrin**

Yeah, I used a GW case in the Apocalypse backpack to carry on models. I put a laptop in there so that if they asked me to check it, I just ask them if they'd like to pay for the laptop and data retrieval now up front. That being said, I ship laptops and sensors and all kinds of delicate crap through airplanes for work, never really had any problems. With proper packaging. Pelican cases FTW. But a GW hardcase + laptop in the bag fits right under most seats.

**Breton**

My Advice is unless you're crossing that little pond to the East of us, take Amtrak.

**captain.gordino**

grizgrin wrote: Nothing bjork,

Cool singer, I agree.

**asugradinwa**

Anyone know if the Division case from Sabol is too large to carry on?

**Grot 6**

Belphegor wrote:So I haven't yet taken a flight with miniatures as luggage.
Does anyone have any strategies or tips to get them for points A (through security) to point B, without security breaking them?
also as a note, I'm looking to transport 2 monoliths

Best advice? DON"T. Security will be all up in them.
If you really have to, though, put them in your luggage and make sure they are packed well. You don't need the aggrivation of taking them through had carried.

**Agamemnon2**

Stelek wrote:Always make room for it anywhere on the plane. I've smashed peoples clothes into a pocket dimension to make room, and tossed coats the feth out of the overhead.

My army > you, your family, your wife, your kids, your stupid gak.

I can just about understand raging at the guys making your life miseable by manhandling your stuff in the name of security, but why antagonize other passengers like that? Or do you just enjoy being a prick?

**JohnHwangDD**

Grot 6 wrote:Best advice? DON"T. Security will be all up in them.
If you really have to, though, put them in your luggage and make sure they are packed well. You don't need the aggrivation of taking them through had carried.

As opposed to being stolen out of / smashed inside of checked luggage?

No way. I'd hand carry every time, and I'd get a carry on case specifically for air transport.

Yes, TSA may look at you strange, which is why you need to simply play it cool and explain you're transporting "toy soldiers". This is probably the best reason to own an issue of White Dwarf, if only to be seen as more of a dork and less of a threat.

Agamemnon2 wrote:
Stelek wrote:Always make room for it anywhere on the plane. I've smashed peoples clothes into a pocket dimension to make room, and tossed coats the feth out of the overhead.

I can just about understand raging at the guys making your life miseable by manhandling your stuff in the name of security,

but why antagonize other passengers like that? Or do you just enjoy being a prick?

TSA has unlimited, unchecked, arbitrary authority. You don't mess with people who are answerable to no authority save themselves. SO I don't think Stelek (or really, anyone on Dakka) is man enough to rage at TSA. If he did, he'd be posting from inside Gitmo today...

I think you answered your own question pretty well.

**Agamemnon2**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
TSA has unlimited, unchecked, arbitrary authority. You don't mess with people who are answerable to no authority save themselves. SO I don't think Stelek (or really, anyone on Dakka) is man enough to rage at TSA. If he did, he'd be posting from inside Gitmo today...

I think you answered your own question pretty well.

"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security, deserve neither."

I can't really relate to the woes of air travellers, the last time I went abroad (on a ferry), I don't think they even required me to show ID. Good old Schengen treaty...

**JohnHwangDD**

TWo points:

First off, we *have* neither.

Secondly, we didn't voluntarily sacrifice liberty - it was taken!

**ChaosDave**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
TSA has unlimited, unchecked, arbitrary authority. You don't mess with people who are answerable to no authority save themselves. SO I don't think Stelek (or really, anyone on Dakka) is man enough to rage at TSA. If he did, he'd be posting from inside Gitmo today...

I think you answered your own question pretty well.

Hehe TSA can't send you to Gitmo. As for pissing them off, if you aren't doing anything illegal all they can really do is detain/delay you temporarily. If they do that and you checked a bag then they have to delay the entire flight. If they do so with out a good reason it can cost them their job, because the media jumps all over "potential threats" that cause airlines to be detained.

As for traveling with miniatures I would suggest just carrying them on the plane or packing them up and shipping them separately via UPS or something. As for hassles, well I just flash them my TWIC and I get zero hassles. Oh and just for reference TWIC stands for "Transportation worker identification credential".

**two_heads_talking**

Stelek wrote:Never ever ever check an army.

Always use the correctly sized "approved" airport size "bag".

Always make room for it anywhere on the plane. I've smashed peoples clothes into a pocket dimension to make room, and tossed coats the feth out of the overhead.

My army > you, your family, your wife, your kids, your stupid gak.

I'd take another flight before letting my luggage get packed.

Always, ALWAYS lock the case. That way, it won't come open in flight nor can the TSA idiots open it without my key. They can bitch, but I can lock anything I am personally carrying.

I've never ever had a good experience with the TSA. I have however figured out their "secret" code for getting you searched again at the plane (usually 'marking' your ticket in some way, like with a pen). And I rip that part of the ticket off now. Woo, homeland security fail. My ticket, I can destroy it how I like.

Yes, I am a grade A jerk about the whole thing. You get searched every time you fly, you'll get your panties in a bunch too.

My favorite question:

"We'll need you to take one of these apart so we can inspect inside."

"Over my dead fething body, buddy."

That ended nicely. I thought I was going to get gang raped in the shower for talking back.

Like the time they asked me to 'disassemble' my laptop, and to 'remove the lens' from my camera.

"Ummm feth you?"

Yeah. TSA slam + Homeland Security bypass + This Post = FBI visit?

Nice! Had one of those before over my minis. Yes, really.

I've seen 6 people (4males, 2 females) act like this.. None of them ever made the plane they were scheduled to take. it's one thing to talk a big story, it's a completely other thing altogether to actually do it. I think someones been watching too many Action movies that take place at airports..

**JohnHwangDD**

ChaosDave wrote:
JohnHwangDD wrote:
TSA has unlimited, unchecked, arbitrary authority. You don't mess with people who are answerable to no authority save themselves. SO I don't think Stelek (or really, anyone on Dakka) is man enough to rage at TSA. If he did, he'd be posting from inside Gitmo today...

I think you answered your own question pretty well.

Hehe TSA can't send you to Gitmo. As for pissing them off, if you aren't doing anything illegal all they can really do is detain/delay you temporarily. If they do that and you checked a bag then they have to delay the entire flight. If they do so with out a good reason it can cost them their job, because the media jumps all over "potential threats" that cause airlines to be detained.

As for traveling with miniatures I would suggest just carrying them on the plane or packing them up and shipping them separately via UPS or something. As for hassles, well I just flash them my TWIC and I get zero hassles. Oh and just for reference TWIC stands for "Transportation worker identification credential".

If the TSA drone is any good at his job, he can easily get someone like Stelek to do or say something illegal.

At a minimum, you miss your flight, plus, you get a full, free body cavity search to check for smuggling. Heck, maybe they think you swallowed something, so need to be held for a few days until they can be sure there's nothing inside...

And no, those TSA guys aren't worried about losing their jobs. Not against guys like Stelek. You see, TSA isn't accountable to the airlines anymore. They're HSA. And HSA answers to nobody. If they overreact in the name of security, the press invariably passes it of as "better safe than sorry".

Seriously, did the guy who made the woman remove her nipple piercings get fired? How about the chief of Boston PD deciding that light-up signs are bombs? If you claim "terrorism", and you're TSA or even a regular cop, you have a free pass to do whatever the hell you like.

They don't even apologize afterwards. The best that you can get is a nebulous promise to revise guidelines or some other empty promise.

But yeah, I'd love to see what happens when Stelek has a GT on the line, and pulls attitude with TSA, then spills that he's got an all-weekend tournament that he paid to attend, non-refundable...

**Clthomps**

one of my many bizzare jobs over the years was a luggage handler (to be honest I only did it for the free flying Benifits) And the best thing that i can recomend is going to the local salvation army and finding one of the hard plastic suitcases, Preferibly one that is Yellow, Lime green, Red, or orange. I think they were common in the 60s and 70s. Those things are like tanks I have seen one get run over by a Belt loader and only have a scratch on it. As for the goofy colors its near impossible for someone to steal it, which does happen a lot at airports (oh god the sheer amount of "missing" bag calls we used to get).

And the final and most important thing to remember is:

Never, Ever, under any circumstance fly into or out of O'Hare airport, it is the

Black-Hole of Kolkata!

note that i am not kidding in the slightest, If your ticket has a layover in Chicago go return it now and find another flight.

*edit* Oh and also don't bring anything in GW cases, anything that looks like a black brief case is a golden target for scammers *edit*

**Clthomps**

If the TSA drone is any good at his job, he can easily get someone like Stelek to do or say something illegal.

At a minimum, you miss your flight, plus, you get a full, free body cavity search to check for smuggling. Heck, maybe they think you swallowed something, so need to be held for a few days until they can be sure there's nothing inside...

And no, those TSA guys aren't worried about losing their jobs. Not against guys like Stelek. You see, TSA isn't accountable to the airlines anymore. They're HSA. And HSA answers to nobody. If they overreact in the name of security, the press invariably passes it of as "better safe than sorry".

Seriously, did the guy who made the woman remove her nipple piercings get fired? How about the chief of Boston PD deciding that light-up signs are bombs? If you claim "terrorism", and you're TSA or even a regular cop, you have a free pass to do whatever the hell you like.

They don't even apologize afterwards. The best that you can get is a nebulous promise to revise guidelines or some other empty promise.

But yeah, I'd love to see what happens when Stelek has a GT on the line, and pulls attitude with TSA, then spills that he's got an all-weekend tournament that he paid to attend, non-refundable...

the men in the "trenches" at airports are less worried about the safety of passengers and more worried about personal fines that TSA higher ups impose.

I will give you an example:

if a bag is left unattended by a handler / Tsa op. / security guard thats a $5000 personal fine and a $10000 company fine.
and thats the small ones, what cause me to quit my job at the airport was a combination of bad management and the threat of TSA fines.

Incedentaly after a left one of the guys i worked with hit a plane with a baggage cart and tore a football sized whole in it, because he knew that he would get a massive personal fine and loose his job he figured he wouldn't say anything, (now mind you pilots are supposed to check the plane after landing and before take off) well this was a snowy day and the pilot thought it was to cold to do the walk around so he just took off..... Needless to say somewhere around buffalo NY the hole in the plane ripped open to the size of a VW beetle, and the plane dropped 10k feet. Luckily they made a successful emergancy landing.

The point of the story is that had he not been afraid of personal fines he probibly would have done the right thing and told the pilot he hit the plane.

what was my point again..... oh bother i forgot....

**JohnHwangDD**

The big difference is that you weren't TSA:

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=340a79d6-839a-470d-b662-944325cea23d

The guy was fired, TSA paid a huge fine, and so on, right?

Nope. TSA got away without even a slap on the wrist.

**Relapse**

Stelek wrote:
Always make room for it anywhere on the plane. I've smashed peoples clothes into a pocket dimension to make room, and tossed coats the feth out of the overhead.

My army > you, your family, your wife, your kids, your stupid gak.

Stelek, I've been at a couple of the same tournaments as you in RL and know you ain't that husky to be talking that crap. If you were throwing someone's clothes out of an overhead or talked that way to someone about their wife and kids, chances are better than good you'd be decked pretty quick.

**JohnHwangDD**

On the Intarwebz, everybody is a 250# brick house.

**Relapse**

He might weigh 250, but he's definitely no brick house.

**two_heads_talking**

JohnHwangDD wrote:On the Intarwebz, everybody is a 250# brick house.

In the US, 250 is only husky if you are 5'8 or shorter.. you gotta be 300# or more and over 6'3 to get any respect anymore..

**JohnHwangDD**

Nah, at 300#, you're too fat and slow to be a real threat.

250# is the optimal balance of size and speed.

**Relapse**

Only if that 250 doesn't bounce with every step a person takes!

**Lorek**

Guess that means I need to start eating...

The best way to get through security safely is to be quiet, happy and boring looking.

Fortunately I'm boring AND dorky-looking.

**fsupadre**

so no one has trying to carry on the larger GW army case then? Looks like I'm back to one GW case and then something separate for my three Exorcists for my foray with US Air

**JohnHwangDD**

As long as whatever you're trying to carry fits in a 22" x 14" x 9" box, you should be good.

**two_heads_talking**

JohnHwangDD wrote:Nah, at 300#, you're too fat and slow to be a real threat.

250# is the optimal balance of size and speed.

at 6'3 or taller, 250 is a lightweight.. but it seems here, we will just have to agree to disagree.. I'd say optimal blance of size and speed is determined by more than weight and height.. There are tons of other factors that will need to be looked into.. I've seen some 300 lb guys move faster than 200 lb guys.. it's all in how they are physically trained/able.

However, i'd have to say the average 250 lb gamer to be too fat and slow to do anything but get in his own way..

**JohnHwangDD**

OK, I'd agree that the average 250# gamer is only strong enough to lift his pizza and soda.

At 6'3", 200# is very lean and mean. Add 50# of muscle and he's still a brick house. At 300#, he better be on 'roids, or he's definitely carrying fat.

But yeah, we agree to disagree.

**wash-away**

my favorite TSA story, they asked this 400 plus fat guy to take off his shoes for bomb's.

he simplay asked who was puttin them on afterwards.

stelek that wasn't your walmart guard army was it?

**JohnHwangDD**

Um, from his blog, Stelek was perma-banned. He won't be back anytime soon...

**Commisar00**

I have used the large gray GW case as my carry-on at airports and have had no problem with it what so ever. I just put it through the scanner and act like nothing is wrong with it and get no crap from TSA, plus I always use military ID with my ticket.