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Hi there,

I'm trying to determine what miniature case to get to bring my armies to the Las Vegas Open. I'm planning to bring both my Fantasy and 40k army. I do not want to check my armies in. I'm flying on Delta and their restrictions are 45 linear inches for carry on. I was looking at Battlefoam but there P.A.C.K. Air is 52 linear inches, and Sabol Designs Battalion Army Transport is 47 linear inches.

I'm sure lots of members here travel to tournaments. What do you guys use?

Thanks!

Honestly, I'm not sure I would trust either to safely transport my army as checked baggage. Particularly if they randomly get chosen for searching. At the least, you would want it to be in a hard shell case, as it WILL get bounced around and have heavy stuff stacked on top of it.
You may want to consider a quick trip to a local UPS or FedEx store to explore the possibility for shipping it to your hotel (or UPS/FedEx store for pickup). Not sure which would be cheaper, shipping or checked baggage fees.

I took my PACK AIR to Adepticon last year. It was technically a little outside my airline's limits, but no one said anything when I carried it on.

A key factor is your boarding zone. An early boarding zone gets your case in the overhead before it fills up. A late boarding zone means a good chance you'll have to gate check it (and in fact if you have to take a smaller aircraft you might have to do that anyway). I wouldn't be as concerned about gate checking as I would checking it in normally, but obviously avoiding it is better.

A lot of people ship their case as Tannhauser said. In my case, the army I brought with me last year was more or less irreplaceable and I'd rather risk some repairable damage than getting it lost in the mail, etc.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Honestly, I'm not sure I would trust either to safely transport my army as checked baggage. Particularly if they randomly get chosen for searching. At the least, you would want it to be in a hard shell case, as it WILL get bounced around and have heavy stuff stacked on top of it.
You may want to consider a quick trip to a local UPS or FedEx store to explore the possibility for shipping it to your hotel (or UPS/FedEx store for pickup). Not sure which would be cheaper, shipping or checked baggage fees.

Yeah, as I said I do not want to check my army in. Shipping it is concerning as well. If it doesn't make it on time for some reason I'm SOL.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 gorgon wrote:
I took my PACK AIR to Adepticon last year. It was technically a little outside my airline's limits, but no one said anything when I carried it on.

A key factor is your boarding zone. An early boarding zone gets your case in the overhead before it fills up. A late boarding zone means a good chance you'll have to gate check it (and in fact if you have to take a smaller aircraft you might have to do that anyway). I wouldn't be as concerned about gate checking as I would checking it in normally, but obviously avoiding it is better.

A lot of people ship their case as Tannhauser said. In my case, the army I brought with me last year was more or less irreplaceable and I'd rather risk some repairable damage than getting it lost in the mail, etc.

Hmmm, I didn't consider that it might matter which boarding zone I'm in. My fear is that they would measure it before I got on the plane and make me check it at the gate. This is the first time I'm flying to a tournament. If you had no problem with the PACK AIR maybe I'll give that a try after all. Delta has been bouncing me around and I think I'm on a smaller plan with a layover that keeps getting longer. Anyone heard of Horizon Air?

I was fortunate to be flying under my generous sister-in-law's account, so I was in zone 1. But I noticed on my flights that the folks in the last zone had their stuff gate-checked automatically...the flight attendants didn't even wait to see if there would be room. Horizon sounds like a regional company, and you end up on a commuter jet, you'll probably have to gate check it regardless of size. I think I was flying on American.

The PACK AIR did look a smidge larger than other people's carry-on bags to my naked eye. On the other hand, it looks more like a suitcase than some other cases out there, so they might notice it less? *shrug* If the Sabol case is only 2 inches over, they'd be real jagoffs for making you gate-check it, IMO. The PACK AIR didn't fit under the seat in front of me, so you'd really want to get it in the overhead.

Thanks for the info. My local hobby shop had a pack air that I could look at and I've seen the Sabol Battalion case before. The Sabol case has none of the reinforcement that the Battlefoam case has, so I bought the Battlefoam case. I figure if it does get checked my armies have a much better chance of surviving the trip in that then something with no protection other than the foam and a thin padding.

Thanks again!