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Gentlemen,

I'll be flying over to Adepticon this coming April, and naturally, I need to make sure my miniatures get there in tip-top condition. Now as things stand, I've read one or two threads over the years on variations of this subject, and as far as I can gather, the basic rule of thumb is to take them on as hand baggage. Primarily because clothes and toiletries can be replaced at the other end if your standard luggage goes missing, whereas if your models go walkabouts and you keep your clothing, there's little point in being at a gaming convention.

I'll be flying Aer Lingua, and they allow in hand luggage a bag/case of no more than 10kg in weight, and dimensions of 55cm by 40cm by 24cm. This, unfortunately, is a vary troublesome weight. Out of Battlefoam, KR Multicase, Outider, and Sabol, none of them do a case that's a close match for those proportions.

Now the closest I've been able to find is the KR Triple aluminium multicase has dimensions of 55cm by 41cm by 20 cm. That's an exact match on height, a single cm over on width, and 4cm under on depth. If I were to purchase this case, what are the odds this would be problematic for me? I've never flown to the US before, and I really have no idea how strict baggage checks are. The case is only a single centimetre too wide, which is absolutely minute as far as differences go, but for all I know, they'll tape measure it and then refuse to let me board with it.

So to clarify, do you fellows with more knowledge than me on international flights know if taking that case would be a genuine risk/problem or not?

It depends on the airline. In Australia, budget airlines can be quite strict about this stuff but some of the other ones don't seem to care too much.

I think you'd have absolutely nothing to worry about on the width being 1 cm over, personally. If you don't admit it, they'll never know, and you could swear it was made to spec to fit. Shouldn't be a problem at all being that close.

I was in vegas (not for LVO) recently and I jammed a suitcase that was 3" to thick in the overhead on a 737. Your 1 cm won't even scrape the sides.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And like RiTides said, you won't find a lowly keyboard jockey that can eyeball a centimeter from 4 feet away (unless they're a warhammer player, then your busted ).

Don't they have identically measured crates that they ask you to slot your case into? That's something I've read you may be required to do on some airlines.

Sometimes but there is a little leeway. If it were exact they would have people beating their luggage in there then yanking it out, congest the already long lines, forget it. Most just have a blue sign with a white outline right by the scale that you set your bag next to. It's so sparsely monitored that it's pretty much the honor system. Usually the keyboard jockey can't even see it because the sign is right below their monitor on your side of the counter.

But I've never been to London. You could just walk into the airport and watch how they do it at your airline counter. But I'm just spitballing now.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Carry-on is always checked at the ticket counter, so you can just watch them do it without going very far into the airport. It's never done after that, or they would be checking baggage in two locations. If your seriously concerned do so recon. I know its a pain, airports are always a circus. Not to mention they are usually in the boonies.

EDIT *went to the Aer Lingus site*

From the point of view of Cabin baggage and models it's better more from the point of damage. They are less likely to be damaged because you'll be handling them, if a baggage handler chucks some bigger suitcases on top of your models it would be game over.

Have you thought about buying a regular cabin case and perhaps outfitting it with foam? How much stuff are you taking over?

Important!
Please ensure your cabin baggage is within the specified allowance. Bags outside of this allowance must be checked-in and the relevant bag fee will apply.
Flights departing the USA are subject to TSA security rules.
*Revised from 31 January 2014* EU security rules regarding liquids, gels and aerosols in cabin baggage apply.
General Rules for Cabin Baggage
Cabin baggage must meet size and weight limits which are strictly enforced at the airport.
Cabin baggage must fit inside the gauge units at the airport (including wheels and handles).
All passengers must be able to place their own cabin baggage into the overhead bin unaided.
Please stow smaller bags under the seat in front of you keeping overhead space free for larger bags.
Occasionally we have to check your cabin bag into the hold due to stowage space limitations or if your baggage is over the allowed dimensions and weight.
Passengers in Row 1 Economy or Business Class, or at an emergency exit, MUST store baggage in an overhead bin.

I'd make sure you get there early to ensure you are one of the first to board. Don't want to risk them saying "it's full" and having to gamble with the hold.

 Ketara wrote:
Don't they have identically measured crates that they ask you to slot your case into? That's something I've read you may be required to do on some airlines.

It varies. They don't usually check everyone's carry-on, just anything that looks like it might be excessive.

After a fairly extensive web crawl, I've managed to come up with this chap here.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/samsonite-american-tourister-atlanta-4-wheel-suitcase-small/335-7825.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=335-7825

Same dimensions as the KR case, except it's minus that 1cm over. The flip side of the coin though, is that it's a suitcase, as opposed to a hard aluminium custom designed carry case.

I'm actually changing flights in Dublin, so I'm uncertain as to whether or not my luggage will need to be checked twice as well. I must admit, I'm still torn, as the general consensus seems to be that they 'might' check out the 1cm over case, but it 'probably' won't be a problem. I want the custom built hard case, but at the same time, it's not much good to me if I arrive at the airport and that one in ten chance occurs and they refuse to let me board with it as hand luggage.

As long as they're are not Tallarn dessert raiders you are ok

Word of warning, all airport security/customs people are rude and arrogant the world over, but the US security staff take this to a new level. They're likely to jump up and down on your stuff, and then charge you for wasting their time!

Ship them. It is the safest way, and considering check bag fees, not much more expensive because even if you carry the models on, you'll have to check your other luggage.

You can ship to your hotel, or to a friend in Chicago. You can probably even ship them to the Adepticon TO.

I can take three bags with me for no extra cost as things stand, so shipping would be both infinitely more expensive, and add on the risk of something going wrong with the shipping itself. Sorry Weeble, but I don't plan on letting my babies out of my sight.

 Ketara wrote:
After a fairly extensive web crawl, I've managed to come up with this chap here.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/samsonite-american-tourister-atlanta-4-wheel-suitcase-small/335-7825.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=335-7825

Same dimensions as the KR case, except it's minus that 1cm over. The flip side of the coin though, is that it's a suitcase, as opposed to a hard aluminium custom designed carry case.

I'm actually changing flights in Dublin, so I'm uncertain as to whether or not my luggage will need to be checked twice as well. I must admit, I'm still torn, as the general consensus seems to be that they 'might' check out the 1cm over case, but it 'probably' won't be a problem. I want the custom built hard case, but at the same time, it's not much good to me if I arrive at the airport and that one in ten chance occurs and they refuse to let me board with it as hand luggage.

Did you book your flight as one continuous journey? i.e. from A to B with a layover in Dublin. If so then you will be in the secure area of the terminals and should not need to recheck your luggage.
If you booked two different tickets to get from A to B (bought one flight to Dublin, then a second separate flight from Dublin) then you will need to recheck your luggage.

Aer Lingus does have measuring stations for luggage, but I have only ever seen them used to gather dust.

It's a continuous journey.

I'm currently trying to get answers from my travel agents about changeover timings and whatnot, and just getting illiterate vague half baked responses. Starting to get a spot apprehensive about this trip now...

 Ketara wrote:
I can take three bags with me for no extra cost as things stand, so shipping would be both infinitely more expensive, and add on the risk of something going wrong with the shipping itself. Sorry Weeble, but I don't plan on letting my babies out of my sight.

Only a fool trusts Fed Ex less than TSA. I fly all the time for work. So many things can go wrong and your bag of models can easily wind up getting shunted into the hands of a baggage handler who will not treat it nicely. If you manage to hang onto your models, flying is fine, but that is a BIG if. What if you get on a commuter jet that has small luggage racks that your bag won't fit into? What if all of the overhead space is taken up by the time you board? What if your bag should fit under the seat, but is sticking out enough that a stewardess tells you that you need to put it into the baggage compartment...that has no more room? Gate check, gate check, gate check. You do NOT want your models gate checked.

When you ship you can also get insurance so that if the unlikely thing happens (and it is less likely than a gate check) you can at least get money to buy new models. I have shipped models to tournaments and it is perfectly fine. Put the models into whatever bag or case you have, put that into a box with plenty of shock absorbing material, and put it into the hands of professionals who are not allowed to open it.

You are shipping internationally, which is probably much more of a deal, and the package could draw a customs inspection. But again, that is FAR less likely than a gate check. Gate check is a great way to totally mess up your models. If you trust your case enough to pack it full of your models, kick it across the living room a few times, and jump up and down on it, then by all means have it checked as luggage on an airline.

If you are going to carry on, you better have a bag that will fit comfortably under the seat, but I highly doubt that's what you have. If it has to go into the luggage rack, be darn sure you know the model of plane you will be on for each leg of the flight. Be sure your bag will fit into the luggage space for every model of airplane, and get a first class ticket, because if you aren't flying first class there's simply no guarantee that you will have space to put up your carry on bag. Once that bag goes into the hands of a baggage handler, the risk of damage goes up dramatically, and the airline is not responsible for damage.

 Ketara wrote:
It's a continuous journey.

I'm currently trying to get answers from my travel agents about changeover timings and whatnot, and just getting illiterate vague half baked responses. Starting to get a spot apprehensive about this trip now...

If it is a continuous journey then there should be absolutely no need for you to have to recheck your luggage for each flight. I've flown to the US numerous times (all part of a trans-Atlantic relationship) and not once have I ever had to recheck checked luggage, or had to have my carry on luggage reinspected. I have seen people with larger luggage than the specified size force it into overhead storage, and many others with 3+ items of carry on.

Sorry Weeble. I disagree.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:

 Ketara wrote:
It's a continuous journey.

I'm currently trying to get answers from my travel agents about changeover timings and whatnot, and just getting illiterate vague half baked responses. Starting to get a spot apprehensive about this trip now...

If it is a continuous journey then there should be absolutely no need for you to have to recheck your luggage for each flight. I've flown to the US numerous times (all part of a trans-Atlantic relationship) and not once have I ever had to recheck checked luggage, or had to have my carry on luggage reinspected. I have seen people with larger luggage than the specified size force it into overhead storage, and many others with 3+ items of carry on.

As far as I can tell though, I have to go through a second set of inspections before boarding the US flight, that's operated by US officials in Dublin. That in turn allows us to land as a domestic flight.

I think it's pretty critical to be able to carry on a bag with your most sensitive minis, and perhaps check the rest (for example, the tanks, wrapped up in a box within your clothes in a hard-sided suitcase).

But carrying on your fragile ones is by far the way to go. So whatever solution you need to implement to do that, I think it's worth it!

One thing that I think you might want to look into is Medical Insurance. I am guessing that you are living in a country where your medical coverage is via the Government ... in our wonderfully enlightened United States it is not. It is fairly cheap I think and God forbid you need any sort of medical care here and not have it ... they will rack your ass if you do not have insurance.

I am a worst case scenario kind of guy and fully believe that if it is bad and can happen, it will happen to me.

Don't worry, I'll be insured to the tune of $2,000,000 whilst I'm there.

I figure anything I need that costs more than that will probably kill me.

What army are you planning on bringing and how many models of each size?

Imperial Guard. I'll probably be bringing around ten tanks and fifty infantry as a minimum, along with possibly heavy weapons teams/ogryn size miniatures/bikes.

 Ketara wrote:
Sorry Weeble. I disagree.

That's fine Ketra. You can disagree all you like. There's need to apologize.

I've seen what airlines do to bags, even bags that are specifically designed to be roughly handled by airlines. In fact, Eagle Creek has a lifetime warranty on its bags unless you check them with an airline, lol. And I've seen plenty, plenty of times where you have to gate check a carry on bag. It happens. It happens a lot these days as the airlines are charging to check bags.

A bag of miniatures is a great bag to use to make a 'base' when handlers are stowing baggage, because they are often nice and square. This means that a bag of miniatures, if it gets checked, is likely going to be on the bottom of the luggage compartment. And you have to bring the bag through security if you carry on. Woe to your miniatures if your bag gets inspected, which it might. Carrying on a bag is not as simple as finding one that is -supposed- to fit in an overhead compartment.

You may want to work on being really cute and charming with the flight attendants because should the worst happen you might be able to escape a gate check if you can get a flight attendant to stow the bag in the little coat closet for first class passengers. But you have to make nice.

If your models break I won't want to say I told you so.

I second (or third) the vote to ship them to your hotel. Most hotels allow you to do this. I have worked overseas and shipped my mini's by USPS many times and no issues.

If you do carry on your mini's you are going to have to open them all up for inspection at security. Usually you only do security one time on your first leg of the journey but depending on the country you are coming from you might have to do it again if the security does not meet TSA standards so that is two times security people will be pawing through your mini's asking wtf is all this stuff.

Checking your bags can be fine too if you put them in the proper case. I have travel with the government/military so I have used plano storage boxes and everything worked fine.

http://www.amazon.com/Plano-Molding-1819-XXL-Storage/dp/B000UPGMXY/ref=pd_sim_hg_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=14G2DM3K4GXNR1P4F3CM

I use these for my travels. I have shipped them USPS and as checked luggage and they survived just fine both ways.

There is just no way I would go through the hassle of having my stuff go through security. Oh and you better hope they don't decide to pull you for customs....<queue ominous music>

weeble1000 wrote:

 Ketara wrote:
Sorry Weeble. I disagree.

That's fine Ketra. You can disagree all you like. There's need to apologize.

I've seen what airlines do to bags, even bags that are specifically designed to be roughly handled by airlines. In fact, Eagle Creek has a lifetime warranty on its bags unless you check them with an airline, lol. And I've seen plenty, plenty of times where you have to gate check a carry on bag. It happens. It happens a lot these days as the airlines are charging to check bags.

A bag of miniatures is a great bag to use to make a 'base' when handlers are stowing baggage, because they are often nice and square. This means that a bag of miniatures, if it gets checked, is likely going to be on the bottom of the luggage compartment. And you have to bring the bag through security if you carry on. Woe to your miniatures if your bag gets inspected, which it might. Carrying on a bag is not as simple as finding one that is -supposed- to fit in an overhead compartment.

You may want to work on being really cute and charming with the flight attendants because should the worst happen you might be able to escape a gate check if you can get a flight attendant to stow the bag in the little coat closet for first class passengers. But you have to make nice.

If your models break I won't want to say I told you so.

Ah, but you see, that's why the only plan is to let go of them from my cold. dead. hands.

I jest, but not by much. I'll make sure my case is underweight and within size limit for hand luggage, and show up three hours beforehand, and insure the lot if that's what it takes. I'm not sure if I'd rather have it posted or in the plane hold, but either way gives me waaaaay more potential missing/broken models then simply making sure they never leave my grasp to begin with.

 insaniak wrote:

 Ketara wrote:
Don't they have identically measured crates that they ask you to slot your case into? That's something I've read you may be required to do on some airlines.

It varies. They don't usually check everyone's carry-on, just anything that looks like it might be excessive.

I got my Battlefoam PACK AIR case on my flight to Chicago last year without a problem -- no one questioned it, and it fit in the overhead -- and it was definitely over the requirements.

One factor that worked for me was that I was in boarding zone 1. That meant I was first to board, and was able to immediately stake out space in the overhead. Had I been in a later boarding zone, I might have been out of luck. On my flights, people in the last boarding zone weren't even allowed to try to bring their bags on board...they were told up front that they'd need to gate check them.

Of course, it's domestic flights vs. international flights, but boarding zone could be a factor too.

Edit: Oh, and they didn't open up my PACK AIR to inspect it, coming or going. And I had plenty of metal models in the case.

That samsonite case looks alright actually. Where are you getting the dimensions for the KR case from?

Two words. Carry on. If you check your models, you may never see them again. Not even kidding here.

 Breotan wrote:
Two words. Carry on. If you check your models, you may never see them again. Not even kidding here.

Two words. Gate Check. If you try to carry on your models they might get checked anyway.