Camera gear on planes

[Box Brownie]

That’s brilliant, many thanks, I’m only slightly over with everything included.

I don't know but I would be concerned - the plane is small and lands on a beach so they may be stricter than other flights, good luck!

Though not that flight.........

I read that the planes that fly into the Okavango Delta in Botswana will handle carry on in a particular way.

They are not allowed in the cabin so you hand them to the pilot before take off for loading into the luggage section.....upon landing, it is the pilot that unloads each such bag and hands it to the individual passenger i.e. it is handled safely and never goes into the hands of the 'baggage handlers'. As such you can see what is happening and the locking of the stowage compartment as appropriate

Perhaps the flight you are talking about handles it the same way????

 

[Dryce]

The rule is for several reasons - an overly heavy item in an overhead could potentially fall out and injure someone

So .... that means they put the first class and business class passenegers at higher risk where they are allowed heavier bags ?

Or that the inconsistent enforcement generally puts passengers at risk ?

It's all a bit of a game. Airlines that charge for hold baggage have an incentive to enforce for revenue reasons. The ones that don't seem to do it to try and keep things reasonable.

I personally would like to see a 10kg limit that a standard across all airlines flying twin jets and up that is rigorously enforced.

 

[nc_killie]

So .... that means they put the first class and business class passenegers at higher risk where they are allowed heavier bags ?

Or that the inconsistent enforcement generally puts passengers at risk ?

It's all a bit of a game. Airlines that charge for hold baggage have an incentive to enforce for revenue reasons. The ones that don't seem to do it to try and keep things reasonable.

I personally would like to see a 10kg limit that a standard across all airlines flying twin jets and up that is rigorously enforced.

The weight allowance for carry on in business /first is based on the weight capacity of the bins- fewer passengers per area thus increases allowance. I am sure that £ also influences things.

 

[Micro-four-thirds]

Though not that flight.........

I read that the planes that fly into the Okavango Delta in Botswana will handle carry on in a particular way.

They are not allowed in the cabin so you hand them to the pilot before take off for loading into the luggage section.....upon landing, it is the pilot that unloads each such bag and hands it to the individual passenger i.e. it is handled safely and never goes into the hands of the 'baggage handlers'. As such you can see what is happening and the locking of the stowage compartment as appropriate

Perhaps the flight you are talking about handles it the same way????

Hi, many thanks, I’ve watched quite a few YouTube videos etc recently on the flight and it seems passengers are allowed one item of hand luggage albeit relatively small compared to standard flights (which they board with) plus one item of checked luggage which at barra end is handed back to you it’s more Glasgow on the return I’m concerned with if I check it in so to speak.

 

[nc_killie]

I misunderstood this initially, you said 7kg per item and I thought what camera or lens are you taking that weighs over 7kg Obviously you meant 7kg per bag/case

……maybe I have the legendary “ bigma’ les?

 

[whyone]

Though not that flight.........

I read that the planes that fly into the Okavango Delta in Botswana will handle carry on in a particular way.

They are not allowed in the cabin so you hand them to the pilot before take off for loading into the luggage section.....upon landing, it is the pilot that unloads each such bag and hands it to the individual passenger i.e. it is handled safely and never goes into the hands of the 'baggage handlers'. As such you can see what is happening and the locking of the stowage compartment as appropriate

I guess that policies vary airline to airline, 'plane type to 'plane type?

We flew in and out of the Delta last week with Mackair (14 seat Cessna Grand Caravan EX) and we all carried camera gear onto the 'plane, and then placed it at the rear of the cabin, where a tough rubberised canvas tarp, held in place with toggles, formed a compartment for bags.

 

[Box Brownie]

I guess that policies vary airline to airline, 'plane type to 'plane type?

We flew in and out of the Delta last week with Mackair (14 seat Cessna Grand Caravan EX) and we all carried camera gear onto the 'plane, and then placed it at the rear of the cabin, where a tough rubberised canvas tarp, held in place with toggles, formed a compartment for bags.

Thanks for the insight and I surmise the aircraft type will always be a mitigating factor.

How is the trip going, lots of interesting sightings in the Delta?

I have seen some images of the elephants & their feeding behaviour at (IIRC?) Mana Pools (or was it Saba Sands ) , was that on your itinerary too?

 

[Faldrax]

The weight allowance for carry on in business /first is based on the weight capacity of the bins- fewer passengers per area thus increases allowance. I am sure that £ also influences things.

Another 'number of passengers' factor is how many are trying to access the overheads at a time - lots of people all trying to grab/stow their bag in limited space as quickly as possible will increase the chance of an accident, while in business/first you have fewer passengers AND a much greater ration of cabin staff to passengers - so there is more likely to be someone to help anyone who is struggling.

 

[whyone]

Thanks for the insight and I surmise the aircraft type will always be a mitigating factor.

How is the trip going, lots of interesting sightings in the Delta?

I have seen some images of the elephants & their feeding behaviour at (IIRC?) Mana Pools (or was it Saba Sands ) , was that on your itinerary too?

Our trip was split between Chobe, Okavango and the Kalahari....so 3 very different environments. All interesting in their own ways. Lots of good sightings (a few posted over in 'Nature -Wild and Free' and 'Birds' ) no doubt more over the coming weeks as I work through my photos.

Mana Pools (which I visited many times on a 'self-drive' basis over the years) is famous for the ele's (including 'Boswell') who stand on their rear legs to reach up into the trees.

 

[nc_killie]

……. much ado about nothing. No problem in Edinburgh and when you see what some people are bringing on! First time I’ve flown BA in nearly 3 years, why did I bother worrying?
Hope # Dryce has a similar trip to Barra

 

[nc_killie]

……carry on was fine however two checked bags are still in London

 

[whyone]

……carry on was fine however two checked bags are still in London

Good old BA!

 

[Faldrax]

……carry on was fine however two checked bags are still in London

My daughter had a related problem with BA when she went to South Africa - despite asking at Heathrow about transfer of bags from the international flight to the internal flight (and being told they would be transferred automatically) on arriving at her destination she discovered her bag were still at Johannesburg as she needed to have collected them and re-checked them in.

 

[TheFiend]

I started flying BA again in part because of the more liberal carry on rules in the economy cabin. As compared to the likes of Qatar and Emirates and the 7kg limits - which are not IME rigorously enforced but leave you exposed by small print on the occcasions that they do enforce. The BA rules takes a bit of stresss out of the mix when travelling with photo gear.

OTOH the BA way of doing things comes with caveats, The time to board seems longer as the luggage racks get packed. And BA can operate a multilevel priority boarding system which exposes those at the back of the queue in the lower priority categories to having their carry on bags tagged for putting in the hold. So BA are great if you are a higher tier customer through points or ticket at the front of the queue and a bit less so if you are not.

You can still get caught out on a non-direct itinerary. Buy a BA long haul ticket to a destination they don't frequently serve and you could end up with a BA ticket but one or more sector flown by another airline such as Qatar. And the small print will say that the carry on rules will be those applied by the actual carrier you are flying with.

I also suspect that the 23kg limit for carry on is actually a limit for the occasions where the carry on bag ends up in the hold either because it was deemed too heavy or there was no space in the cabin..

I fly with Qatar twice a year and have never had the 7kg limit enforced. Previously I used a camera backpack as carry on but nowadays I take a cabin sized case and a shoulder camera bag as my carry on..... Sometimes they'll weigh the case, but I've never had the camera bag weight checked.

 

[nc_killie]

…we received both our bags after 4 days. The joys of shopping for clothes in Sri Lanka where I am giant sized rather than just a bit on the cuddly side

 

[whyone]

…we received both our bags after 4 days. The joys of shopping for clothes in Sri Lanka where I am giant sized rather than just a bit on the cuddly side

Yikes!!!

I had a similar experience in La Paz, Bolivia....ended up shopping for clothes for a business meeting in a Sunday street market. Lots of ponchos!!!

 

[TheFiend]

……. much ado about nothing. No problem in Edinburgh and when you see what some people are bringing on! First time I’ve flown BA in nearly 3 years, why did I bother worrying?
Hope # Dryce has a similar trip to Barra

…we received both our bags after 4 days. The joys of shopping for clothes in Sri Lanka where I am giant sized rather than just a bit on the cuddly side

Ouch.... in 21 years of flying long-haul, which for me involves connecting flights, I've never had checked-in luggage miss a connection. I fly from Manchester, but have also flown from Newcastle with Emirates and Edinburgh with Qatar.

 

[Dryce]

……. much ado about nothing. No problem in Edinburgh and when you see what some people are bringing on! First time I’ve flown BA in nearly 3 years, why did I bother worrying?
Hope # Dryce has a similar trip to Barra

I haven't done a trip to Barra.

But I do head of to SE Asia quite a bit. Normally on Emirates or Qatar from Glasgow or Edinburgh.

In the last three years we started using BA via Heathrow

On the way back from a recent trip I had two items of cabin baggage as allowed by BA - smaller bag and larger bag - both within weight and actually under their dimensions. I was doing a project during the trip and had filled both bags with cameras and flash gear. My larger bag was well under their limits.

At T5 transiting on to my domestic back to Scotland with my partner - after a 12 hour flight - my larger bag was targeted for being put in the hold. Neither of her bags were targeted,. What followed was a polite engagement with gate staff to point out that I would have to carry the equipment pouches from the bag with me because of their value and their batteries - so I would be carrying four separate bags and only one would go under the my seat. It became a bit nonsensical and ended up with "you will have to check in something". So in front of them and wit their agreement my bag was filled with extra stuff and my partner's smaller bag was expandable and stuffed full and enlarged - and her large backpack was basically emptied. The gate staff moved the baggage tag they had applied to my bag over to the floppy empty backpack (I had always assumed they didn't come off without being torn -- now I know different).

Then the last bit of added nonsense - as we actually boarded half an hour later when we tried to hand the backpack to the staff member at the jetty dealing with the gate hold baggage and were waved off - I suspect she didn't want to handle a floppy empty backpack - so it was carried on board.

So on paper BA's cabin baggage limits look more reasonable than Emirates or Qatar but in practice based on today's experience may actually be worse. But unless you are flying with some sort of tier point status or in a higher fare grade (I was flying premium economy but as of around two years ago on the domestic legs when doing a transit to/from a long haul you get bumped down to economy rather than bumped up to business with BA).

 

[Phil V]

Ouch.... in 21 years of flying long-haul, which for me involves connecting flights, I've never had checked-in luggage miss a connection. I fly from Manchester, but have also flown from Newcastle with Emirates and Edinburgh with Qatar.

When flying back from Singapore to Manchester this year, we had a delayed flight (Air France) and despite the connection being much longer than the original, our cases never made it onto the flight from CDG to MCR.

The staff at Manchester and Air France were brilliant, and we were reunited with our luggage the same day

In a fairly normal amount of travel, this was our first experience of connecting flights, and only our 2nd experience of lost luggage, the first one was a flight from Schiphol to Donny, and was also sorted painlessly.

 

[Dryce]

In a fairly normal amount of travel, this was our first experience of connecting flights, and only our 2nd experience of lost luggage, the first one was a flight from Schiphol to Donny, and was also sorted painlessly.

We've had some spates of baggage not making connections. For a while Schiphol was one of the regular culprits for us - flights with short connections to Glasgow and Edinburgh where the bags would not make it. No issue with longer connections. As long as we were not on the last flight of the day then the bags would be on the next flight and courier'ed to our front door.

However one thing we do note is the wear and damage on cases that accumulates over just a few trips where the bags have to make connections.