well since the TSA is better known for theft from baggage than security, I think putting anything in checked baggage you have to have the attitude "I might not ever see you again". If you read my blog I mentioned about a couple of months ago when I returned from Japan how several gift wrapped packages had disappeared from my checked baggage " With A TSA lock on it".

Take a photo of your valuable stuff in the bag IN the airport and keep an inventory.

Check it again after baggage claim.

It's one thing to accuse ALL TSA and bag handlers of being common thieves, but another to take no precautions to protect yourself.

Good Egg, I'm with you. Y friend and I am not accusing all TSA of anything. That would be like saying all cops are bad or all photographers are dirty old men. However, why should I need to take a photo of anything at all just in order to comply with open end misinterpreted policies that are unequally exercised? If I can't trust the people safeguarding me, there is. Huge problem already. But what I am pointing out here is not the criminal aspect of any one organization, but rather the deliberate blunders within the policy making for air transport travel. A few people made jokes of it but they are dead accurate on just about what it is coming to. My question is why?

Studio we are on the same page. But outing the airlines involved does nothing for the root cause of the problem. I will PM you the airlines however because I feel your pain and sometimes it is a good thing to talk about it LOL.

That's my point AVD. That is until I did just that, and found out this airport will not allow any tripod, regardless of size, through the screening point. With no warning to supersede what their website states. It's like whatever they feel li,e doing at the moment, they do it, and the consumers (travelers in this case) must bear the brunt of it.

Raoul Isidro Images wrote:
There may come a time where Camera Neck Straps won't be allowed anymore because they may be used as a sling weapon....



.

I have already started disguising my neck strap as a belt :-)

I have curiosities about the GPs, but I just don't see them as being all that useful unless you have something to clamp them to. If not, then what do you do?

I can tell you got a lot of love for the Big Brother :-)

I fly with equipment on a regular basis for professional assignments. In 20 years, I have had one piece of equipment (lens) stolen from checked baggage. I regularly fly with a tripod in a checked bag and have never once had problems with it or aluminum lightstands. I fly with Profoto power packs and heads all of the time. I just returned from Thailand with no incident.

I did not, however, attempt to carry on a tripod, nor would I. I carry on my cameras and computer, period. I can't see fighting a battle to carry on tripods being either productive or successful.

Robert Jewett wrote:
Please.  They are terrible weapons.  Do't you know your history?

That's good... No, that is GREAT!!! LOL.

In the last 6 months I have visited 6 countries, 3 times in and out of Japan, not including several U.S. major metropolitan areas with my equipment as well to shoot, so though I appreciate your candor, I don't follow where you are going with it. My question isn't about how often or how many times a theft occurs from baggage, my question is to find out why perhaps is the rule about tripods so vague and unequal depending on which airport you travel through. But to reply to your comment about putting your equipment into your checked baggage, I shouldn't have to play roulette with my equipment with the hopes that it will meet me at the other end of the flight. If you  had a lens stolen and that did not cause you to find a better way of doing business, perhaps you just happen to have it like that and is okay with having to replace random equipment. I always try to take preventative measures. Here is an interesting article, and all it takes is one time: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … 13542.html

ALSO keep in mind that if the airline looses it - they will pay for it BY THE POUND or KILOGRAM not anything near it's actual value.

They have no additional liability for high value items such as cameras, lenses or computers, ect, EVEN IF DECLARED AS SUCH AND PACKED IN THE BAGGAGE when the bag(s) are checked in with the airline.

See: Warsaw Convention and Montreal Convention [both deal with the airline's limitation of liability]

You are liable to be in a much better position relying on your home owner insurance, or travel insurance with a lost / damaged baggage rider, or some other kind of specialist insurance, than on the airline(s) for adequate compensation sufficient to buy a replacement.

Studio36

Well in this case my situation becomes unique because they do not have a weight for my item. It was a last minute decision to tag it AT THE GATE, which gives me the freedom of increasing the weight. But I am not a dishonest person, or at least I practice everyday not to be. However when you hear on the local news about a man traveling with a 5 ton tripod, you will know that story is about me LOL.

As noted earlier, some other people have mentioned that they check their tripod in their baggage. I travel often and I have come across many situations where I have no  problem whatsoever bringing my tripod onboard (more often than not allowed) and I have had situations where items have been removed from my checked baggage (even with a TSA lock on it). If you are interested in reading, I attached a link in an earlier reply involving just how much more likely your tripod is prone to come up missing from your baggage than you are by having it move on its own baggage tag. I'll rather keep taking my chances for the lesser of the two evils.

Paragraphs were invented for a reason. Didn't even try to read that.

This would be the issue I have with you, specifically, and everyone else who rants here and on Facebook.

You encountered an intermittent issue that doesn't affect you all the time, but when it does, it REALLY affects you.  It can cost you a sizable price when the airline decides to be jerks about their own policies.  Yet, you will not take the precautions of smooth travel because you're so paranoid that the apes back in baggage are just looking for your bag of expensive goodies to steal and supplement their income.

When I travel with expensive stuff in a checked bag (almost never) I take a photographic and written inventory.  Or, I only take equipment that will absolutely fit within the bags as allowed by the airline.

You will argue that tripods are allowed, or that the size limitation is not an issue.  Well... an axe is within the size limits too.  But it's an axe.  An 8 pound sledge is a smaller hand tool, but they're not going to let you hold that in your seat either.

So if you want to take your chances, that's your choice.  But be prepared to deal with people like me who have no empathy for you when you bitch about how the world isn't fair when you aren't playing by the rules.  Even if you don't agree with the rules.

Thank you Good Egg. However, it is not my argument that tripods are allowed or not allowed. It is the information provided to travelers on various websites by airlines and Homeland Security. Now if I follow those policies I should have a trouble free travel period right? Wrong. There is no parinoya about whether some crook will specifically watch my bag or not. I provided the link to show the randomness and frequency at how the problem is growing so that we can all give some thought to the question of should I or should I not? As mentioned, I have already had the pleasure of having items removed from my bag by those Apes you're talking about. I have also had the pleasure of having a checked bag go into that "black hole". My checked bag is basically things that I just might not ever see again, and I can easily replace within an hour; jeans, change of underwear, toothbrush, etc. The piece of luggage is generally worth more than anything inside of it. I am simply asking a question in this forum and I don't see it as a rant. If I were ranting, I would be dropping names and negativity along the way. That is not what I am doing at all. Since I needed my equipment in hand, and since it isn't a weapon or an axe or a hammer, and since I checked beforehand with the airline as well as the Homeland Security website, I should not encounter a problem as long as I comply with the rules right? Like any other profession, I carried on the equipment I needed to have in my hand when I arrived at the landing airport. But since this problem ended up with the snowball affect, you seem to have a problem with my dialogue about it? How do I find a way around the obstacle if I do not asked the question and gather opinions and others encounter with the same problem?
Posting on the forum can sometimes be quite useful for some and annoying for others, e.g. the person who posted on this thread about they didn't bother reading what was going on, as if their opinion would have any significance to the thread? Go figure. I simply hit the ignore the ignoramus button [now that's a rant].
So in my case, my baggage was continuing on to my final destination. I needed to use my equipment in the meantime so it was going to travel with me. My arrival time was too late to consider rentals or even purchasing equipment, and that is what you seem to be overlooking. I do try and be as flexible as I possibly can when traveling with equipment for this very reason. But outrageous fees, and brick wall deviations from policies advising the public, as in this instance almost caused me to need to abandon my equipment and file a claim (which I am now forced to do anyway). I don't recall asking for empathy or sympathy. I simply asked if anyone else feel that tripods are becoming weapons of mass destruction for traveling photographers. And I will say again, I would rather have my tripod move on its own tag any day of the week, than leave it at chance to move inside of a bag which could be pilfered at any time during its journey and sometimes by the people who are suppose to be preventing such acts or become lost baggage. I am however curious to know how your photos play a part in proving anything since you could just as well snap a photo of your tripod in the bag, then remove it yourself before checking the bag in, and filing a false claim? Do you ask someone at the counter to sign something as proof?

Well there you go. Just how erratic the situation seems to be, and why we photographers need clarification as to what we can and cannot bring on an airplane. I think I am going to try a tripod and a box full of snakes on my next flight and see which one gets allowed on and which one is refused LOL.

I do know who it was, and, just by-the-by it was not one of the lo-cost budget squeeze-you-for-every-pound carriers where you might be should automatically be expect to be treated like crap. I was a bit surprised at who it was, actually.

The OP's problem, however, did not seem to fundamentally originate with the airline itself but rather the security applied before boarding which is a whole different matter. That [not permitting the tripod to fly in the cabin] would not have been, and was not, an airline decision at that point. The issue with the airline over the charges only started AFTER the security refused to allow the tripod on-board.

In my view, however, and without reservation, the additional charges demanded by the airline to fly the tripod as checked baggage were nothing short of extortionate.

Studio36

I mention the Homeland Security website because I don't just fly international, it is also the same bizarre practice in the U.S. even with guidelines in place by Big Brother HS. I am not applying HS rules to Europe travel however. In this case, it wasn't a small cheap carrier at all, but I am not going to drop names because I don't feel it is necessary because the problem isn't airline or airport specific, so why trash anyone in particular. I was arriving to where I needed to have the equipment at an hour which removed the option of rental or even attempting to purchase another tripod. Someone mentioned the Gorilla pods and maybe I will throw one of them in my bag and field test it, but I can already foresee problems with using  the GP in the field such as having a rigid place to mount it in an open area.
As for reading the rules for the airlines carefully, how does that matter if the airline doesn't follow their own rules. In one airport I was being denied, in another airport it was no problem whatsoever. The  tripod flew into Italy as carry-on.  And even the airport that was denying me said it would not be a problem once I reached another airport. My question is how would a photographer know that anything would be a problem in the middle of a trip? You can check with each individual airport, but can you do that for every single piece of equipment you  plan on boarding a plane with? This is where the problem begins. What outlines professional equipment?