Question about flying with questionables.

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

Allo, D*Con peeps! I have a question for y'all. I am going to be flying to D*Con this year, but thanks to my costume, I'll have some questionable objects with me. The items in question are a chainsaw made of foam board, and a plastic rifle (take a wild guess as to who I'm going to be, lol.)

Do I need to call ahead to my respective airlines and let them know that I'm bringing questionable props with me? and would I be allowed to carry the (obviously fake) chainsaw on the plane with me? While it's certainly sturdy enough to withstand the con (I hope!), I don't think it would survive being treated as luggage.

What say y'all?

Comments

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

You won't be able to bring the even fake chainsaw on with you. They have a very strict policy about even toys. I saw a kid have to give up his clear green plastic ray gun at security.

[possibly-sane18.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say I LOVE your icon.:)

[hollycomb.livejournal.com]

I think you'll have to ship them to the hotel if you don't want to check them.

[house-kitten.livejournal.com]

A 2002 press release from the TSA (http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2002/press_release_0104.shtm) lists toy weapons among the prohibited items. You would definitely need to keep your props in your checked luggage or ship them to the convention.

[the-kitty-kat.livejournal.com]

Yep--I tried to fly with a big, obviously fake, foam butcher knife last Halloween and they made me throw it away. Even if they can tell that it's a fake. They said I might be able to use it to threaten someone or some baloney.

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info, y'all! I'll look into getting another suitcase and just pack my clothes around the chainsaw and pray it survives!

[reddheart.livejournal.com]

Pack it carefully and it should be OK. Bubblewrap is indeed your friend and ally, as well as your regular clothes :)

An additional tip to consider: I went to a panel about costume travel run by two local TSA agents, and some advice they gave us was to attach a photo to your questionable item, particularly one of you in costume with your props, and include your contact information (cell numbr works) if they have questions. If my memory serves, people in the 501st have done tghat to reduce issues in transporting their blasters to long-distance events.

It's not absolutely foolproof, but I did this in 2006 with a wooden sword packed in a cardboard guitar box. The sword went both ways without incident other than a few confused glances at first from the X-ray guys.

(Sadly, that packing arrangement did not prevent thieves from stealing it from our storage unit two years later, but that's another conversation entirely, and I am sure their faces were embarrassed when they tried to take it to a pawn shop...)

[songbirdsews.livejournal.com]

I've also found using cardboard boxes within suitcases helps, as does buying a suitcase with some kind of frame inside it (like the rectangle rolling ones). Bubblewrap, as laragoth says, is a must. I also like socks. They're really great at wrapping around things. If my suitcase has a liner I can get into, I'll slip cardboard panels into there (I just use cereal boxes cut up), which gives it enough structure it can bounce off some things that would normally smoosh my suitcase.

Another easy way to eliminate any issues: when you are speaking to the service clerk at the desk to check in bags, etc, just say "In the bag I'm checking in, I have something that looks like a weapon/is a weapon". They allow you to check almost anything (weapons are allowed, with some restrictions), and they like it if you don't surprise them. For toys, all they ask is you stand by the scanning area while they scan your bags, and so you are available to pull things out of your bag and explain what it is if the scanners have questions. They also had us do this for my husband's bastard sword (real) and my bow (also real). The only time we've even given them pause is one of our steampunk guns looks like a real kiddy shotgun (I guess we did too good of a job painting it) and they had us pop it open to make sure we didn't need to sign any forms. So, just show up a bit early to allow them to inspect your bag and allow for repacking time.

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

I dig it.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeppers. When I used to fly with my fencing blades, I had a hardshell wheelie golf case for them. I'd always watch while they unlocked the case, checked the blades and relocked it. No way was I gonna have close to $1,000 of custom blades out of my sight!

[dark-blade.livejournal.com]

Seconding this. I built a prop lightsaber hilt from bits of plumbing. I put it in a ziplock in my suitcase and set it in between layers of clothes, with a note for security explaining that it was NOT a bomb, just a prop, and told them when I went to check my luggage. I was told that it would NOT have been allowed carry-on, and they appreciated the heads up as bomb squad may have been later called unnecessarily.

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

I love your idea :) Also, rock on for the hilt.

[cygess.livejournal.com]

What a FABULOUS idea for a D*C panel for one of the costuming tracks!!! I would attend that!!!

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

Serves the stupid thieves right :P

[macdude4.livejournal.com]

Wrap the chainsaw in bubble wrap and then surround with light weight clothes and you should not have any damage problems. Well that is any that do not destroy the suitcase ;)

[ubiquitous-a.livejournal.com]

Based on the comments above, it sounds like you might be better off packing it carefully and shipping it ahead of time via FedEx or UPS to your hotel. Lots better chance it gets there intact, with no TSA nonsense required.

[kikyo27.livejournal.com]

Yay!!!!! Ash! :)

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

Yep :D The hilarious part is that my name actually is Ash, too!

[littlejedi.livejournal.com]

So, at the moment, my most economically-feasible option will be to bubble wrap the hell out of the chainsaw and then put it in my suitcase, along with my clotes. I'll be including a pic of it and note, too :)

[pktaxwench.livejournal.com]

Just ask the gate agents to tag it with a firearm tag. I fly with real guns and fake ones, and stopped having issues with fake guns when I started tagging them like the real ones.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

A hard-shell case is your best bet, really.

[aaria.livejournal.com]

I second this! I've actually had great success putting fragile prop items into one of those plastic storage bins (light, yet fairly sturdy) you can get a Walmart, packing small clothing items and/or bubble wrap around it in the bin, then putting the bin inside your suitcase and packing more around the bin. Also, you can straight up tell the airline agent taking your bag you have fragile items in it and they'll put some stickers on it for you. I'm not too sure if the baggage handlers actually heed those stickers, but worth a shot.

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- either a small flat bin or actually a hardshell suitcase with bubblewrap and soft clothing for padding.

Sadly, my experience with trying to make Bubba the Baggage Mangler understand "fragile" was about equal to that of Darren McGavin in "A Christmas Story."

As in: not at all.