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

[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.