travelling with bows

[tel]

Anyone know if its acceptable to lock the zips together on a soft case - or does it have to be the hard variety?

[clickerati]

you can lock any zips together. just use a TSA approved lock. Safe Skies and Sentinel are two of those brands.

[Trunkles]

I saw plenty of TSA approved luggage locks in ASDA at the weekend.

[tel]

I meant was it OK with the airlines - Didn't someone mention only hard cases were accepted?

[paulhuk]

I took my kit from UK to Vienna by plane in an Aurora Backpack. I simply tied the zip tags together with a small piece of string to stop the coming apart accidentally and the arrow tube taped up with parcel tape for th same reason. When I checked in outbound at Leeds Bradford airport the bag had to go through a separate gate because of its size rather than its contents. Home bound at Vienna it went down the normal baggage chute.

I had phoned the airline before traveling however to find out if there was anything special I needed to do and they said check it as normal hold baggage.

There was no evidence after either journey that the bags had been opened at all.

The only affects of using a soft case rather than a hard one was that my clicker had been nudged and had to be re-adjusted. Maybe I was just lucky but I think after reading some other threads on here I would use a hard case in future.

[paulhuk]

Oh, and be prepared to pay through the nose for being ovr the standard baggage allowance. I got away with it for the outbound, but KLM charged me 12 euros per kilo home bound and I was 8 kilos over 20 allowance with the kit and my normal suitcase. The extra 96 euros (about 70-75 quid) hurt.

[tel]

Cheers Paul

Its only really to do with a trip to the Guernsey double in September. I am awaiting confirmation on the type of permitted case, but it seems 'Sporting goods' get carried (subject to space) for a flat fee of £15 unless you're lucky enough to keep the total weight of your luggage below the limit.

[Hidden Hippo]

Archery kit - below the weight limit?! Unlikely I feel, although its probably possible.

Some airlines (Virgin I think being one of them) actually have a free of charge carriage of sporting goods as long as it fits their description so its always worth checking with the airline before you travel to see if you can qualify.

[tel]

'xactly what I'm doing

Actually my 'necessary' kit ie excluding all the stuff I cart around just in case and because I can is below the limit.... So if I carry the essential stuff and Mrs.tel carries the other stuff (clothes etc.) we may be in with a shout!

[paulhuk]

Originally Posted by tel

... and Mrs.tel carries the other stuff (clothes etc.)

That was my problem, I was travelling alone so had both bags in a single allowance.