Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

One of the hallmarks of many people who start blogging is that they use their blog as a soapbox – an outlet to rant against some perceived injustice, with no regard for relevance or whether their audience is interested. Today, I am that blogger. And this is that rant.

Photography is my main hobby and one result of that is that, when I travel, I tend to haul a lot of gear around. Cameras (more than one), big lenses, a laptop, plus myriad other doodads. I’d say that I travel pretty light – never more than a medium sized bag of clothes, etc. – but my photo gear easily doubles the volume of stuff I bring and that photo stuff weighs a lot.

One of the challenges photographers have faced since 9/11 is that, along with increased security measures, the airlines decided to lower the allowed weight limits for carry-on bags. Typical thresholds are far below what most photographers pack in their carry-ons. This is a recurring topic on most photography blogs I read and both professionals and amateurs share tips on how to beat the system. I know one photographer who frequently flies with a honkin’ big 500mm lens. This thing is 15″ long and weighs nine pounds. It’s huge. He doesn’t even wait for the rep at the counter to tell him he needs to make his bag lighter. When he walks up, he’s already got that lens out of the bag and hanging around his neck because in addition to one carry-on bag, we’re all allowed one “personal item” (which I’ve asked several officials about and the definition seems loose at best). When he’s checked in, he leaves the counter, walks around the corner, and puts the lens back in his bag. I once asked him for advice about a flight I was about to go on that had severe weight limits. He said, “wear a photo vest on the flight [one of those goofy things that has big pockets all over it] and if they insist on checking your camera bag, unload everything into your vest pockets and then hand them the bag.” Sound ludicrous? You bet.

This just doesn’t compute with my logical side. I can’t help wondering what would happen if I asked them if they would charge me extra if I weighed 205 pounds instead of 155. They would of course say no and then I’d say, “well then, I guess I’ll use those 50 pounds I would have gotten for free and apply some of them to my carry-on.” You think I’m being a wise-ass but this makes complete sense to me.

I’m writing this because I’m sitting here at the gate in Logan having just checked in for my flight on Swiss Airlines (nee SwissAir). A little while ago, I walked up to the counter with my “normal” luggage ready to check-in and my camera backpack on my back. I forgot my usual technique which is to take the backpack off and place it at my feet so that the rep can’t see it and perhaps wonder if it’s too big or weighs too much. We were done with the checking-in and the rep was wishing me a nice trip when he said, “oh wait, can I please see your carry-on bag?” Uh oh. We put it on the scale and it read 15. That’s kilograms.

You can guess what’s coming. He told me I’d have to move some of what’s in my carry-on into my checked luggage because the weight limit for carry-on bags is 8kg and I was at almost twice that. I told him that everything in there was fragile photography gear and I didn’t want to do that. “Are there any books?” he asked. Aha. I remembered that I packed some travel guides and reading material in the top pocket. I took them out and crammed them into my checked luggage. That only took 2kg’s away. He said, “you’ll need to take something out and carry it on as your personal item.” Sigh. I pulled out my heaviest camera body and attached my heaviest lens to it. “Attention, thieves in the terminal! You can now see that I have so much camera gear packed that I have to hang some of it around my neck!” Great. The scale now read 11kg. I took another lens out and put it in my pants pocket to get the weight down to 10kg . This looked ridiculous enough to completely justify anyone asking me if there was a lens in my pocket or was I just happy to see them. Ok, 2 more kg to go. I was out of ideas.

I noticed as I rummaged through my bag that the scale’s readout settled on different values with no change to what was sitting on it. If it read one value and I pushed on my pack and let go, it would settle back to a different value. Likewise if I pulled up on the back and then let go. I was taking so long that the rep was doing something else by now. I tugged up on my backpack once or twice and let go. The readout settled on 8.1kg. I said, “is that good enough?” He looked and said I was now ok. I grabbed my bag and left.

I walked around the corner to head towards the security line. We all hear about theft in airport security lines. And with a laptop to deal with along with taking off my shoes, do you think I was also going to put the camera around my neck and the lens in my pocket on the belt as separate items? No. Once I was all the way up to the table where I needed to take my laptop out of my backpack, I put all my camera gear back in my backpack the way it was and sent it through the machine.

I ask you, what is the point of the distinction between your carry-on and your “personal item?” I can’t see a logical explanation. If I’m allowed to bring all of this on in one form or another, why are we not allowed to carry it all in one convenient place? Surely it can’t be that the overhead compartments can’t support the weight. If they want to set a limit and then charge an overage fee, at least I can follow the business logic. But when I asked back at the counter about paying an overage fee, that wasn’t an option.

The final piece of ridiculousness? After leaving security and heading towards the gate, I went into a newstand and bought new copies of two of the books I had to put in my checked luggage and I put those in my backpack. Why haven’t they accounted for the fact that passengers can buy heavy things like water and books in those stores near the gates that we will then take onboard?

Am I alone or are any of you shaking your head as well? I just don’t understand the “logic” of any of this but maybe I’m missing some piece of info that would make it all clear. Some obscure regulation maybe? If you know it, please fill me in.

– Dave