Travel hacks and advice

[m2711c]

been there….



tsa can be a right little bitch bout that shit.




fact.

[Core Shot]

been there….



tsa can be a right little bitch bout that shit.




fact.

TSA rarely confiscates a stunt beer.

[Danno]

I am going to browse this thread for any advice, but bumping this because I will be doing the 2024 EuroBBI and have never really air traveled with skis nor have I traveled to Europe since once as a teenager decades ago. And while some stuff may seem obvious to those who have, the whole thing is pretty intimidating to a jong. So any advice welcome.

Anyone have a favorite ski backpack that doubles well as a carry-on? That's one I am going to have to sort out/purchase. Thankfully I already have a large ski roller bag.

[Kenny Satch]

I am going to browse this thread for any advice, but bumping this because I will be doing the 2024 EuroBBI and have never really air traveled with skis nor have I traveled to Europe since once as a teenager decades ago. And while some stuff may seem obvious to those who have, the whole thing is pretty intimidating to a jong. So any advice welcome.

Anyone have a favorite ski backpack that doubles well as a carry-on? That's one I am going to have to sort out/purchase. Thankfully I already have a large ski roller bag.

I only advice I can give you is bring carry on your boots and one day of baselayers. Your gloves & goggles with your pants and wear your ski jacket.
Buying or renting all else will not be a huge burden if they lose your luggage.

I've travelled willed with Dakine baker 16L and small hard suitcase that only fits my boots with with top and bottom baselayers. Hope you have a great trip.

Almost forgot. I wear MH chockstone pants which are not light nor too heavy as a midlayer on every flight as well as my patagucci's nanoair vest.
My OCD will not allow me to trust any airline with my stuff.

[Foggy_Goggles]

I use the Deuter Freeride 30 only because I like it as a ski pack and the price was right. In your situation, I suggest doing a mock pack, maxing your your rollerbag to the airline requirements and then seeing how big you need your ski pack. For travel, straps are nice for both some clothing (ski coat etc.) and to handle your personal item/misc. you may have. How important all that is is a bit dependent or your transfer situtaion.

[bennymac]

Apple airtag in your ski bag (and any other checked luggage). It’s not foolproof - but sometimes it can help if bag gets delayed or lost.

[m2711c]

don't forget, that 12 pak of UC gonna weigh bout 10 lbs...

[Lvovsky]

Ski bag and boots bag count as one checked item by most airlines but together need to be under the weight limit (50lb usually). You should be allowed two checked items for international flight. Check exact rules on your airline website.

They don’t usually check if the boots are actually inside the bag but don’t be a dick with boots in your hands - pack them in a carryon discreetly if you wish.

If the trip costs you thousands, consider paying for an extra bag as part of the total cost. Sometimes the stress of packing within two 50lb bags is not worth $70.

Check flyertalk.com forums about airports you are traveling through and to. Lots of good info there.

[Supermoon]

European airlines many times have smaller carry on limits, and are stricter about it. So be careful there.

[El Chupacabra]

European airlines many times have smaller carry on limits, and are stricter about it. So be careful there.

To add: watch out if you buy a ticket on a US airline, but it's booked on partner airlines - the rules of the first carrier on any leg apply to baggage for the entire leg. Example: you book a flight on American Airlines to Europe, and your Denver to Chicago flight is on AA - this means AA baggage rules govern your entire leg from Denver to Chicago to final destination. But if your return leg starts in Zurich, and first carrier is British Airways, then to London, then to Denver, that entire return leg will be under British Airways baggage rules.

[liv2ski]

Fly business class. More free luggage, maybe you'll sleep on the plane and it is a lot more comfortable. Just bill a few extra hours to get err done.

[summit]

To add: watch out if you buy a ticket on a US airline, but it's booked on partner airlines - the rules of the first carrier on any leg apply to baggage for the entire leg. Example: you book a flight on American Airlines to Europe, and your Denver to Chicago flight is on AA - this means AA baggage rules govern your entire leg from Denver to Chicago to final destination. But if your return leg starts in Zurich, and first carrier is British Airways, then to London, then to Denver, that entire return leg will be under British Airways baggage rules.

Oh it is a bit more complex than that. It definitely matters whether that first leg actually is international or a domestic connector vs where your international destination is (or domestic)! It also matters on policy of the operator, where you are flying, and metal vs ticket issuer on codeshares.

There's a nice 24 page IATA document explaining the rules.

But this sums it up:

In the current environment, a single set of baggage provisions applies to an entire itinerary. The provisions that will apply are either selected following regulations, following the industry default selection provisions (IATA Resolution 302), or are selected by bilateral agreement.
The main standard processes that currently determine the application of baggage provisions for interline journeys are:

• IATA Resolution 302 determining which rules to apply in an interline journey, for each checked portion and defining the concept of the Most Significant Carrier (MSC).

• US Rule for travel originating in or with the destination to either USA (U.S. DOT Regulation 399.87) or Canada (CTA Order 2014-A-158). The Governments of these nations require that a different concept applies. This concept states that the provisions of the Marketing Airline on the first coupon of the overall ticket shall apply to all flights on that ticket.

Determining the Most Significant Carrier (MSC)

The process to determine the Most Significant Carrier (MSC) is defined in IATA Resolution 302.

In case of code-share flights, in general the Marketing Carrier's baggage policy prevails, unless that carrier publishes a rule stipulating that the Operating Carrier’s baggage policy should apply.

The general rules to determine the MSC are based on the Areas where the transportation takes place.

These areas are categorized between the IATA Traffic Conference (TC) Areas and Sub-Areas as follows:
• Traffic Conference Area 1 (TC1): The Western Hemisphere (The Americas and The Caribbean)
• Traffic Conference Area 2 (TC2): Europe, Middle East and Africa
• Traffic Conference Area 3 (TC3): Asia and Asia Pacific

Based on the above categorization the MSC is:
• The carrier performing carriage on the first sector that crosses from one Area to another for travel between two or more Tariff Conference (TC) Areas
o Exception: TC123 only, the carrier providing carriage on the first sector that crosses between TC1 and TC2.
• The carrier performing carriage on the first sector that crosses from one Sub-Area to another for travel between two or more Tariff Conference (TC) Sub-Areas
• The carrier performing carriage on the first international sector for travel within a Tariff Conference (TC) Sub-Area

If I can't make my first international leg on an airline where I get perks (UA/AS), I try to make sure that the first international leg is on an the alliance where I have status (Star Alliance Gold).

[Pinned]

Summit's link and advice above is really valuable. I often fly with multiple bikes or bikes + skis. If I'm worried about it, I always pull up the carrier's baggage rule pages on my phone just if I need to reference with a desk agent at check in.

AA / UA are both very easy to deal with when it comes to skis / sports equipment. But many others are not.

I pack my ski bag that I'm checking with some casual clothing as padding. Boots + jacket / bibs + gloves + helmet go into a carryon roller bag. Balance of casual clothing + laptop, toiletries, etc go into a backpack. This way I know I have enough to get by for a few days if my skis get delayed for some reason.

For whatever it's worth, I know we all worry about baggage delays, but in hundreds of flights I've only ever had one baggage issue where my checked bag didn't make it on a connection and they delivered it to my office a couple of days later. So I don't think the likelihood of missing baggage is that high, it would just be a pain to have it happen on a ski trip.

[bennymac]

paging XXX for the Smithers story

[Danno]

Today, based on this thread, I have:

• Bought a ski backpack (Gregory Targhee 32) because a mag offered me a sweet discount code (thanks!)
• Bought a travel power strip, because I believe in the always be charging thing and that should make it easier for all my travel; I hate when all the plugs in the terminal are taken up but if I have a power strip I can use a plug without displacing the current user.
• Bought a converter plug for Europe (Switzerland and Germany)
• Changed my outgoing seat assignment to a window because it's an overnight flight and I will need to sleep (I usually go aisle because I hate having to get other people to move so I can pee). Return flight still an aisle because that's a daytime flight.
• Will do a pre-pack well in advance of my trip to see how much gear fills up the ski roller bag and how heavy it gets, how everything else fits, etc.
• Based on how ^^^^ goes, I will decide how I want to bring boots on to the plane, maybe a second backpack? That plus the ski pack will be my carry on and personal item?
• Researched bag policies but it sounds like United international rules will apply (my flights are entirely Lufthansa, but booked through United), and I get one checked ski bag free.

Phew!

[bodywhomper]

Years ago, a friend tried air travel with his beloved patrol pack. Don’t do that.

[evdog]

Years ago, a friend tried air travel with his beloved patrol pack. Don’t do that.

The accounting firm I used to work for had a lot of mining clients. Co worker visited one that did large scale blasting on a daily basis. On the trip home her laptop tested positive for explosives residue when it was swabbed at airport security. Needless to say she didn't make her flight.

[anotherVTskibum]

If you don't already have one, a handheld luggage scale is super handy and can come with you so you can be at the right weight for the return trip.

If you're only bringing one pair of skis it's not terrible, but with two pair the weight limit comes up quick. My experience last year with Lufthansa was that they weren't as quick as I expected to nail us on the luggage weight, so long as we were within the actual max (75 pounds, maybe?) rather than just the included normal weight (26 kilos). They did, however, actually weigh all carry-on bags, which was a bit of an issue since I had my DSLR in my backpack with a large lens; I got away with pulling the camera bag out of the larger bag and calling it a personal item, but I wasn't sure if that was going to work while also having ski boots over my shoulder.

I was flying with a decent sized group (15 racers, 3 coaches), so I'm not sure if they gave us more latitude on weight just to get the herd through.

[cat in january]

Edibles make flying much easier. Wait until after security check.

[jm2e]

+1 on bringing your luggage scale. Way better to know all your bags are 48lbs before you head to the airport than discover at 6am in the terminal that their scale says one of your bags is 51lbs.
+1 on a small power bank for phone/iPad charging when there aren’t any plugs.
+1 on United Premium Economy seats. Cheaper than Business, waaaaay better than the slum behind you.

From my recent trip to Italy:
-print out your original ticket receipt that says what baggage you’re allowed on the return flight. Our first leg on the way home was Air Dolomiti and they gave zero shits until the saw the printed info.
-Orange Travel SIM card from Amazon. $20 for 8GB and 14 days. It’ll change your phone number, but everything else will work perfectly. Everyone in Europe uses WhatsApp, so phone numbers don’t matter to them.
-ATM for cash. Currency exchange is for suckers.
-Don’t forget to tell your credit cards you’re traveling. And have a backup card because one of them will fuck you over at least once.
-picture of your passport and drivers license so you don’t have to carry them everywhere.
-if you don’t have Global Entry, look into Mobile Passport. Seemed like a free easy way to skip ahead in line. I was waiting for my Global Entry interview and got passed by about 20 people in the Mobile Passport line. Meanwhile, there were about 500 people in the chump line.


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[Danno]

Today, based on this thread, I have:

• Bought a ski backpack (Gregory Targhee 32) because a mag offered me a sweet discount code (thanks!)
• Bought a travel power strip, because I believe in the always be charging thing and that should make it easier for all my travel; I hate when all the plugs in the terminal are taken up but if I have a power strip I can use a plug without displacing the current user.
• Bought a converter plug for Europe (Switzerland and Germany)
• Changed my outgoing seat assignment to a window because it's an overnight flight and I will need to sleep (I usually go aisle because I hate having to get other people to move so I can pee). Return flight still an aisle because that's a daytime flight.
• Will do a pre-pack well in advance of my trip to see how much gear fills up the ski roller bag and how heavy it gets, how everything else fits, etc.
• Based on how ^^^^ goes, I will decide how I want to bring boots on to the plane, maybe a second backpack? That plus the ski pack will be my carry on and personal item?
• Researched bag policies but it sounds like United international rules will apply (my flights are entirely Lufthansa, but booked through United), and I get one checked ski bag free.

Phew!

oh and bought a cheap pair of noise canceling headphones.

[Supermoon]

oh and bought a cheap pair of noise canceling headphones.

On long flights these help significantly

[zion zig zag]

On long flights these help significantly

I left mine on the damn plane a few flights ago. I literally can't watch a movie on the plane without them unless I want to read CC for the whole thing.

[nickwm21]

Kindle and earplugs.


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[The AD]

I left mine on the damn plane a few flights ago. I literally can't watch a movie on the plane without them unless I want to read CC for the whole thing.

100%. You don't even realize how loud the ambient noise level is on a plane until you try to listen to a movie or music without noise cancellation.