My Rules for Travelling with Spearfishing gear.

This morning I saw a Facebook post about having problems when traveling on a spear fishing trip.  I have a few friends travelling to Lazarus Bank at the moment and it prompted me to think about the lessons I have learned with all the travel I have done over the years.

I currently travel overseas and back for work every month and have worked that kind of life for nearly 30 years and over that time I have come up with the following set of rules that will almost always see you travel stress free and arrive on time with all your luggage.

 

1.       NEVER, NEVER, NEVER fly a budget airline, I can’t stress this enough.

2.       Always arrive at least 3 days before the start of your intended trip, this allows for 3 things, lost luggage time to catch up with you, time to make alternate arrangements if needed,  time to recover from any jetlag.

3.       Weigh your bags and stay at least 2kg under the weight limit on each bag, this allows for dodgy airport scales and, or your gear not being fully dried out on your return trip.

4.       When asked what sporting gear you have when checking in Spearfishing gear it is “Fishing Gear” NOT “Spear Guns” this will save you a lot of hassles from check in staff and possibly some cash as some airlines (US airlines in particular) that only allow 1 checked bag don’t charge extra for fishing gear, it is classed as “Sporting gear, Fishing gear, long thin”.

5.       Have as little carry-on luggage as possible, just your Passport, tickets, wallet, camera , and essential toiletries/ medicine.

6.       Have everything set before you join the line for security screening that means nothing in your pockets, jacket or jumper off and belt removed and all in your carry on bag, so you can just dump 1 bag on the belt and walk through, in the US this means wearing slip on shoes.  

7.       Lock your bags with TSA lock’s and pack your gear so it will survive being dropped from a height of 20ft, if you don’t I guarantee you some baggage monkey will do it.

8.       If you have connecting flights that require a change of airline or terminal during your journey never believe the check in staff that your luggage is checked through to your destination.

9.       Allow a minimum of 3 hours between domestic and international connections if possible this allows you to collect and recheck your bags between connecting flights( see rule 8 ).

10.   Remove all unnecessary luggage tags from your luggage and pay particular attention to the those little barcode ones.

 

If you follow these rules then I am pretty confident you will have a trouble free journey and have all your luggage arrive on time. In all my years of travel I have never had my luggage go missing and fingers crossed it never happens, but if it does I know there’s a pretty good chance it will catch up with me in time, and my trip will not be ruined.