Pack or mail knives for trip to CO?

T. Erdelyi

T. Erdelyi

Joined
Feb 3, 2001
Messages
32,359
Well that's it, Wednesday I'm flyin' into Denver and it'll be the first time since 9/11 that I've been on a plane without my knives.

I've read all the threads about packing in checked baggage, the regs regarding what you'll get back if they are stolen from checked baggage, all these things have prompted me to ship 'em Priority Mail and insure them.

It's also forced me to take knives with less history than i might normally carry, so I'll be taking my recently acquired Dozier Toothpick, a Pardue factory Toggle, and a Gerber Silver Knight, all knives that have no real history to me, all currently replaceable so if they get lost at least the insurance will replace 'em.

I gotta wonder if the current state of secure theft on airlines has affected the quality of knife your willing to ship or travel with, it certainly has with me.
 
I wouldn't take any knives I were not willing to lose to the Gorilla behind the turnstyle who takes care of the luggage once it disappears from checkin.

I'm mailing knives to Arizona in Sept. They'll be mailed back to me after the I return. I'll leave no knives in luggage, I don't own a knife I want to lose, no matter the cost.

Brownie
 
You can request to be present when your bag is inspected and then put whatever lock you want onto it after that.

All of this inspection of checked baggage is very new. There is not an airport in the US that was architected with this in mind. It's a major disruption of the baggage flow and the machines they use are bigger than the largest SUVs. As a result, each airport has had to figure out how fit the machines into their facilities and the process into their flow. As a result, there is no "standard procedure." So, it's best to call ahead to the ticket counter of the airline you'll be departing from and ask what them what the procedure will be, how much time to allow, etc.

Here in Portland, Oregon, our airport used to have a very large ticketing lobby with the ticket counters along one long side and a large open area in front of them. Behind the ticket counters is a system of conveyers that take baggage down to be loaded onto the planes. This is a very common architecture.

In the old days, you checked in at the counter, they gave you your ticket, and put your baggage onto the belt to go downstairs and off to your plane while you made your way to the gate.

Unfortunately, there is no room downstairs for the huge x-ray machines. So, the machines are installed upstairs in the lobby across from the ticket counters which has cut the available lobby space by about 50%. The new procedure is that you take your bag to the counter, they check you in, give you your ticket, etc., and put your bag on a hand cart which is then taken by a porter across the lobby, through the crowd, to the machines to be inspected. Once inspected, it's loaded onto another hand cart and again taken by a porter across the lobby, through the crowd, back to the ticket counters to be put on the conveyors and taken downstairs to the planes. It's really quite contorted, a very inefficient process.

But, it does mean that if you want your bag locked, you can just follow your bag (though you're not allowed to touch it) from the counter to the x-ray machine, watch as it is inspected, then lock it yourself as the TSA agent watches, and then watch as your now-locked bag is replaced onto the cart by the porter to be taken across the lobby and head toward the plane. It's really not that inconvenient or time-consuming.

However, in other airports I've flown out of the machines are downstairs and you and your bag have to be escorted down and back up. It's very inconvenient, and very time-consuming.

Call ahead and find out what you face at both ends. Remember, call the ticket counter at the airport, not the airlines toll-free service line which is probably staffed by people in India who have never been to the airport you'll be going through and have no idea what conditions there are actually like. Even if they can read you a paragraph or two from their book about the subject, it's probably incomplete or out-of-date. You want to talk to someone who does this stuff every day at the airport you'll be going through.
 
In hundreds of flights over the last 15+ years, I have never had anything stolen out of my checked baggage. Flights were to places all over the USA, Germany, Japan and Korea. Not to say it can't or doesn't happen, just hasn't to me.

Even so, I would never pack my Chris Reeve Umfaan or a similar value knife in my bags. I usually take a Spyderco, an AG Russell, a SAK and a slipjoint or 2.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Dean
 
All you need is for one of your good knives to be "5 finger discounted" for it to ruin your entire trip... since you're visiting family, trust UPS or even the USPS...
 
What Gollnick advises is good practice under all circumstances. Before I retired, I was an investigator and loss prevention/security consultant, and always instructed personnel doing any kind of property screening to make certain that the owner watched while they did it. Yet it amazes me, how many guards and screeners act surprised or offended when you insist on keeping an eye on your stuff while they go through it.

However, I personally will only fly with what I can carry on, and so would advise shipping/mailing your knives.

BTW, if you've never had a chile relleno from the Brewery II Bar, pizza from Valente's, or been to the Bonnie Brae Tavern, you've never experienced the best of Denver.

Travel well!
Dave
 
Yeah,
I agree with Colorado Dave. I've flown a few times since 9/11 and have gone both ways, but my basic policy is trust not the luggage monkey, and rely on the postal services. This way A. Things get there sealed and stayed sealed, and b you can put mega insurance on things for less than you can at the airport. It's also just less hassle than having to explain things. Typically If I've brought it with it's been my dive knife, but I'm still sick of explaining to numbnuts r' us why I have it, and what I intend to use it for when I reach my final destination.
Lagarto
 
RDaneel said:
In hundreds of flights over the last 15+ years, I have never had anything stolen out of my checked baggage. Flights were to places all over the USA, Germany, Japan and Korea. Not to say it can't or doesn't happen, just hasn't to me.

Even so, I would never pack my Chris Reeve Umfaan or a similar value knife in my bags. I usually take a Spyderco, an AG Russell, a SAK and a slipjoint or 2.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Dean
Click to expand...

Yeah, ditto. I fly 50k + miles per year. US, Canada, Mexico, Europe..... I've put knives (LM wave, cheapie, BM auto, spydie,others) in my checked bags and haven't lost anything yet. But as many have said, all it takes is one time. It'd still PO me if I lost even the cheapie.
 
I used to fly all over, Taiwan, Holland, France, England, Ireland, Most of Western Europe, a good chunk of Asia, and 80% of the US, until 9/11 I never had problems, I even remember an Airport Security checking a leather bound organizer with a CRKT Stiff Kiss in the organizer with a para cord lanyard sticking out from the zippered part, a Cold Steel Urban Pal clipped to the zipper, she even cut herself trying to put the CS pushdagger back into the sheath, also with me that day, an Executive edge tucked into the pen slot, a Spydercard in where the Credit Cards went, 2 key ring knives, a knife on a necklace, my Leatherman on my belt and 2 more in my pocket.

Now I'm worried about getting knives out to my destination without losing them.

BTW I mailed 'em out this afternoon. :(
 
The purpose of lugage locks has NEVER been security. There are two keys that will open practically every Samsonite ever made. And they stopped using the first years ago, so those cases are rapidly going away. You can buy either key wherever Samsonite bags are sold and even in most "Travel Stuff" type stores that don't sell Samsonite. American Tourister and all the other brands have always been much the same. Just a handfull of keys which you can buy at a luggage shop will bet you into 90% of suitcases. Ask any hotel desk clerk. They keep the same set of keys handy for guests who loose their keys.

And combination locks? They all have factory-default combinations that are well-known for basically the same reason.

And those cute little paddelocks? Get real. A five dollar wire-cutter from Walmart will cut one of those things off in two seconds. Even the wire-cutter on a Leatherman tool will do.

The purpose of luggage locks is to keep the bag from coming open in handling if the latch or zipper gets snagged on something. That's all the purpose has ever been.

The idea that TSA has somehow took away the security of your checked baggage is like me claiming that TSA took away my genuine Monet painting. I've never had a genuine Monet. You can't take away something that someone doesn't have in the first place.

Oh, and your checked baggage has been subject to opening and inspection for years, since the Lockerbie incident. In fact, airport security has been opening and inspecting a small fraction of checked baggage for many years. And these new high-power 3D X-ray machines? You don't think those were invented in the weeks following 9/11/01 do you? No. Those things have been around for years. Portland got one five or six years ago. But one isn't enough to do all the luggage going through PDX. They've always done only a small fraction, mostly international, some Alaska-bound for some reason (probably because of the long over-water stints those flights take), and some other domestic too. We've been told for five or six years not to check undeveloped photographic film and paper at PDX because there's a small chance your bag would go through the high-power 3D x-ray machine.

The only thing that's new with TSA is the 100% inspection and the arrival of many more of those fancy (and rather expensive) machines. You went from having a chance that your bag would be x-rayed and possibly inspected to having a 100% guarantee that it will. But how is that any different? What did you loose?

The chance of privacy, I guess? But is the chance of privacy anything? I don't know.

The fact is that reports of theft from luggage are actually down post TSA-reforms. Why? Because A) luggage is being watched much more attentitively these days. Airlines simply aren't allowed to leave carts of luggage laying around even in the supposidly "secure" areas of the airport because of the fear the someone might put something INTO a bag. B) Airports are doing a lot more surveilance in the luggage sorting and handling areas because of the fear that a baggage handler might put something INTO a bag. And C) all people who have access to baggage and "secure" areas of the airport are now undergoin more extensive security clearance investigations out of the fear that a terrorist working as a baggage handler might try to put something INTO a bag.

The same precautions that try to keep terrorists from trying to put things INTO bags after screening also tend to keep petty criminals from taking things OUT of bags.

Is the system perfect? No.

Might your knife be stolen? Yes.

But outside of locked in a bank vault box, that's true most of the time.

I hate carry-on baggage. It's a pain to haul it around and it really can turn into a mess at the screening point these days. I check everything except my shaving kit (travel rule #1: never be separated from your shaving kit), my cash and travel documents, my day planner, my reading book, and my hip flask (travel tip #1: buy one of their expensive drinks and then fill it up yourself when the Flight attendant isn't looking.)
 
I personally wouldn't worry about it too much, and have packed similar items when I have flown since 9/11. Nothing has disappeared, and I have "been randomnly selected" for a search three times... :rolleyes: . I declare that there are "pocket knives" in my luggage at check-in, and everything has been there when I arrive. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if our names are listed on a database somewhere, since I've "been randomnly selected" in 3/7 flights I've taken since 9/11. I thought that people were being paranoid, when there was a rumor the the FBIs carnivores were programmed to search the net for people discussing knives. I'm not so sure now. But then again I do hold a concealed carry permit (and have for 14 years) so who knows.
 
I have a question here...I intend to backpack in the US next year (and hopefully, mountain bike in Colorado). does all this mean that I can't just travel with, say, my buckmayo or SNG in my checked-in backpack w/o worrying about it being stolen/confiscated etc?

help - I'm concerned. as you know backpacking means I don't have a fixed itinerary allowing me to mail my knives. Plus I can't travel w/o my blades as I may be spending time out in the backcountry.
 
I live in Texas, and am engaged to a woman that lives in Pennsylvania. I fly up there a couple of times a month. I usually just take a carry-on, but soon after I began going up there regularly I packed a Cold Steel SRK, Buck 110, and CRKT Prowler in my checked luggage, and left those knives up there. Nothing I would have cried over to loose, but all (imo) decent functional knives. And I don't feel so naked up there.
 
The issue really isnt's that the TSA is gonna steal your stuff,...
The point is that currently, the TSA is a new organization that is less inclined to deal with stolen merchanise, and also, that the TSA is more apt to give you grief for posessing a knife in the first place, irrespective of its legality.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top