Mum sent me through the list of HAVE and HAVE NOT's last night ( ie: what is and isn't allowed on the flight ). All items are to be in a transparent plastic bag and visible for all the world:
Some things of interest ( to me anyway) :
- for those travelling with an infant: baby food, milk (the contents of each bottle must be tasted by the accompanying passenger)
( MmMmmm - i'm sure i'd just LOVE to be tasting some kid's luke-warm milk or formula, which may or may not contain liquid nitrogen in order to blow up the plane ( ugh ! )
- female sanitary items if unboxed (eg tampons, pads, towels and wipes);
HEY EVERYONE ! I'm BLEEDING !!
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But terrorism aside, I must admit I reckon this has been coming for years. It always annoys me on planes the amount of crap people deem neccessary to have with them at all times ( and what about those size limitations "if your bag does not fit in this space, you may not take it on the plane"... does anyone ever enforce it ???
I used to be of the coat, book, bag of lollies, bottle of water brigade .. but since travelling with l'enfant, I must admit we now have books, toys, blankie, milk, fruit snacks, bribes, nappies, wipes etcetera, etcetera. And being with toddler means you do not want your bag to be transparent. Because if they can see it, they want it, all of it, now.
But I still pride myself on travelling light. Mainly because I hate being one of those 'painful' people, and secondly, because I hate lugging stuff. I get on the plane and sit down. None of this trying to jam my oversized sports bag ( big enough to have a corpse in it ) into an overhead compartment.
I'm 5'2", I *hate* overhead compartments !!
Anyway, I think I was talking about my mum, but somehow made this all about me. .... how unusual...
8 comments:
That the perpetrators did not get away with their plan is definitely a good thing, but the crippling countermeasures put in place after the fact are almost as bad and certainly farther reaching. Even when they lose, they win, it seems.
Michele says hi.
I never quiet understood the milk thing. :)
Thanks for stopping by.
We recently traveled cross country and I had a carryon bag packed with some toiletries, two of my cameras and an emergency change of clothes. My husband insisted that I check it so that we could board the plane without baggage. I agreed, because I figured it would be good to avoid the inspection anyway.
When we arrived, I discovered the bag had been 'checked' and BOTH of my cameras were broken. The polaroid looked like it had been hit with a hammer. Gah... next time, I'm going to carry on my bag no matter what.
Here via Michele
Ah, the days of light travelling. Nowadays we have our (light) fold-away stroller, a bag full of books, toys and other entertainment, and one little bag with essentials. God forbid we have to check those in when we go to Cairns in a few weeks. Imagine three hours on a plane with a toddler - and nothing to do or read?!!! AghhH!
Let's see - laptops aren't covered by insurance if stowed in the hold (see the comment about the cameras being broken). I haven't travelled much, but my daughter says "have you ever sat in a plane for 24 hours with nothing to do?" - she won't travel without her laptop and a book or two and I can see her point. Then there's the lost luggage thing - my boss flew from NZ to the US and the airline lost his luggage. They are letting you take enough medication eg insulin for the flight only, but if you arrive late at night and they have lost your luggage, this could be a real problem. So yes, there is value in travelling light but I hope the extreme strictness doesn't last too long.
Oh and apparently some flights were delayed in the US, they told passengers to go home and come back the next day but those passengers had already been made to put their car keys in their checked baggage - big problem!
As for the enforcement of the weight - Air New Zealand has been quite strict about this for a considerable time, after a percussionist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra had his career wrecked when an overweight bag (not his) fell out of an overhead locker and smashed his wrist.
Hope your Mum's trip goes smoothly. Michele sent me.
When we moved up to Cairns from Melbourne, Monet was amused for the 3 odd hours by reading her books I had brought along with us in the hand luggage. Phew. Imagine travelling without these essential items! I can't.
I hope your mother has a safe trip out here and she doesn't get tooooo bored on that long haul flight.
I agree that too many people would cram so much junk overhead. What would annoy me is how people would put bags overhead when they could've easily fit below, clogging up the space up above. Tourists leaving Hawaii were the worst (I just moved from there in the Fall).
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