Traveling With Ammo: South African Air's New Rules Lead to Confiscation

Traveling With Ammo: South African Air's New Rules Lead to Confiscation

Jul 26, 2018

Anyone who has flown with a firearm recently knows what a hassle it can be. In addition to governmental restrictions, airlines can create their own set of rules pertaining to guns, from complete prohibition to offering an additional checked baggage allowance, classifying firearms cases as “sporting” equipment. South African Airways is a major carrier for the Africa market, but their in-house rules defy both logic and standard airline practices meaning the traveling hunter is very likely to lose his or her ammunition.

Every air carrier that allows firearms as checked baggage requires ammunition be carried in a separate-from-the-gun, hard-sided, locked container…every carrier that is but South African Airways. If connecting from the SAA hub in Johannesburg, be it a domestic or international connection, SAA will remove ammunition from the passenger’s hard-sided, locked, non-gun case and placed in a plastic bag. Yes, a plastic bag.

Though the SAA plastic bag is of some heft and my own bag-o-bullets only tore on one of our connecting flights, the issue is not even the obvious lack of security of the container. The issue is SAA’s refusal to conform to well-reasoned and established standards of the rest of the airline world, which leave traveling hunters and shooters in an impossible situation.

Unless you are based in a hub city like Atlanta, New York, Washington D.C. or others, international travel almost always requires a connecting flight. Rather than collect and recheck bags at every connection along the way, the airlines have created this wonderful system of checking bags through to the passenger’s final destination, meaning once luggage is dropped off in Dallas, Denver or Detroit, said bags should appear on the carousel upon arrival at Johannesburg, Jacksonville, or Jalalabad. (well, perhaps not Jalalabad) Unless you are connecting to a different airline to travel on to another destination in Africa, the problem is not traveling to Africa. The problem arises most often on the return trip.

To be clear, passengers flying only on South African Airways should have no issues, unless of course the hunter/passenger’s plastic bullet bag breaks in transit. The real issue is when initiating a flight with SAA that connects to another airline, such as Air Namibia, Air Zimbabwe, LAM, or Delta. Here are two real-life scenarios that occurred on our last Africa trip:

Traveling from East London to Johannesburg on SAA, we were scheduled to connect on Air Namibia in Johannesburg to Windhoek, Namibia. We had to collect our gun cases and separately-bagged ammunition at JNB and recheck with Air Namibia. The firearms were no problem, but as Air Namibia would not accept a plastic bag of bullets as checked baggage, we had no choice but to re-pack our gear and convert a carryon to a checked bag to transport our ammunition. This may not seem like much of a problem to some, but as we were traveling with a great deal of delicate camera gear, firearms, and a one-year old baby, it was a difficult trick to pull off…and that was the easy leg.

Our return journey to the US from Windhoek Namibia on SAA is where the ridiculous nature of the airline’s policy was on full display. As expected by now, the ticket counter agent insisted on putting our ammunition in plastic bags. Then things became inexplicable. Rather than allowing the option of collecting and rechecking our ammunition into one of our locked, hard-sided cases as is required by our international carrier Delta, SAA required the plastic bag containing my bullets be checked through to Atlanta. Really? Sending unsecured ammunition on a flight to the United Sates? I can only imagine the laughter of the TSA and Delta baggage handlers as they threw my expensive boxes of .375 H&H into the “not suitable to fly” hopper, or whatever they do with clearly inappropriate packaging.

Why am I sharing this? My purpose is not to highlight the arrogance and/or ignorance of South African Airways corporate policies or try and dissuade you from choosing SAA as your air carrier. You can make that judgment for yourself. The reason I am sharing is to make you aware of this new issue SAA has recently created and the best way to avoid the problems we encountered.

Avoiding SAA is not the solution. They dominate the market in southern Africa and often they are the only carrier to many destinations. Flying SAA without other carrier connections should alleviate the issue, although I do not know how SAA deals with ammunition on their long-hauls to New York and Washington. But what if you prefer flying Delta, or can only get to Maun on Air Botswana? The answer to this and the integrity of the plastic bag issue are both resolved by taking along a small, hard-sided, lockable ammunition box.

Though it does add unnecessary weight in the checked bag, if South African Airways insists on removing bullets from checked baggage, at least they can be transported in a manner that complies with the rest of the international airline community. It is a simple fix, but problems are hard to fix if one does not know they exist. As of this writing, nowhere does SAA’s USA or South Africa website make any references to the need to remove ammunition from checked bags. I suppose it is such a new policy they have not had a chance to update their website?

Traveling the world with firearms is always a challenge but knowledge of the rules, no matter how nonsensical they are, is the first step towards insuring a problem-free experience. As they say, knowledge is power. If you have a friend contemplating a trip involving South African Airways, do him or her a favor and pass the knowledge along.

-Steve Scott

Steve and Ann,
SAA domestic policy on flying firearms and ammo is generally well known on this Board, even if it is sometimes inconsistent. The solution is to have ammo in its own locked box so you can take it out of your suitcase if necessary and separately check it. I've done so a dozen times. FYI It's useful to use a colorful plastic box like Pelican so the box doesn't inadvertently get left in the hold as happened when I was using an old, dark green metal cash box.

Regards, Tim

Yep. I've flown SAA 4 or 5 times now to JNB, sometimes connecting on to HRE. I always pack my ammo in a small Pelican type case, placed in my large duffle bag, with the ability to remove it for separate carriage depending on which SAA representative encounters it. Sometimes it gets to stay in the duffle, sometimes it travels separate (outside the duffle).

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
Yep. I've flown SAA 4 or 5 times now to JNB, sometimes connecting on to HRE. I always pack my ammo in a small Pelican type case, placed in my large duffle bag, with the ability to remove it for separate carriage depending on which SAA representative encounters it. Sometimes it gets to stay in the duffle, sometimes it travels separate (outside the duffle).

Exactly what I do too...the small Pelican cases are great!

And noticing the comments were posted on FaceBook by Steve Scott, Steve has hunted / traveled enough that I would think he should know the in's and out's of traveling with weapons these days. This SAA Ammo thing isn't new as I first encountered it in 2006.

Back when I was on FaceBook, I was "friends" with Steve. I noticed he has a penchant for dumping on airlines. I had a long discussion with him over a very minor issue he had with traveling on American Airlines back a few years ago. I don't remember the issue, as again, it was something minor, but it was something more to do with TSA regulations than AA specifically. Methinks this is more much ado about nothing.

quote:

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
And noticing the comments were posted on FaceBook by Steve Scott, Steve has hunted / traveled enough that I would think he should know the in's and out's of traveling with weapons these days. This SAA Ammo thing isn't new as I first encountered it in 2006.

Back when I was on FaceBook, I was "friends" with Steve. I noticed he has a penchant for dumping on airlines. I had a long discussion with him over a very minor issue he had with traveling on American Airlines back a few years ago. I don't remember the issue, as again, it was something minor, but it was something more to do with TSA regulations than AA specifically. Methinks this is more much ado about nothing.

Second that

Actually, the South African government changed their rules on firearms going through the country sometimes before 2000.

I used to ship my rifles and ammo ahead to Zimbabwe, from the 80's onwards.

Had no problems, as everything had to fly through South Africa.

I am not sure about the year, probably 1999, when they decided to throw a monkey wrench in it.

Emirates called and told me my rifles and ammo cannot be shipped through to Zimbabwe without some license from the South African authorities.

I asked him why, his answer was "another stupid South African regulation shooting themselves in the foot with. We will apply on your behalf and have it sorted out"

He did sorted out, and the following years he did the same ahead of times and we had no problems.

Last time was 2001, so have no idea what the regulations are now.

I don't think the premise is correct. Flying from the USA, you can put your ammo in the gun case with the gun. Or you can put it in your checked bag, as long as said bag is locked. Or you can put it in a locked container in your checked bag. Check to JNB, collect bags/firearms there, and off you go no problems. It's better to have the ammo in a case other than the gun case, that way the SAPS don't even see it.

However, if you are connecting in JNB on another flight the same day, you will have to buy a separate ticket for your connecting flight, claim your bag in JNB, and then recheck according to the regs of whatever airline you are flying.

If you are connecting the next day, as is most often the case, you have to recheck your bags anyway. Ditto.

The OP has a valid point when returning to the USA, as for the most part the connection at JNB is same day and your bags need to conform to SAA as well as other airline regs. That's when the Pelican box comes in handy. Unfortunately, they will hit you up for an extra piece of luggage.

I have waited until after the Zim presidential elections to purchase my round-trip airline tickets to Harare.

Hmm? Delta/SAA or Emirates?

Quoting the lovely Ms. Kelly Bundy:

"That is the squaw that stroke the camel's sack."

Arrogant and corrupt SAP (i.e. - bribes), forever changing SAP firearm permit requirements (i.e.- notarized passport and Form 4457's), Form 4457 concerns/issues (i.e. - expiration date on Form 4457), removing secure ammo case from check-in luggage (i.e. - SAA treating ammo case as separate luggage), pending land confiscation without compensation, removing ammo from secure ammo case and placing it into a clear plastic grocery bag, etc.

Adios South Africa!

Hello Emirates.

Just back from a 24 day trip were I fly to Namibia through jo-burg. Then back to jo-burg to hunt the Limpopo before going to joberg to fly to the east cape. Each time I was told my ammo could not be in my bow case. I never removed it and just told them it was a lockable case with no rifle.

They would through a fit and tell me this or that. I just told them my ammo was staying like that as it has for well over 10 flights for all my trips.

I just flat out refused and they dropped it and sent my pages as they were.

quote:

Originally posted by bcap:
Just back from a 24 day trip were I fly to Namibia through jo-burg. Then back to jo-burg to hunt the Limpopo before going to joberg to fly to the east cape. Each time I was told my ammo could not be in my bow case. I never removed it and just told them it was a lockable case with no rifle.

They would through a fit and tell me this or that. I just told them my ammo was staying like that as it has for well over 10 flights for all my trips.

I just flat out refused and they dropped it and sent my pages as they were.

You got balls, Bill!

I would never try to pull that one off.


Tim

quote:

Originally posted by tarbe:

quote:

Originally posted by bcap:
Just back from a 24 day trip were I fly to Namibia through jo-burg. Then back to jo-burg to hunt the Limpopo before going to joberg to fly to the east cape. Each time I was told my ammo could not be in my bow case. I never removed it and just told them it was a lockable case with no rifle.

They would through a fit and tell me this or that. I just told them my ammo was staying like that as it has for well over 10 flights for all my trips.

I just flat out refused and they dropped it and sent my pages as they were.

You got balls, Bill!

I would never try to pull that one off.


Tim

You will be surprised what you can get away with dealing with stupid airline personnel.

Only place you do not is in the US!

Because some deranged, brainless Stasi wannabe has been given some power.!