It seems to me that most of these lost baggage, and stolen baggage, problems could be solved if you could just take all your baggage to the departure gate, where it would be loaded on the plane there.

Would not that be simple?

All baggage except for the most important, the rifle and ammo!

Thank you terrorists and TSA.

Hugh

Oh for the good old days when one could take their rifles on board in a soft case then hang them in the closets.

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
It seems to me that most of these lost baggage, and stolen baggage, problems could be solved if you could just take all your baggage to the departure gate, where it would be loaded on the plane there.

Would not that be simple?

Tony, let my know how this works out for you!

Roscoe

It is the same principle as when I get on a charter. Carry your stuff, guns and all, up to the plane, it gets loaded on and you board and take off.

They could still have armed TSA/security at the gate and plane side.

Just have the final metal detectors as you board the plane.

The idea here is that your baggage never leaves your sight, until it is on the plane.

The airlines could save a bunch of money in fuel alone by not having to "ride your bags around".

And then when we change planes and have to sort the baggage as we leave the plane, and carry it for a mile thru the connecting airport, we can ask for some porters to accompany us. A new old industry could be born, and the unemployed baggage handlers could be re-employed as baggage-handlers/porters.

Steve

Exactly.

I would not mind carrying my own baggage from plane to plane.

At least that way I know I would always be on the same plane as my stuff.

somehow i just can't picture 10,00 passengers at ATL walking out on the tarmac and handing their bags to a loader planeside, then climbing back up a stairway and onto the plane. can you spell Chinese fire drill?

Just follow Murphy's Law: Buy enough insurance to cover the guns twice over & you are sure to have them arrive safely. If they get "lost", at least you are covered.

Good advice, although it doesn't do you much good if you're sitting in your tent in Tanzania getting ready for tomorrow with no firearm. Airline baggage services have become continuing criminal enterprises.

If you are unwilling to accept the flights an all the problems associated with them as part of the adventure then why not just stay home and hunt rabbits?

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Good advice, although it doesn't do you much good if you're sitting in your tent in Tanzania getting ready for tomorrow with no firearm. Airline baggage services have become continuing criminal enterprises.

I will have to say jetdvr is the most negative poster i have seen. Always the sky is falling. I would hate to be on his flight because you know it will crash, or be delayed, or get lost, or be attacked by space aliens or anything besides make it your destination. The good news is someone would have stolen your luggage and your family might get it back.

You must be a happy, happy man. Please take up shuffle board or golf or something besides hunting. Your bringing us all down man!

quote:

Originally posted by tradewinds:

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Good advice, although it doesn't do you much good if you're sitting in your tent in Tanzania getting ready for tomorrow with no firearm. Airline baggage services have become continuing criminal enterprises.

I will have to say jetdvr is the most negative poster i have seen. Always the sky is falling. I would hate to be on his flight because you know it will crash, or be delayed, or get lost, or be attacked by space aliens or anything besides make it your destination. The good news is someone would have stolen your luggage and your family might get it back.

You must be a happy, happy man. Please take up shuffle board or golf or something besides hunting. Your bringing us all down man!

Jetdvr is always a happy bloke except when he has some verbal stoushs on the PF.

I do not mean that all the passangers are walking around on the tarmac.

Just have baggage handlers at every gate.

Your baggage is accepted at the gate of departure, and put on the plane.

It is returned to you at the gate of arrival.

If you change planes, well then you just have to tote your stuff to the next gate.

When a lifetime hunt depends on the arrival of your gear....

And your gear is fairly expensive....

It would be worth the extra "trouble" to me to be sure my gear makes it there and is not stolen, or lost.

quote:

Originally posted by tradewinds:

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Good advice, although it doesn't do you much good if you're sitting in your tent in Tanzania getting ready for tomorrow with no firearm. Airline baggage services have become continuing criminal enterprises.

I will have to say jetdvr is the most negative poster i have seen. Always the sky is falling. I would hate to be on his flight because you know it will crash, or be delayed, or get lost, or be attacked by space aliens or anything besides make it your destination. The good news is someone would have stolen your luggage and your family might get it back.

You must be a happy, happy man. Please take up shuffle board or golf or something besides hunting. Your bringing us all down man!

Nonsense. When you're sitting in Luanda waiting for a bag that had to sit in the bomb locker in Rome for 24 hours, and then in the bomb locker in Brussels for 24 hours, borrowing clothes from other crew members, then you'll know what lost luggage is about.

I wandered the world for 38 years and I know more about airline delays and lost luggage and baggage theft rings than around 98% of the posters here. I've got more time on base leg than 95% of you guys have in airplanes. You may call me negative all you wish. But I'm a dues-paid world traveler, and almost everything imaginable but a major crash has happened to me.

So flame all you like. Air travel sucks.

quote:

Originally posted by Blair338/378:

quote:

Originally posted by tradewinds:

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Good advice, although it doesn't do you much good if you're sitting in your tent in Tanzania getting ready for tomorrow with no firearm. Airline baggage services have become continuing criminal enterprises.

I will have to say jetdvr is the most negative poster i have seen. Always the sky is falling. I would hate to be on his flight because you know it will crash, or be delayed, or get lost, or be attacked by space aliens or anything besides make it your destination. The good news is someone would have stolen your luggage and your family might get it back.

You must be a happy, happy man. Please take up shuffle board or golf or something besides hunting. Your bringing us all down man!

Jetdvr is always a happy bloke except when he has some verbal stoushs on the PF.

Thanks, Blair. You're right. And you know how I love Australia.

Some guys just can't take getting their bubbles burst.

Air travel used to be fun. I started flying in 1959, when I was 16 years old. I retired in 1998, burned out from the increasing hassles of commuting to South Africa, the UK, Hong Kong, Narita, Anchorage, Sydney, PuntaArenas, Rio, and many other destinations where I had to ride commercial aircraft to pick up a leg. I got tired of the increasing abuse and reduced quality of service.

I always enjoyed flying JAL, or BA, Alitalia, KLM, Swissair, Lan Chile, or Singapore, or KAL, or TACA, (which a good friend owns), Air France and most first line international carriers. I had frequent flyer cards on a dozen airlines. I always got a busines or first upgrade on the old SAA, BA and JAL. But as US carriers kept decreasing quality of service, it became more and more unpleasant. My last experience with Northwest on a trip from Orlando to Regina and return was hellish, and I called NWA and told them if I went deer hunting in Canada again I'd drive my F-150 to Carrot River before I'd fly them again.

I'm booked in Masailand this time next year and am not looking forward to the flying portion of the trip at all. Needless to say, I'm not traveling SAA.

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
So flame all you like. Air travel sucks.

It still beats the alternatives.

jetdrvr, can you/will you elaborate?

quote:

My last experience with Northwest on a trip from Orlando to Regina and return was hellish, and I called NWA and told them if I went deer hunting in Canada again I'd drive my F-150 to Carrot River before I'd fly them again.

Gentlemen
I will admit I have been lucky when it comes to flying.

I have never had a bad flight.
One domestic flight was canceled once but there was another a couple of hours later.

There was a plane in Alaska, where after we took off there was a steady stream of fluid [looked like oil??] that poured out of the engine, but not to worry, it was washed off when we landed in the rain.

The cabin crew was advised of course.

Had an engine go out once, we made our scheduled airport, but had to change planes for the flight to the next stop.

And actually I think my 3 flights on SAA to Jo'Berg were sone of the best flights I have been on. The cabin crew was most gracious, and the food was very good.

My only problems have been with luggage and they have been [except for a broken stock] minor.

I have had to pay overweight charges a few times, but I have also been "let by" a few times as well.

I have never flown with only 11 lbs of ammo in my life.

I have flown with as much as 35 lbs overseas, 49 lbs once with a second traveler.

Domestic flights pre 911, 192lbs, post 911 64 lbs. So I have been lucky there.

I have also flown [after 911] with @20 heavy duty box cutters and several hundred replacement blades. They were in my Tuffpak when TSA searched it, then they searched the second TuffPak and saw 2 bow saws and 3 full size axes. They did not even ask me about the guns or ammo.

Actually TSA officials have always been very nice. Even when I set off the metal alarm, twice, and I have to go to the "penalty box" and get the wand and pat down search.

Actually the only thing I worry about is getting my stuff on the right plane, and get it delievered to me at baggage pick up in one piece with nothing stolen or missing.

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:

quote:

Originally posted by Blair338/378:

quote:

Originally posted by tradewinds:

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Good advice, although it doesn't do you much good if you're sitting in your tent in Tanzania getting ready for tomorrow with no firearm. Airline baggage services have become continuing criminal enterprises.

I will have to say jetdvr is the most negative poster i have seen. Always the sky is falling. I would hate to be on his flight because you know it will crash, or be delayed, or get lost, or be attacked by space aliens or anything besides make it your destination. The good news is someone would have stolen your luggage and your family might get it back.

You must be a happy, happy man. Please take up shuffle board or golf or something besides hunting. Your bringing us all down man!

Jetdvr is always a happy bloke except when he has some verbal stoushs on the PF.

Thanks, Blair. You're right. And you know how I love Australia.

Some guys just can't take getting their bubbles burst.

Air travel used to be fun. I started flying in 1959, when I was 16 years old. I retired in 1998, burned out from the increasing hassles of commuting to South Africa, the UK, Hong Kong, Narita, Anchorage, Sydney, PuntaArenas, Rio, and many other destinations where I had to ride commercial aircraft to pick up a leg. I got tired of the increasing abuse and reduced quality of service.

I always enjoyed flying JAL, or BA, Alitalia, KLM, Swissair, Lan Chile, or Singapore, or KAL, or TACA, (which a good friend owns), Air France and most first line international carriers. I had frequent flyer cards on a dozen airlines. I always got a busines or first upgrade on the old SAA, BA and JAL. But as US carriers kept decreasing quality of service, it became more and more unpleasant. My last experience with Northwest on a trip from Orlando to Regina and return was hellish, and I called NWA and told them if I went deer hunting in Canada again I'd drive my F-150 to Carrot River before I'd fly them again.

I'm booked in Masailand this time next year and am not looking forward to the flying portion of the trip at all. Needless to say, I'm not traveling SAA.

I can understand your frustrations, but here in OZ we have just QANTAS and SAA to get us to Africa. It's always a nightmare

quote:

Originally posted by JBoutfishn:
jetdrvr, can you/will you elaborate?

quote:

My last experience with Northwest on a trip from Orlando to Regina and return was hellish, and I called NWA and told them if I went deer hunting in Canada again I'd drive my F-150 to Carrot River before I'd fly them again.

Yeah, but it's been a while so I don't know if I can remember all the details.

NWA used to have a flight from MSP to Regina in an A 321, but they have replaced it with some small regional jet with very little soundproofing and the overheads are so small that a normal carry-on won't fit. So your feet are jammed up against your carryon, which will not fit completely under the seat in front of you.

I made it to Regina alright. My rilfe missed the MSP connection from Orlando, so I had to wait for it the next day in Regina. I had taken a room just in case. Luckily, the rifle made it and I had a decent hunt. Got a nice 8 point.

On departure from Regina, I had deer meat and horns with me. We boarded the regional jet, and then we were promptly unboarded. Story was the right MLG strut was down, so they had to board everyone to see if it was in tolerance. It wasn't. Then, they had to find a guy with a nitrogen bottle on a Sunday. They found one, but he didn't have the right fitting for that aircraft's strut, so they had to find another one. Meanwhile, my deer meat, (Saskatchewan venison, the best tasting venison in the world), was slowly getting warmer. Couldn't find dry ice in Yorkton, so I had to use wet ice.)

Anyway, we finally left four hours late, naturally missing the connection in MSP. Had to clear customs in MSP, of course, and I have to say they are the nicest customs inspectors I've ever seen anywhere.

Gun and luggage had made it, so they were rechecked. I took the meat to the curb. The Somali cab driver and I drove around town for a half hour in the rain until we found a WalMart that had ice. I then headed for the hotel.

Got four hours sleep and checked in for Orlando.

When I got to Orlando, I discovered that one of the contract baggage apes had managed to do something that no one else had managed to accomplish in twenty years of air travel. He had knocked the clasp off a Halliburton three suiter that had been around the world several times. Up until then, my Halliburtons had been gorilla proof. NWA can break anything.

I got to a friend's house in Orlando and got the meat in his freezer. It was still good. I was exhausted.

This was not the first time I had a gun problem with NWA. I did a Texas hunt at Marty Moore's down near San Antonio a few years back. I changed planesfrom MCO in MEM fot SAT. Northwest sent my rifle back to MCO. Ruined my hunt. By the time I got my rifle, I had been awake for thirty hours, after waiting for hours in Uvalde for their delivery guy to show up.

I used to commute from Miami to ANC on NWA. They were bad then, but they have gotten considerably worse.

According to a counter agent in Regina that I befriended, NWA contracts all services out to other companies so they don't have to pay employee benefits. I would imagine that they always go for the lowest bidder.

I have flown on African carriers who offered better cabin and luggage service. I am flying them to AMS connecting to KLM next year for Arusha. Did the same trip to DAR in '06 and the international service was acceptable, but nothing compared to BA, Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, JAL, Singapore, Qantas, Air Micronesia. TAG Angola, Air Zim or any other foreign carrier I have flown, with the exception of Aeroflot and SAA.

They are a low rent airline and you get low rent service from them.

I wasn't kidding when I said I'd drive to Carrot River before I'd fly them to Regina again.

If anyone travels long enough, they will encounter problems no matter what the airline. It is unfortunate when it happens on a hunting trip.

I'm not the seasoned world traveller some of you are but I don't remember a NWA flight (going back to Northwest Orient) going off by the numbers. Spent a few nights too many in Detroit to ever feel good about them again.

Gate to gate carriage of luggage is never going to be allowed, it's just not.

And those folks who try to avoid paying a checked baggage by screwing everyone else and having 10 carry ons are finally getting their come uppance.

I hate flying I do it all the time, and I have probably flown around the world something like 30 times.

The key is pack light, insured your checked bags, and have just enough in a carry on that you can survive until the next day.

I don't usually laugh at the misfortune of others, but I was standing in line last week flying to Atlanta and some old crabby bitch was in front of me. She was trying to sneak on with 5 or 6 carry ons without paying. The lady at the counter told her their was no way she was flying with that many carry ons and she would have to check all but one. She pulled out the 85 years old card, then the race card (the lady at the counter was Hispanic, and the old woman was white), then the senior citizen card, then told the baggage lady that her husband fought in WW2, and tried to use that.

The baggage lady was nice, and told her she had two choices throw her stuff in the dumpster or pay for each bag. She told her that at her age she should have had the wisdom to know that she wasn't going to get away with all that BS.

I hate flying, but moments like that make it worth while.