tripods as carry-on luggage on airlines?

[Macky-Mac]

do airlines allow passengers to bring tripods on the airplane as carry-on luggage?

Normally, I don't take a tripod with me when I'm traveling but I have a short trip coming up and I know I'm going to need my tripod. Everything else I'm taking will go on board as carry-on so of course I would far prefer to take the tripod as carry-on luggage as well.

Has anybody been forced to check a tripod?

 

[Kronie]

If it fits in the overhead you can take it. Make sure its in some kind of bag. You may have a hard time carrying on just the bare tripod.

 

[ChrisA]

do airlines allow passengers to bring tripods on the airplane as carry-on luggage?

Normally, I don't take a tripod with me when I'm traveling but I have a short trip coming up and I know I'm going to need my tripod. Everything else I'm taking will go on board as carry-on so of course I would far prefer to take the tripod as carry-on luggage as well.

Has anybody been forced to check a tripod?

Does it fit in the cary on bag? If not they might make you check it at the door while boarding. Actually if you are lucky that is the best way then it is there when when yo get off the plane. Kind of the same with kid's strollers or wheelchairs

 

[Macky-Mac]

Does it fit in the cary on bag? If not they might make you check it at the door while boarding. Actually if you are lucky that is the best way then it is there when when yo get off the plane. Kind of the same with kid's strollers or wheelchairs

it will fit in the carry-on bag. The thing I want to avoid of course is having the guy at the xray machine tell me I can't take it through and that I have to go back to the check-in counter and check it.....having to wait for it at the other end would add a delay I hope to avoid.

 

[aethelbert]

You shouldn't have a problem getting it through security. However, if it is over the size for the carry-on regulations, please just check it. Nobody wants to get on to find a tripod running the entire length of the overhead bin. Especially not these days when they're chronically filled. But if it does fit in a properly sized bag, you shouldn't have a problem. I've done it many times before in various parts of the world.

 

[anubis]

I understand your skeptisism, as a tripod could easily be mistaken for a bat or baton or some kind of weapon; I mean, you can't even take finger nail clippers onto airplanes because of their potential weaponry uses.

If you read FAA regulations, all you'll find are "guidelines" for what is and is not allowed. In all of the regulations, it basically says that it's up to the individual baggage screener whether or not to allow a particular item; if you get some guy who's wife just asked him for a divorce and kid just got thrown in jail for slangin dope, he may not feel like "letting" you take your tripod, and you'll be screwed.

Good luck!

 

[anubis]

Example: at one particularly small airport I regularly fly out of, I know all of the baggage screeners. Most of them let me carry all kinds of stuff onto the airplane and don't really care. But one time, someone went bat-sh*t insane because I forgot about a tiny bottle of eye drops that I forgot to put in a plastic bag and he just about lost it... had his hand on his mace bottle about to spray me while someone else hand-searched my backpack for guns, etc

 

[rouxeny]

I typically carry my tripod on board and have never had a problem. That's been pretty much all domestic flights so I can't really say for certain about international.