AVOID HEATHROW in London UK at all costs -- Allow only 1 carry-on -- rigidly enforced

[Rod Cole]

I had a similar experience flying through Gatwick while en route to and from the Canary Islands in January 2006. I had boarded my British Airways flight in Dallas with my fully legal Tamron photo backpack in tow and had no problems boarding the plane or even transferring at Gatwick to my flight to Tenerife. I had no problems boarding my return flight in Tenerife to Gatwick, but when I attempted to board my return flight to Dallas, the clerk at the check-in desk told me my backpack was overweight and refused me. The only option this lovely clerk provided was to check my expensive L-series lenses, which is nothing more than handing them over to thieves.

After a lengthy and heated argument in which I argued that I had experienced no such problems on their airline for the previous three legs of my trip, I demanded to speak with a supervisor. They gave me an option, comply or they would throw me off the flight. After an extended and embarrassing public discussion, they finally agreed to allow me to remove several lenses from the backpack so that the weight limit would not be exceeded and gave me a plastic bag to carry them on board. They also warned me that they would be watching me to make certain that I did not put the lenses into the backpack once I was out of their sight and they even followed me to near the gate.

I ducked into a restroom once I was out of their sight, replaced the lenses, and boarded my flight. I suppose I am lucky they didn't throw me into prison over this incident.

I will never fly British Airways again, nor will I fly to London again. This is nothing against ordinary British citizens as I found everyone else I encountered delightful with the exception of the British Airways personnel.

Prior to this event, I had thought customer no-service was getting bad in the US. These nice folks at Gatwick convinced me that, as bad as customer service is getting here, British Airways has taken customer no-service to a new level of mediocrity. I had held that opinion until last Thanksgiving when I found a US equivalent in the form of Northwest Airlines, which I have also added to my no-fly list.

Both of these airlines have the attitude that, once they have your money, they can treat you any way they want and you have no choice but accept their abuse or pay the financial penalty of changing to another airline.

What did Northwest do to merit this? Exactly twenty-fours from my return flight, they canceled my flight and put me on a flight leaving at midnight on Sunday (my return flight had been at noon on Sunday) with an arrival at 7:00 am on Monday with a layover of several hours in Minneapolis.

[David Magahy]

Marty and others
Before planning my trip to Belfast I read these posts with a bit of concern (and others elsewhere that confirmed these stories). I was going to try to go through Amsterdam or Paris. In the end I got a good deal which put me through Heathrow. From Sydney I noticed people with more than 1 carry-on. I asked a few who said that one plus a laptop bag was OK... certainly not what the signs said but they were getting away with it. At Hong Kong they were getting on with all sorts of carry-on options. So I thought...let's observe what happens at Heathrow...nothing. I saw no issues whatsoever. I have a Think Tank Photo International Airport roller with my laptop inside. i took out the laptop at each security check from Brisbane, Sydney, HK and then Heathrow. I told them it was a camera bag and sailed through every time, no requests to open. Brisbane wondered about the wires from various chargers but a quick explanation to the screener satisfied them. Now it may be different flying out from Heathrow next week. Ironic that they might be more concerned about outward journeys rather than what is coming into the country. Perhaps they have bent to public pressure. Perhaps, as we were first flight to land that morning that they were still enjoying the last few drops of their Starbucks. Good news for photogs if this is now indicative of what you can expect. The tip I got from someone's blog was a good one: tell the screeners up front what is in your bag...I could almost see the brain cogs clicking over processing the information and concluding: he's one of those... that's OK.

David Magahy

[Ross Throndson]

Originally Posted by DierkHaasis

What, exactly, constitutes a second bag, if I have a laptop bag put into my photo rucksack [ThinkTank Airport Addicted, which comes with a stowaway laptop briefcase], do I carry two bags? What if I decide to throw my laptop bag together with my small photo carry-on [ThinkTank Urban Disguise] into a plastic bag - one bag or two?
Marty, thanks for the warning!

Great advice....i gotta check into these...ThinkTank Bags.....Thanks!

[David Magahy]

Update on return journey out of London Heathrow

It was s breeze. No issues at Heathrow again. My check-in bag had been through checked from Belfast to Sydney so that was one less hassle. Same one bag rule currently applies and was screened in Belfast and again at terminal 3 at Heathrow. Same routine, take the laptop out, I put all my metal things, ipod etc out of my pockets and into the carry-on bag in advance of the screening. Belfast wanted me to take off my belt, London didn't care. Each time I told the screeners in advance that the check-in bag contained camera equipment.

UK govt announced that they will allow two carry-on bags from January. Why January? Perhaps to allow new signage to be printed and extensive re-training of the screeners to recognise the difference between one bag and two?

Hope that helps ease your mind on this issue.

[MathewLodge]

Rod,

Wow... quite a story.

One thing though -- the one carry on rule is something imposed by the UK government. The weight of that one carry-on, however, is something decided by individual airlines, and it pays to check it out in advance... as I discovered to my cost.

I have flown Virgin Atlantic several times between London and San Francisco, but on one occasion they decided to weigh my carry-on bag. Ooops -- full of Lenovo laptop, lenses and Canon bodies it healthily exceeded the carry-on limit for Economy class on Virgin (yes, I am a cheapskate). I really had not paid attention -- they are very clear on their website and elsewhere that there's a 6 kilo carry on limit for economy passengers. The alternative is to fly Upper Class, where the limit is officialy 8kg, but in practice you can take on board one bag of any weight you like, sir. I have done this and the whole experience is unbelievably great... but not on this particular trip.

BA changed its baggage policy in July this year, and it now has no restrictions on carry-on weight for any class. See British Airways to change baggage policy - SmarterTravel.com

Again, at the end of the day, this is about checking up before booking and/or travelling. If I'd only entered "Virgin Atlantic hand baggage" into Google before booking I'd have known what to expect...

Mathew

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