Flying with markers

[WKD]

Yep i agree with what Sam says because the people made a fuss when flying to Spain about taking there kit with best interests at heart their party was ear marked for checking and of course someone was stopped and couldnt fly!!!!

Most of the markers were taken with a seperate company with a cost of £200 in excess luggage charges!!!!

Now i flew on a seperate flight abit later in the week with another team having had my marker flow out earlier the other guys had their markers with them in their kit bags and flew out with them no hassel what so ever and it was the same company that had stopped a player the day before

So the best policy is say nowt or it could be expensive getting there by other means or not going at all

 

[Syd (NSPL)]

A couple of issues may cause problems when pre-warning the Airline that you will be taking a marker on a flight.

1) The player doing the asking may say something like, "Is it ok if I bring my paintball gun on the aeroplane?", not expressly saying that it will be in his luggage in the hold, decompressed and completely deactivated. If the person he is speaking to understands this as taking a paintball gun in to the cabin or is unsure about any other issues, of course they are going to say no.

2) The person you speak to at the airline is 99% of the time going to be completely ignorant to paintball and paintball guns. They wont know jack and using terms like marker, air bottle, regulator, barrel and so on will raise alarm bells. That person will want to be safe rather than sorry and will take the easy option out by saying no.

You are not doing anything wrong by taking a paintball marker on to an aeroplane as long as you are responsible about it. So why create problems for yourself.

Even if they do pick something up on X-Ray, all they will do is call you over to explain what is in your luggage and then will let you get on your way. I know, it happened to my team when returning from Toulouse. We didn't speak a word of french and the security there didn't speak a word of english, but it still wasn't an issue. After a quick look inside the bags and a glimpse at PGI, they OK'd us to fly. No lawsuits, not a lot of hassle.

 

[Speedyg4LS]

like WKD said our markers went out on a seperate flight and where fine, but one of our players(who went out with us) bag was over the weight limited (like £80 over) and when out flight was cancelled, he went to claim him money back, and he was asked if he was carrying his markers (they actually asked hime if he was) he said no, and when we finally checked in there didnt say anything about him having 2 Angels in his bag because he kept his mouth shut).
so like Tommy says,
Reg off of Bottle,
PGI on top and
Keep Quite!!

 

[Troggy]

Here we go again!

As Sam has said take the advice from those that have been travelling for years.

Yes your bags do get scanned - this is why you put a copy of PGI on the top of your bag - when the security people open it they can see straight away what the equipment is for - and those of you who say how do they get in to your bags - ever wondered why your average suitcase padlock is so bad?

The other thing as well - although every airline has its own policy - the scanning is done by airport handlers not the airline (having worked for one of these said companies) trust me the airline rarely know what is actually being put on the plane.

It may seem morally incorrect by not telling them under times of incertainty with security - but it really is one of those "what they don't know won't hurt them."




On a similar point - I just got from skiing where we flew to Switzerland. One of our party had a swiss pen knife in his first aid kit which he accidently put in his rucksack rather than checked in luggage - he then gets arrested, two hours in a cell, criminal record and price of new airline tickets he arrives.
On the way home in the swiss airport they are selling the same knife on AIR SIDE (ie after security) with a note in the shop window saying anyone over 16 can buy these knives, take them on the flight provided you are not travelling to the USA!!!

So what makes us so invunrable!?!?

 

[Mazz]

Well that told me then didn't it!! I'll shut up when I head over to France in the summer!

 

[Jinxy]

As Speedy said I was a little bit over the weight limit

But both times I checked in I answer all their questions with an honest hart almost

At the end of the day when I checked in, they did not mentioned about paintball markers and guns so I did not, simple

I have been lucking in my paintball career to play all over this planet and I only been asked once if I had any paintball equipment, all they did is looked at my marker said how nice it looked and was my bottle disconnected and that’s it.

If you look as all the questionnaires and the signs about you, you are not broken any laws.

Enjoy your trips with you team this year may even see you in the middle