I recently took a trip to malaysia and i did not have a problem travelling with my badminton racquets to and from malaysia. Nick
the rules for US is a bit more relaxed now (at least for SouthWest Airlines). i opened up a overhead compartment, and saw someone had a tennis racket in there, no bags or anything. ps. ok, we all know that badminton rackets are more offensive than those slow and clumsy tennis rackets. but we aren't telling the air hostess that..
Hand Carry or Check In? I'm sure some of you travel and bring your badminton stuffs along. How many of you handcarry your badminton bag or have it check in?
a couple of relevant threads here: http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6976&highlight=luggage http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2651&highlight=luggage not sure where you are going ants, but in the US, they recently tighten the security at airports so i doubt we can bring racket onboard anymore.
same in canada, perhaps not so as much as the US. But overall, I would prefer to hand carry my bag if that were an available option
I can confirm this. My new Ti-10 was denied carry-on status in Vancouver, and went through check-in naked! Amazingly, it survived.
I can understand that most of the residents in US or Canada may have to check in their Badminton Stuffs due to security reason. In this part of the world , i don't think we have problem hand carrying our badminton stuff on board the plane unless our badminton bag is too big! I'm asking to find out weather we still have our badminton stuffs check in or hand carry. Maybe we should ask JR weather he check in his stuffs or hand carry when he go on tour for tournaments.
Transporting Racquets Since I'll be going back to Taiwan this summer and might be buying some racquets, I just want to ask you people (specially bluejeff) how do you bring them back? I was thinking about using my racquet bag as my carry-on but I'm afraid that it might not fit in that stupid overhead compartment bin size tester they have at the airport.
1. Major airlines will tell you racket bag will NOT be permitted as carry on items. They did list tennis and racket ball rackets to be NONONO in their rule books, and badminton will be treated as the same. (yeah, I did call them). Of course, many times u can get away from it, if the security guards don't bother to argue with you. However, if they do (as strictly following their rule book), and u already sent away ur check-in(s), then, u r in trouble. 2. If u carry way too many, u might be charged with import tax as they think u r doing business. I don't know how bluejeff get away with it, but I would rather consider it's as a lucky case. 3. If u just have 2-3 rackets, and want to put it the check-in luggage, make sure use as much soft blankets, jackets, sheets to wrap them up, and use extra carbon board to support the luggage surfaces (interior). Consider over-stuff the luggage and sandwich the racket in the middle. This way, the bag works as a protective "shield" for the rackets. I used this method to bring my rackets to vancouver on my vacation, and everything seems fine. 4. None of the methods coudl be 100% guarantee to be duty (tax) or damage free. Therefore, it's ur own risk to shop abroad.
If it is only 2 or 3 racquets, and they can fit into the same racquet cover, in most cases if you do not have excessive hand luggage, they will let you take it on board. You can put it under your seat, if it does not fit. I think it depends on if it is a short/long haul flight (depending on the size of the plane). A full size racquet bag is most probably dissallowed, but this is at the discretion of the crew at check in. Officially, it is not allowed in the cabin. An uncle of mine joked that he needed it with him, for protection against terrorist threats. I said, "are you going to challenge them to a game of badminton?"... Which leads to, how many people have joined the 'Badminton mile high club?' as in playing badminton in the air?
When i returned from china in april (British airways) a group of people were carrying suitcases, and large holdalls onto the plane. They had obviousley stuffed all their heavy items into these as they could hardly move them! One girl I saw had two holdall bags (about racket bag size) and a trolley type case towing behind her. They had more luggage than I had in total just on the plane. The staff were still very helpful though and didnt seem to mind. I guess the hong kong shops were too much temptation for them! In relation to the thread I carried three rackets as handluggage no problem, and carried a further ten in the suitcase I checked in. I figured the suitcase wont be bending in half, and the rackets probably bend more when I play with them anyway ( http://www.badmintonforum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15643&highlight=racket+bend ) I did have to putthem in the overhead locker when landing though, for safety reasons, but during the journey i was just stroking my new cab20!!
X rays will reveal metal with the racquets...the VERY BEST way is if your going with a group...bag one racquet in each bag...ive seen people tariffed for bringing a couple racquets over...try bringing 2 at a time...most bags will fit in the overhead compartment but if you ship it...LOCK EACH ZIPPER UP... When i go i think im going to get one of my friends to bag one or two and i bag another few...either way airlines are geting smart and some ppl tax
I have been carrying racquets with me for more than 5 trips from US <-> Taiwan, and I don't see any problems with it so far. In fact, the security guards asked me if it's tennis racquets, and I said no, it's badminton. So, I thought maybe the tennis racquets are not allowed, and I asked him about it. He told me that, as long as the racquets doesn't have the sharp angles or heavy weights fronts (potentially weapons) , it is OK. (Things like Golf will not be okey because that thing could be a weapon, I think if you use badminton racquets as the weapon, I think the racquet will be broken after one hit ) Here is the guidelines from NWA (North West) , and you can see neither tennis nor badminton racquets are restricted. http://www.nwa.com/travel/tips/baggage.html Oh, Yes, I use full size bags only. (I use Yonex 624 and 312) and it's fine. Sure, you might say I am lucky, but I don't think so, since I asked them already. Also, You have to think about Pros. When they go to out-of-country tours, how do you think they take their racquets? They hand-carry them. Come-on people, we have seen photos of China Teams at the airports, and every one of them has a huge Yonex 6 racquets bag with them. Of course it's OK. For your interests, I carry more than 10+ racquets with me most of the time. Sometimes even up to 30, and I never need to pay the damn tax to the US government because the rules says that the racquet is not a "Complete, sell-able item" if it's Unstrung, Used, or opened sealed. So, when I buy in new, I will not string it, if I string it, then I will use it myself (becomes->used). I have read tons of articles couple years ago so I know how to deal with them.
Rackets on airplanes Do any of you have problems carrying your rackets onto planes as hand luggage? I've always done it in the past and had no problems, but the last two trips I made from the UK to Asia, the check-in people took some convincing. It was only when I told them that the rackets would break if they were put in the hold and how much they cost that they agreed to let me carry them on (they tend to think of badminton rackets like tennis rackets). I'm thinking it would be even harder in the US with their extra security.
Some major airlines do list rackets (i.e. tennis) as "not allowed" to be carry on. To avoid all the hassel and argument, that's what I did when I had my trip to VAN: Put as much clothes (and even a pillow!) into the check in luggage as possible, and let my 4 rackets to be "sandwiched" in the middle. Prefer to use hard cover luggage. This way, the rackets should have a much better chance to survive during the trip.
I haven't had any problems travelling within the US nor from Japan as I do travel quite a bit. Didn't try from Europe to US, Canada to US either because I heard from friends it's either very difficult.
