the ambiguities of modern air travel

[cellio]

I'll be flying to a conference in a week and a half. I haven't flown in a while (though I did fly once not long after 9/11/01) and the rules probably aren't stable, so among things, I checked the airline's web site for the current baggage restrictions.

I guess it's nice that they've listed the items obviously banned in carryon baggage, like firearms and infectious materials, but where do I go to find out if nail clippers and the like are still banned? (That's just an example.) I'm hoping to avoid being slowed down by checked bags.

They have a section on "special baggage". I expected it to contain items like child car seats, which it does. I was kind of surprised by entries for antlers, christmas trees, and personal floatation devices. (I also see nothing about pets, which I suspect is a more common case than antlers.) But next time I want to fly with a christmas tree, I'll know where to look.

Trivia of the day: a musical instrument for which you buy a (full-fare!) seat must not exceed 165 pounds. Many passengers exceed 165 pounds; why is a musical instrument held to a different standard? Mind, I'm having trouble thinking of an instrument that weighs more than 165 pounds but (1) would fit in those little seats and (2) could be carried on in the first place, but that's not the point. (It appears that flights no longer come with meals, so the question of whether my hypothetical string bass is entitled to its own sandwich and Diet Coke is moot. Demanding its own bag of peanuts just doesn't have the same effect.)

Comments

[siderea]

Or put another way, passengers have laps. You can fasten a passenger to an airplane seat such that if the airplane abruptly starts going down, the passenger goes with it. You can't necessarily fasten any other, presumably lapless, object via the seatbelts. If the airplane drops, Newtonian motion kicks in and that >165lb worth of inertia is going to try to stay right where it is. Relative to the passengers and the plane, the object goes up in a hurry, smashes into the overhead bin or roof of the plane. If, unlike a skull, it is a hard sharp object, the skin could be breached and depressurization ensue. Even if it just smashes into the overhead bin, it then is free to bounce into the heads of the people next to it.

[cellio]

Ah, good point. I hadn't considered projectiles. (They do say that the instrument must be strapped in and must not obstruct emergency exits or other passengers, so I assume that means it gets a window seat not over the wing.)