Ridiculous carry on baggage

[mel-world]

Best I ever saw was a long time ago before the security checks where a male in shorts and a tee shirt carried a slab of VB on his shoulder across the tarmac and onto the plane from Darwin to Hong Kong. This was when you needed to re-fuel in Darwin on the way. Not sure how many cans arrived in Hong Kong.

Also on a flight from Qingdao to Beijing while I was working in China, the overhead bins and under the seats were full of cartons of live soft shell crabs during the season. It was hard for me to find room for my small carry-on. Some even carried on laps for the flight. Those were the days before seat allocations on domestic China flights. Talk about a rush to board.

 

[kiwitripper64]

My 7 yr old daughter had a lifelike doll she was attached to. Coming home from BKK we packed it into her handluggage and went to the airport where we were all called over for a check of contents. The poor Thai man opened the bag and thought it was a real baby. The other 4 staff all collapsed laughing. I bet he still remembers that too.

 

[Wong.a]

Stories time!

First story concerns a nice, fur-coat–wearing lady seated in front of us, who was insistent on utilizing some of the overhead luggage space on my row. Now I was a wee ankle biter back then and didn't know any better, so I wasn't one to protest. Of note, we were flying in the good days where carriage of liquids was an unrestricted process. You probably know where this is going. As she was unsatisfied with her allotment of overhead space, she stowed a bag containing a rather large thermos and her coat in the bin above me. Changes in cabin pressure and a poorly fastened lid must have led to liquid escaping its designed vessel and eventuated in a fishy aroma circulating throughout the cabin. Her ruined mood was overshadowed by the ruins of her coat. The was my first but not my last taste of schadenfreude.

Second story is a bit more recent and concerns my supervisor traveling from POM back to SYD with a cooler of freshly obtained human foreskins. In his words, going through AQIS was a bit of an adventure. These samples were to be used in a study of the sites of HIV infection, and not because of an esoteric kink.

 

[Rigs]

Flew from Beijing to Pyongyang. Every person on the plane had as much contraband as they could carry. One guy had a large box of empty starbucks cups and was very pleased with himself.

 

[kiwitripper64]

Think what you could smuggle in under these. Who would check the bottom of that container

Stories time!
Second story is a bit more recent and concerns my supervisor traveling from POM back to SYD with a cooler of freshly obtained human foreskins. In his words, going through AQIS was a bit of an adventure. These samples were to be used in a study of the sites of HIV infection, and not because of an esoteric kink.

 

[Wong.a]

Think what you could smuggle in under these. Who would check the bottom of that container

Although the cooler wasn't X-rayed (that'll definitely kill some cells), they have you open the box up and check for any unlisted contraband. Always fun having to carry human samples in little specimen jars filled with saline.

 

[Denali]

My husband just reminded me of the time I took a box of various cheese to Yap.

Picked up special preordered cheeses in Guam, packed in a carry on esky and ice from Guam to Palau, had to find more ice in the middle of the night and then Palau to Yap to arrive about 2am in the morning and then had to get more ice to keep the stuff edible until I could deliver it to our photographer friend that was living there at the time

Never. Again.

 

[miniyazz]

If you get a comfort seat are you allowed to take e.g. a large flatscreen TV (boxed) and plonk it on the seat beside you? I'm guessing you'd never get that far but if it's on a window seat it might be ok..

 

[Archphoto]

One of my first flights to BKK as a photographer's assistant had me carrying a cooler bag of traditional, homemade Indian food for the brother (mother made it for him) of said photographer's producer.

Have also carried longans still attached to their branches CNX-BKK, all packed into a plastic bag and stowed in the overhead - almost got my eye poked out in the mad scramble when we landed!!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If you get a comfort seat are you allowed to take e.g. a large flatscreen TV (boxed) and plonk it on the seat beside you? I'm guessing you'd never get that far but if it's on a window seat it might be ok..

You can purchase an extra seat for cabin baggage. QF (for example) lists the maximum size of the baggage for this purpose, but indicates larger items may be able to be accommodated by arrangement.

 

[sezza]

In the early 1990s went from syd to madrid via london carrying a standard cabin bag AND a vcr for family. Yep, a 8kg vcr on 24hr+ flights. What did we take the next time we went to visit family, nothing. Bought a TV over there as a gift!

 

[OATEK]

We were off for our first family Christmas in the UK after both daughters had relocated there for work. I have taken over the responsibility for producing the Christmas pudding from my mother and grandmother in recent years, and had quite a fine specimen in my hand luggage leaving SYD. The scan operator didn't now what to make of the image, and so it was inspection time. I finished up with a queue of security people wanting a sample, but held firm! My main concern was not having to remove the cloth, which is best done after steaming or otherwise it tends to pull off the outer layer of the pudding. It was, if I say so myself, a very fine pudding.

 

[seanpodge]

I once carried a hurl all the way from Ireland to Melbourne (this was before 9/11).

 

[Jurahn]

If you get a comfort seat are you allowed to take e.g. a large flatscreen TV (boxed) and plonk it on the seat beside you? I'm guessing you'd never get that far but if it's on a window seat it might be ok..

Back in the late 90s, my (now ex) husband and I were flying QF from PER-SYD to visit my parents on the NSW South Coast. I'd spent months doing a cross-stitch picture for Mum, had it glassed and framed, and we'd carefully packaged it up to take with us - only to have the check-in staff flatly refuse to allow us to take it on board "because of the glass" and they insisted it had to go as checked baggage. Although it was carefully packaged up with thick cardboard which was heavily taped, I didn't think there was any way it would survive being in the hold, but didn't have much choice - thankfully it survived the trip! So if they wouldn't let us take a "picture" with glass in the frame, would they let you take a TV into the cabin? I guess things are probably different nowadays, given the number of laptops, phones and tablets taken on board!

 

[FromTheRail]

When back in the UK I usually stock up on something, the last time it was original windows for VW Kombi's, I came back with a couple of sets of opening 1/4 lights in my hand luggage, no questions asked, I also had more in my hold luggage.

I do travel with an automatic lifejacket quite often so i'm always ticking that dangerous goods box, which at the check in desk they always think was a mistake and their face is always funny when I saw no that is correct.

Best story i've heard was back in the late 90's there was a sailing comp in Japan, there was a team over there from the UK and even though the boats were supplied they still took some of their own equipment, they got into Japan ok but on the internal flight they questioned the carbon fibre tillers (the bit you steer the boat with), they are just over a metre long and they thought they were some sort of weapon, the airline wanted them in the hold, the sailors wanted them as hand luggage, in the end they went in the cabin but with an armed guard holding them for the flight!!!

 

[graxx]

Following an ill-considered passion for it, I bought an antique model boat at an antiques fair in London.
When I got possession, it was bigger than I thought-about 1.2 metres long.
QF were very understanding and let me take it on board and stuff it in the front cupboard. Still very affectionate about it!

 

[Shelf]

Two or three tier plastic wedding cake.

 

[Justinf]

My first trip down to Tasmania in the early 2000s I fell in love with the local Hobart beer - Cascade Draught. You can't get it on the mainland so my next trip I bought as many cans of it as I could and stuffed them into my carry on backpack. No doubt the backpack would have weighed more than 7kg.
I also took a six pack on board for good measure.
Nobody batted an eyelid.

 

[Glider_]

Not ridiculous, but amusing nonetheless: on a SCUBA diving trip to Micronesia we took all of our breathing regulators, lights and camera equipment as carry on. Nothing too particularly strange about that but when combined with phones, tablets, headphones and all associated cabling and adapters the giant pile of cords, tubes and metal bits wrapped in cloth looked very concerning going through the x-ray machine. Stopped for a thorough search at every single security point with officers very worried and some asking for backup officers in the beginning, followed by relieved smiles at the end.

You would think that airports like Cairns and Guam would be much more familiar with diving gear! Or maybe they were and anywhere else would have had us taken to a 'secure location' for the search

 

[BAM1748]

Couple of decades back, North Africa, people used to (I would hope not now but you never know and I suspect from some reports it still happens) butane cookers and went down the back to heat their own carry on food during the flight.

I never flew another flight in the region after seeing that, made a point of not having any reason to go back.