I might be wrong, I’m not an expert here and every airline has their own rules on top of the federal ones. But I have flown with firearms and they always had to be in a separate, locked, hard sided case. I don’t remember any part of the check in process where I would have been able to put the case back in with the rest of my luggage. I definitely do not recommend just plopping your suitcase up there and saying “hey there’s a flare gun next to my socks” unless you have a lot of time to kill.
I probably should have been more specific by what I meant when I said, “properly stored”. I think you can put anything into the hard-sided case with the flaregun as I’ve heard photographers (as someone else mentioned), musicians, tech enthusiasts, etc will get a pelican case, put their cameras, computers, instruments, etc into the case with the flaregun. You’re right that you can’t just dump it into a dufflebag and call it a day, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that you can’t put a dufflebag inside the container with the flaregun, as I’ve heard they’ll tell you that it needs to be independently checked and stored in the luggage compartment.
To put it another way, the case isn’t transporting your clothes, it is transporting your flaregun and you’ve just happened to use any extra space to pack your clothes.
I flew American Airlines with a gun and it had to be in a hard locked case that I was able to put in my luggage to be checked. I had the keys. I had to pick up my luggage at the help center.
I don’t remember any part of the check in process where I would have been able to put the case back in with the rest of my luggage.
That’s odd. I’ve flown with a pistol several times and it’s always been the other way around. After TSA does their check the locked pistol case gets put back inside a piece of my checked luggage. What have they done with yours? Just tossed it on the conveyor belt like its another piece of luggage?
Just tossed it on the conveyor belt like its another piece of luggage?
Yeah, they just tagged it like another piece of luggage and sent it down the line. One airport it got spit out with my luggage in the baggage claim, another I had to pick it up from the lost luggage office.
Honestly I never thought about putting it in with my luggage. Partially because that’s where I had the ammo stored and wasn’t sure they could be in the same container even if the firearm was secured in it’s own. I hate being in airports enough as it is so I try to follow the instructions to a T.
Yeah, they just tagged it like another piece of luggage and sent it down the line.
Huh, maybe my secure (pistol) traveling cases are smaller than yours. I guess my larger fitted one could go on a conveyor belt okay but my smaller one would easily be lost if it wasn’t inside something else. Every airline has different rules though so the difference could also be that you are flying SouthWest while I’m normally on United / Frontier.
I might be wrong, I’m not an expert here and every airline has their own rules on top of the federal ones. But I have flown with firearms and they always had to be in a separate, locked, hard sided case. I don’t remember any part of the check in process where I would have been able to put the case back in with the rest of my luggage. I definitely do not recommend just plopping your suitcase up there and saying “hey there’s a flare gun next to my socks” unless you have a lot of time to kill.
I probably should have been more specific by what I meant when I said, “properly stored”. I think you can put anything into the hard-sided case with the flaregun as I’ve heard photographers (as someone else mentioned), musicians, tech enthusiasts, etc will get a pelican case, put their cameras, computers, instruments, etc into the case with the flaregun. You’re right that you can’t just dump it into a dufflebag and call it a day, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that you can’t put a dufflebag inside the container with the flaregun, as I’ve heard they’ll tell you that it needs to be independently checked and stored in the luggage compartment.
To put it another way, the case isn’t transporting your clothes, it is transporting your flaregun and you’ve just happened to use any extra space to pack your clothes.
I flew American Airlines with a gun and it had to be in a hard locked case that I was able to put in my luggage to be checked. I had the keys. I had to pick up my luggage at the help center.
That’s odd. I’ve flown with a pistol several times and it’s always been the other way around. After TSA does their check the locked pistol case gets put back inside a piece of my checked luggage. What have they done with yours? Just tossed it on the conveyor belt like its another piece of luggage?
Yeah, they just tagged it like another piece of luggage and sent it down the line. One airport it got spit out with my luggage in the baggage claim, another I had to pick it up from the lost luggage office.
Honestly I never thought about putting it in with my luggage. Partially because that’s where I had the ammo stored and wasn’t sure they could be in the same container even if the firearm was secured in it’s own. I hate being in airports enough as it is so I try to follow the instructions to a T.
Huh, maybe my secure (pistol) traveling cases are smaller than yours. I guess my larger fitted one could go on a conveyor belt okay but my smaller one would easily be lost if it wasn’t inside something else. Every airline has different rules though so the difference could also be that you are flying SouthWest while I’m normally on United / Frontier.