Air Travel Tips

If you want to photograph exotic places, air travel is a necessity. Knowing the basic rules of plane companies, carry on and luggage limits, documents and procedures helps a lot to travel comfortably and to save some money.
 
 

Is it your first air travel?

Air traveling is quite easy, but if it is your first time, you may be a bit worried. How it works? When you arrive at the airport, look at the screens: there are various screens, some are for the check-in and other for the flight gates. Look for the check-in and, once you have discovered where it is, reach it. Usually the check-in begins two ours before the departure of the plane; at check-in you give your checked luggage and you receive your boarding pass.  
 
After check-in, you can reach the gate. Look at the screens to find where is your gate; before reaching the gate area (also know as "secure area"), you will pass through the "checkpoint", where you and your carry-on luggage are screened with metal detector and x-rays. You arrive at the gate and you wait for the boarding, that usually begins 20-30 minutes before the departure.  
 
When everyone is on the plane, the hostess explains the emergency procedures (so booooring! but if it is your first flight pay attention), then the plane take off :-)  
 
When you arrive...if you are in a national flight usually you can proceed directly to the luggage belts; for international flights, instead, you will have to pass through a checkpoint where your documents are checked. You often have to fill some forms. If your passport is ok, you can proceed to the luggage belts, where you take your luggage. Done!

 

View from the airplane window, photo taken with Nokia 5800 camera phone. Many times I have seen awesome landscape from the plane; keep a camera near you otherwise you will end up photographing such spectacular scenes with... your camera phone.
 

Booking your flight

Nowadays, booking your flight is almost always done online. I use Edreams (www.edreams.com), that is a search engine for low cost flights. If possible, I recommend to choose flights in the week, instead of weekend - usually Saturday and Sunday are 10-15% more expensive than other days. Once you have bought your ticket, you will receive a mail with your electronic ticket (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_ticket). Print this mail and show it at check-in when you are in the airport, and you will receive your boarding pass.  
 
If you need two or more flights to reach your destination, try to choose flights that have at least two hours between the arrival and the next departure. Sometimes your flight may arrive late, and if the connection is too tight you may lose your next flight! Other than that, remember that some international airports are truly huge, and you might even need 30 minutes or more to reach your gate!  
 
Nowadays, it is possible to do check-in online, instead of doing it in the airport: you just have to visit the Air company website, select online check-in, and follow the procedure; when you have finished, you will be able to print your boarding pass. Online check-in has some important advantages: first, you can chose your seat, so you can take the most comfortable seats (those behind the emergency exit). Other than that, when you are in the airport you can give immediately your luggage to the check-in desk of your flight company, without having to wait for the check-in procedure.
 
 

Carry-on: permitted and prohibited items

There are various limitations on the permitted items; the one that you will encounter more often is the prohibition of carrying liquids. TSA allows to carry 3 ounces of liquid - that means 0.08 liters; don't even think to carry your 0.5 liters bottle of water! It may look a bit annoying, but after all you can buy something to drink when you are on the plane, or in the shops placed after the checkpoint, so it is not a big problem.  
 
On the TSA Permitted & Prohibited Items page (www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm) you can find a detailed list of what you can and what you can't bring. As photographer, the thing that usually I'm interested to bring in the carry on is my camera and lenses - you are clearly allowed to bring photo equipment, as long as it fits the weight and size limits for carry on. The only tool that may not be allowed is tripod, in particular if you have large and heavy tripods; anyway, I don't see any reason to try bringing the tripod in the carry on, I have always packed in the checked luggage without any problems (even when I have used soft cases, the tripod was never damaged - it is pretty sturdy).  
 
The size and weight limits for carry-on varies depend by the flight company, the destination and the class. Usually the weight limit is 5 or 7 kg for national flights, while for international flights the most common limit is 10 kg. I often use a LowePro D550 AW bag as carry on; it fits the size limits of most companies and it weights 9.5 kg, when it is fully loaded with all my photo equipment (1DsIII, 12-24, 24-105, 180 macro, 300 2.8 IS, teleconverters). I highly recommend to check the carry on limits of your flight when you buy the ticket, so you can evaluate how much equipment you can bring with you.  
 
If you have something that is too big or too heavy for carry on (for example a big super-tele lens), you my ask for "gate check". This mean that you give your special luggage directly to the hostess when you board the plane, and he give it back to you when you exit the plane. I don't thrust a lot gate checking...two years ago, me and a friend - Marco - asked for gate check of ours Canon 600 f/4 IS. Everything seem to go well, but when we are leaving the plane and we ask to get back our lenses, the hostess no longer had them. What was happened? Simple - they said that they had accepted out luggage for gate check, but actually they had just throw our lenses together with all the checked luggage... Luckily the lenses where not damaged nor stolen, but since then I no longer thrust gate check - whenever possible, it is much, much better to carry your photo equipment in carry on, or in a sturdy checked luggage bag.

 

 
 

Checked luggage

The checked luggage limit usually is 20 kg for economy class, or 40 kg for business class; if you exceed this limits, you have to pay an additional fee for every kg over the limit. I have never had problems with the 20 kg limits - I always travel light and usual my checked luggage weights about 10 kg or less, that is about half the limit :-) You can use either a soft bag, and hard bag, a backpack or some other type of bag for you checked luggage. I use a soft bag because it is more compact and light than hard bags, but keep in mind that I don't have anything valuable, nor anything fragile, in my checked luggage; if you have values or fragile things I recommend to use an hard bag (Pelican and Samsonite make some excellent hard bags).  
 
Is it possible to lock your checked luggage? It depends by the country where you flight. In Italy, for example, it is allowed to lock the luggage, either using the combination or a simple lock. In the U.S., instead, you can't lock the luggage, unless you use a special lock approved by TSA (www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/locks.shtm).  
 
Only some bags are manually inspected, but if your luggage is selected for inspection and you have locked it, TSA may cut the lock or break the combination system to open it. When I was coming back from Florida, in May 2008, my friend locked her luggage, and her luggage was selected for inspection - luckily, a TSA agent just asked us to reach the checkpoint and to open the luggage, instead of breaking it. Personally, I never lock the luggage - I don't carry anything expensive in the checked luggage, so even in the worst case I won't lose much value.  
 
If you travel with a backpack, you may consider having it wrapped (at all large airports there is always to possibility to have your luggage wrapped for few dollars), otherwise you can protect it with a transparent plastic bag (transparent garbage bags are fine as protection for the backpack).  
 
To increase the possibilities of finding your luggage in case it is lost, I recommend to place a sticker with you name, your address (preferably in the country where you will stay; if you don't know where you will sleep or you will move every day, I recommend to write at least your home address) and, more important, you mobile phone number. Usually if the luggage is lost it takes one or two days to be found, but placing a sticker helps to finding it more quickly.
 
 

Passing the checkpoint: documents and screening

After checking your luggage, you have to pass the checkpoint. Of course, you have to show a document; if you are doing an international travel, you need the passport. For some countries (as USA.), you must have a biometric passport (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passports), also know aw "electronic passport" (travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/eppt_2788.html) or "e-passport": it looks identical to a traditional passport, but it has an embedded computer chip that stores some of you biometric data (fingerprint, photo, and sometimes even irid scan). Nowadays, many countries issues only electronic passports; even the small Italy, since 2006, issues only e-passports, and I have one of them :-)  
 
After showing the passport, you have to pass through a "door", that is a metal detector, to reach the secure area. You are requested to place your carry-on and every item that contains metal on a plate that will pass through another X-ray machine; I highly recommend to pay attention to not forget anything, otherwise you will trigger the metal detector. Items that may contain metal and that you may easily forgot to take off are: mobile phones, belts, watches, coins, glasses. Other than that, many times I have been asked to take off my shoes, even though they don't have any metal part; this is because "We can't see inside your shoes when they're on your feet. But our x-ray machines can get a good look when you take your shoes off", according to TSA.  
 
If you still trigger the metal detector (it is happened to me various times, because my trousers had metal buttons), you will be manually screened: you have to outstretch your arms, while the screener (i.e. the guy who does the screening) runs a metal detecting wand over your body; he may also pat you down and ask you to remove shoes, if you haven't already removed them. Don't be worried - it takes just a couple of minutes, then you are free to go on :-)  
 
Even your carry on may be manually checked, if it does look suspicious through the x-ray machine. I think that photo equiment, and in particular big lenses as my Canon 300 2.8 L IS, look particular suspicious - indeed I am almost always asked for manual checking of the carry on, when I bring the 300 2.8. This checking takes a couple of minutes, usually as soon as the guy realized that is it just pro photography equipment he let you go.  
 
By the way - while film was harmed by some x-ray detectors, flash memories don't have any problem, so you don't have to be worried about the screening.
 
 

Other tips and useful info

Long air travels can be really tiring, in particular if you travel between many different time zones. If you manage to sleep during the flight it gets much less tiring, but it if far from easy to sleep - the seats are cramped and there is no way to stay in a truly comfortable position (a tip: if you can choose the seat, I recommend to get the seat close to the emergency exit - it has not any other seat in front, and it has really, really a lot of room in front, it has even more room than business class seats!).  
 
During takeoff and landing, I recommend to chew a gum or some type of sweet: it helps to avoid the effect of pressure on the ears.  
 
I never buy something other than water or food from the shops into the airport...the prices are ridiculous! Some shops are advertised as "duty free" (i.e. no taxes), but actually they have very inflated prices, if you buy a camera or something like that in these shops, you will often pay it 30-40% more than what you would pay from a reputable dealer as B&H, Adorama, Amazon, etc.  
 
Whenever possible, try to arrive early at check-in. Even if you have bought your ticked, you don't have 100% guarantee that you will have a seat, due to overbooking. Airline companies sold more tickets than the seats available on the plane, because statistically it is likely that some passengers will lose or cancel their flight. If, instead, it happens that all passengers show up, there may be more passengers than seats, and someone (usually who arrives latest at check-in) is bumped, i.e. he has to give up its flight. Of course, if you are bumped the company will give you a ticket for the next flight, and sometimes a small refund, but in some situations - for example if you have to take a connection flight once you arrive, or if you must arrive in time - it might be a big problem. So, try to arrive early at check in and you will never take the risk of being bumped!  
 
Sometimes, the company ask you to reconfirm, that means making a phone call to the company a couple of days before departure, and confirming your reservation. It may also be useful to ask if the departure time is always the same or if it has changed. In my Tanzania trip, it has been necessary to reconfirm (even though our travel agent did it for us), while when I visited Florida with my friend Daniela we didn't reconfirm, and we did not have any problem - actually, at that time, I didn't even know that "reconfirming" exists. And even nowadays, I still don't know exactly when it is necessary - to be sure, I suggest to ask to your travel agency or to the air travel company.  
 
If you travel with photo equipment, I recommend to bring with you all the receipts that demonstrates that you have not purchased the equipment in the country you have visited, otherwise you may have to pay custom fees. It is a remote possibility, in particular if your equipment has clear signs of wear and it is obviously not new; nevertheless, having the receipts is an additional safety.