I'm sure the IATA regulations do apply to all carriers. The issue I've always found is the management of regulations. I wouldn't bank on most of the people we have contact with in the airline/travel world having much more than hazy understanding of them.
Liz (errbrr) makes good point about carrying a copy with you. Even then, there are lots of countries where I would not want to pull my copy of the regulations out of my pocket and say, "look here my good man/woman, IATA says....". You can almost hear the snap of the rubber glove.
What Tim says, exactly
I would not carry IATA refs but I would carry whatever the airline says on its own website. People at the counter might say IATA doesn’t matter (it does) but it’s harder to argue with their own rules.
IATA is the minimum standard. Airlines can impose additional baggage rules.
Note the last line of the table that says NiMH batteries as spares (not in equipment) may not be checked in. Also limited to 20. I usually travel with 48 spare AA eneloops (6 strobes x 4 batteries x 2 sets) and tbh usually check them in without issue. But according to the airline this is not allowed and they can choose to enforce whatever additional requirements they feel like. Or whatever interpretation the check in person has, which may be quite different from the security person's interpretation.
In short, check and print the airline page! If asked, smile and produce said page while being non-confrontational about it.
just a small note: if you fly from egypt, any batteries that are in the shape you usually have batteries in home-use will be seized… due to security officially, more due to personal needs obviously
38 minutes ago, Spitfire said:
just a small note: if you fly from egypt, any batteries that are in the shape you usually have batteries in home-use will be seized… due to security officially, more due to personal needs obviously
Hi Spitfire,
I had a similar situation in February 2019, when departing from Hurghada airport (Egypt). I had 16 AA Eneloops in boxes plus other accus in my photorucksack when the safety officer told me they needed to be in the check in lugagge and he has to confiscate them now (the check in lugagge was already on its way). I started to contradict and a long negotiation started. Inbetween he repeatedly was murmuring something like "bakschisch". Just because of the principle I did not give him a single cent (I would not have left without my accus and was ready to give the Austrian embassy a phonecall). At the end he gave up. In the meantime my wife (also with photorucksack) was checked by another safety officer, no issues with her accus, but he gave her a lengthy talk about the quality of Egyptian men and offered her the possibility to marry him (unfortunaly for him there was no demand)...
=> These IATA regulations are nice (and very lengthy as the 27 page long paper just on Li accus cited above) but of little help, since the personell usually does not know them. Even here in the Wetpixel forum our experts have different shools of thought how to carry accus along. I think it is advisable to carry three copies of the regulations of the specific airline along (these people have the habit to grasp them and not give them back), just to be on the safe side...
Wolfgang
this is why i check the batteries in ma bags when flying back from egypt, well knowing, it is wrong...
