I've loved travel for years but this year I started working at an airport.
Since working at Heathrow I've learned the huge difference in hand luggage regulations & allowances.
Before working at the airport my perfectly packed bag would always get searched & I'd spend ages trying to repack it to make everything fit again.
I now know why it was always rejected for search & it no longer happens.
In my opinion, I take in my hand luggage what I can't do without, just in case my hold luggage gets lost.
I don't care about clothes, I can buy more.
What I care about are my cameras (my SLR & both underwater cameras), my chargers & my laptop (to backup my pictures).
Cameras, especially lenses, are very dense objects & therefore impossible to see through on an x-ray machine. Laptops, I pads, kindles etc are also dense & hard to see through. Charger, especially travel adaptors, are also dense. Put them all in a bag together & it's a big bag of impenetrable steel. So it has to get searched.
Regulations in the UK can sort of vary.
Size of hand luggage, number of bags per person & weight of hand luggage depend on the airline.
The regulations that do not change are:
Liquids-100ml containers maximum.
That is not combined liquids, that can be as many containers that can fit in one clear, air tight, 8" by 8" bag, that must be able to seal, per person.
This clear bag must be desperate from your hand luggage & not covered by anything whilst going through the x-ray machine.
This is because the machine actually tests if the liquids need to be tested further for explosives. If they are left in the bag & obscured by other objects the machine cannot do it's job, so the bag must be searched & the liquids tested.
If you have a container that is 110ml & it's almost empty, it is still too big. The regulation is container size, not total quantity.
Large electrical items need to be taken out & although small items do not, if you have several I'd suggest taking them out too.
With regards to shoes & belts coming off at the walk through metal detector. It's not a requirement however if you are walking through a METAL detector & you have a huge cowboy buckle style belt you are definitely going to get searched & sometimes small belts set them off too.
Shoes won't set it off unless you have metal in/on your shoes, so again I'd suggest taking those off if you want to avoid getting searched.
More common mistakes:
Coins are metal
Phones are metal
Gold & silver jewellery are metal
Metal hair clips are metal
Aluminium foil wrapped around chewing gum & credit cards, if you have several, will set off the metal detector too.
My advice, take EVERYTHING out of your pockets except paper money.
Do you know regulations on other countries?
Please share your knowledge to help others journey go as smoothly as possible too.
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