Taking your lifejacket on board a plane - how to get approval?

[Sea-Fever]

This subject crops up so regularly I am astonished people are still discussing it.

What is the problem with looking on the airline's website to ascertain what the conditions of carriage are for life jackets?
All airlines carry them afaik and in a career in civil aviation I have never heard of a company that required notification or registration of them as long as they are carried in accordance with the airline's regulations. (Usually one LJ with 1 spare cylinder per pax). What you need to find out is if they can be carried in the cabin or if they must go in the hold.
It is not a problem as long as you do as they stipulate. A life jacket is nothing whatsoever to do with security and if they quibble just ask to speak to the shift manager who knows full well what the rules and limitations of his staff are.

Again, read the airline's website. What can be simpler and more reliable instead of listening to the plethora of wild and sometimes ill-informed advice on this forum?

...because a lot of people follow the rules as best as possible, as communicated by operators and airlines only to experience problems. That's why people discuss it.

I flew with Aegean on flotilla this year. Notified the flotilla company. Notified the airline. Notified the check in desk. Notified the oversize baggage chap. Result??? Heathrow terminal 2 security kept the lifejacket nice and safe in England and refused to put it on my plane or any plane for that matter.

What could be simpler than following the rules!

 

[Tomahawk]

Slightly off thread but many many years ago I was foot boarding a ferry in Dover with a full boat delivey kit, oilies, chart, gps, dividers, handheld VHF... and a couple of parachute flares. For the first time ever there was a security gate and staff were checking hand baggage. He opens my bag and has a rummage. He was worried about the dividers but I explained I was going a boat delivery which is why my bag was full of sailing gear. Then he spotted the parachute flares and started opening the caps... I fair shouted at him... don’t touch that... it’s bloody. dangerous!

He looked very sheepish and put them back in my bag. .... These days I would expect a bit more agro.

What gets me is that ships and arecraft are full of pyrotechnics... but seems no one understands that part.

 

[DickTown]

Update on this:

I returned from a crewing trip this week and the entire checked luggage didn't arrive with the aircraft. Ryanair, Dublin to Bristol.

Days later and no news of my luggage so I went back to Bristol airport and managed to get a Swissport employee to help me (all the telephone lines are deactivated and there's no public office). She returned 30 minutes later to say my bag was still in Dublin owing to the fact they are short staffed there and because there was a gas cannister inside (my lifejacket).

The Swissport employee said that ideally I should have taken my checked bag to Oversize Luggage in order to OK it.

I've flown 50+ times with a lifejacket in my luggage in the last couple of years with no problem. I'm just unlucky this time.

 

[Slowboat35]

How does this topic keep cropping up?
Every airline you are ever likely to use abides by the IATA/ICAO 'hazardous goods' regulations, and ALL publish details in a simple and clear manner on their websites. It only takes a moment to look this up.

This is not hard to do...

There is not and has not been for years any restriction on carrying one life jacket per person fitted with up to 2 gas cartridges (eh?) and 2 spares whether in cabin or hold baggage.
There is NO requirement to ask or warn the airline in advance.
"Security" have NO right to prevent the passage of such devices. If they come the raw prawn ask to speak to a supervisor and stand firm. You ARE allowed to carry these items.
Problems with "security" on such matters should never occur but with with poorly trained minions who - no excuse - are professionally required to know better it might. An official complaint would be in order if a problem occurs here.

Dick, I cannot understand your problem, - hold baggage!!! That's totally out of order and beyond any excuse. Swissport are and always have been utterly incompetent but they should at least be on top of that. You should be able to claim compensation for your trouble as they are clearly in the wrong. They had no right whatsoever to do that.
Oversize baggage? Short staffed? What a joke! What's a life jacket got to do with that? Sheer icompetence, nothing more, nothing less.
Consider the Small Claims Court. They haven't even a toenail to stand on.

 

[Graham376]

Email I had from Easyjet advised a life jacket with cylinder attached plus two spares can be carried in hold or cabin baggage. I requested the email as jobsworths at security often have no idea what the rules are.

 

[laika]

"Security" have NO right to prevent the passage of such devices. If they come the raw prawn ask to speak to a supervisor and stand firm.

The problem is that your flight won’t wait while you “stand firm”…

Oversize baggage? Short staffed? What a joke! What's a life jacket got to do with that?

Last time I flew with BA with a life jacket their official procedure was to put the hold bag it was in through oversize baggage (even though mine was a fairly small bag). The rationale? Is oversized baggage handled differently? No idea but this wasn’t from someone at checkin who was making it up as they went along: it was someone I spoke with before heading to the airport who seemed familiar with the process so there must be some rationale, no matter how spurious (and I’d be very interested to know what the heck it is).

 

[colind3782]

I had to remove the cylinders at Girona airport and the security people were not going to accept my arguments

 

[LittleSister]

It was before the 2019 document quoted above, but I had problems a few years ago.

The airline's website said (I can't remember details) that compressed gasses were a forbidden or notifiable item for luggage. I contacted them, and they said I could take a lifejacket, so long as I removed the cylinder from the jacket.

When I arrived at the airport there was a bit of argy-bargy, but they eventually I agreed I could take it, but (just to save face?) insisted I could only take one cylinder. (Which would mean that after once inflating the jacket - accidentally or otherwise - you'd effectively have no lifejacket.)

I left the spare cylinder with them at Stansted, and collected it after I'd returned. (I belatedly realised that the cost of fuel for the trip to collect it (having arrived back in UK via a different airport) would probably have bought a new cylinder. )

 

[R.Ems]

The pressure in an airliner, at cruising height is only a few PSI lower than the pressure at sea level.
What extra risk could possibly be caused by a few lifejacket inflation cylinders?
I would love to hear about a cylinder exploding due to this pressure differential...but I fear the laws of physics are against me...

In fact I would lay money on them tolerating a total vacuum!

 

[Buck Turgidson]

The pressure in an airliner, at cruising height is only a few PSI lower than the pressure at sea level.
What extra risk could possibly be caused by a few lifejacket inflation cylinders?
I would love to hear about a cylinder exploding due to this pressure differential...but I fear the laws of physics are against me...

In fact I would lay money on them tolerating a total vacuum!

as already explained they are not considered dangerous goods when carried in small numbers.
Anyone who gets any grief over lifejackets please just get your phone out and show the moron their own company rules. On behalf of the drivers I apologise for the incompetent staff often employed by our service agents.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

The pressure in an airliner, at cruising height is only a few PSI lower than the pressure at sea level.
What extra risk could possibly be caused by a few lifejacket inflation cylinders?
I would love to hear about a cylinder exploding due to this pressure differential...but I fear the laws of physics are against me...

In fact I would lay money on them tolerating a total vacuum!

3.86psi lower at max cabin altitude of 8000'