kegsta

Has anyone left from Heathrow in the last six weeks or so and been allowed to carry more than one bag through customs? When I went through in May they weren't even allowing a small handbag or a laptop bag like they used to . Absolutely everything had to fit into one bag or you had to throw it away or check it in. It wasn't a carrier issue, it was the airport authorities, and I believe it's come from the Department of Transport.

I'm having a nightmare about all the most important documents etc of my life going into the hold and never being seen again, but wondering how I can squeeze everything into one bag...

Stella340

We left on 23rd June from Heathrow. I had a fairly large handbag and Hubby had a laptop bag which he managed to fit a lot of important docs in there with the laptop too. This was before the Glasgow event so don't know if things have tightened up again though?

Gems

Hello,

we went through Heathrow. (Bloomin awful airport in my opinion!)
Hubby had right bother getting our buggy back. You had to go out to get it, then had trouble getting back in to catch our flight.

I had bag and a handbag and nobody bat an eye lid. Seams to be more relaxed also very busy.

Mind you going from North East airport to get to Heathrow. They were very strict. Basically we had to cram the laptop into another bag or we couldnt bring it as hand luggage. The ladies on desk were fine, it was the security/xray people who said one bag only!


This was four weeks ago.

GEMS

furkew

Its one piece and no exceptions.

I carried a laptop and had a rucksack. When I got to customs, I put the laptop in the rucksack, went through and then took it out again

That was no problem.

If the hand luggage isnt to big, you should have no real problems, but you will only get one piece, and dont forget no more than 100cc liquids. That includes aftershaves, face creams etc etc.

wmoore

Can't disagree with that one. We passed through in Feb and March and couldn't even carry a camera case seperately. And despite our baggage being overall less than our allowance (54kg for two people), we had to empty and re-arrange 2 cases and 2 pieces of hand luggage to make sure that each case was <20kg and each hand luggage piece was <7kg. I've never encountered that level of nazi-ism before.

wmoore

Apart from at Teesside where they took several items off us that were less than this. Man you've got me started on this again, I was just beginning to cool down from our trip 6 months ago

furkew

I flew a number of times in the last months to and from Heathrow, and its a bloody joke.

On our flight to melbourne, we went through at least 5 security checks in total before clearing Melbourne airport !

I had a bottle of expensive face spray taken off me because I had forgotten to take it out of my hand luggage, but my colleague that followed me through customs, found it that evening in his hand luggage !!!

The girl at customs must have felt sorry for me

furkew

The container must not hold more than 100cc I was told. Even if its almost empty, they will confiscate it.

wmoore

We spent longer standing at the baggage carousel in Heathrow than it took us to get off the plane, through immigration and customs (with stuff to declare), collect our bags, get outside the airport and find a cab, then finally put the key in the front door in Darwin. Utterly ridiculous place. The only good thing I will say about them when we passed through is that they were trying to educate people on the new rules and help people by handing out plastic bags before security clearance so that passengers didn't have stuff taken away. Unlike at Teesside where they offered nothing and took plenty.

Langs_Sydney

Hi there

Travelled from the 'Row to Sydney on Friday. Terminal 3 must be the worse place in the world at the moment it is soooo strict

First you get your boarding pass checked.
Then you get the 100mls of liquid or less check, don't fall foul of this one they confiscate EVERYTHING over 100mls.

Then the normal security with all bags checked, jackets and belts off as well......Then passport control and finally you have to take your shoes off (yep even flip flops) for a final security check....

It takes about an hour to be 'processed' and as for duty free, if you haven't got half an hour while they bag it about three times and slap warnings on all of it, forget it!

It all does make you feel very safe, but takes its time. Sadly the romantic days of air travel are WAY behind us now...

As for hand luggage, forget even thinking about taking more than one bag if you are not business class. Best advice would be to get one of those small cases that JUST fit into 'Cabin Luggage' if you can't fit everything in one of those gotta be something wrong

Hope this helps
Steve

John50

There is a War on you know

Dago

Either carry your documents as the sole hand baggage or FedEx them to your destination. Theft from LHR is very rare and you can always seal the bags before you fly if you are that worried. According to the KLM magazine theft is rare (except in Jo'burg - 2%) and it is always opportunist because the process is well supervised for obvious reasons. Even putting a luggage strap will deter and get them to move on the the next bag. I did about 20 flights a month for five years everywhere and never, ever had a problem.

OzzieNurse

The department of transport webpages state that it all has to fit into one piece of carry on luggage. We have similar problems to be honest...I am checking for updates all the time especially with this new foot and mouth outbreak, we will probably be marked unclean and disinfected before we are allowed on the plane!
http://www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyo...y/requirements

znaylor1974

do they weight your hand luggage at Heathrow?

I know there's a 7kg limit for Singapore, but I may slightly go over it...

LauraC

X-ray flip flops? What kind of weapon are you going to get in those?


Heathrow is the worst airport I have travelled through. Ever! It's awful.


I had my backpack weighed at Heathrow but the weight for carry-on is more a safety issue in case it falls out of the compartments than anything else.