swag

Do you ever have fruits or vegetables in your checked bags?

A cautionary tale... A friend was flying last Wednesday, and was at her connecting airport when the Southwest meltdown occurred. She was unable to retrieve her 2 checked bags there and had to rent a car and drive back home without them. Both bags presumably went on to her destination, and one of them just yesterday has made it back to her home airport. The second one hasn't made it home yet, seven days later, and that's the one where she had packed some tomatoes from her garden as a gift for a friend she was planning to visit. I wonder what rotting produce might do inside a closed suitcase.

TObject

British Airways has temperature controlled cargo option. I am not sure if flyers can request that for checked luggage; unlikely.

Palal

Unless you're flying in the winter when you know it won't be above a certain temp outside, I wouldn't pack anything perishable in checked bags. Once it's on the plane and the plane is in the air things will be cold (all throughout the year). When the bag is on the ground, however, things can spoil very quickly

Tchiowa

Not in an international flight. All kinds of way to get yourself in trouble. And for a domestic flight, why?

Georgia Peach

I had 55 big navel oranges packed in two 21" bags this past February. A friend in CA has a tree, and they were too good to pass up.

lhrsfo

And, with your handle, I trust that you returned the favor on a trip to your California friend.

lhrsfo

I do this occasionally with well-wrapped salamis and hams from Italy or Austria, or cheese from France. However, well-wrapped is the key since these things can spoil or get smelly very quickly. Generally, it's better to carry-on, but sometimes needs must.

LondonElite

Many years ago I bought a whole side of salmon in Canada to give to a friend in Europe. It was kept in the coldest part of the fridge until the flight, and very well wrapped. Unfortunately my suitcase didn't travel to FRA but was somehow loaded to Delhi, where it sat for a few days, then made it to Hamburg (my final destination) via Cairo and Athens (inexplicably) ten days later. I cannot tell you how awful the smell was. Lesson learned.

Doc Savage

The moral of the story:

Be careful which Delhi you get your salmon from.

LondonElite

Nice one!

StartinSanDiego

I'm enjoying the sense of humor posters seem to have this morning. Thanks for the chuckle, Doc.
It reminds of the fish stuck under the car seat in the movie, Grumpy Old Men. Ugh!

We live in a farming area of San Diego county, and have a commercial farm, so it's worth mentioning that transporting produce, especially back yard produce, is one the ways that pests get spread around. It's not so bad if you transport something like citrus to Alaska, because of the climate differences. But when the pests have no natural enemies in their new home, the results can be devastating.

It's a sad thing indeed when commercial growers are quarantined due to pest import, and, literally tons of perfectly good fruit falls on the ground unpicked, because it can't be transported out of the quarantine area. It's 100% loss for the farmer in those situations.

I was in Russia earlier this week, and sadly saw that many of their pine trees appear to have the pine tree beetle (pest). So many large, gorgeous stands of pine were peppered with full sized dead trees. This pest is killing off many trees in southern California forestland. Our Oleander and Eucalyptus trees also are being slowly killed off by imported pests. The vineyards are searching for an answer to combat some sort of invasive beetle, too.

emma69

I do transport food sometimes, but I always ensure a) it is within rules and b) declare that I have it. Once in a while they will ask to check an item, but not very often (I suspect it is the type of food, not the person, that triggers checks).

StartinSanDiego

Here's some more interesting data, with maps, on the CA restrictions. I would imagine that each state Ag department has its own fact sheet.

https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/factsh...gies_to_CA.pdf

bocastephen

Brought back a few bags of frozen meat empanadas from Colombia years ago (yes, full prepared to declare them) - things went south when the drug dogs meeting the flight decided on hunger before duty and were very excited about my empanadas, which took a little bit of nervous explaining to the Customs inspectors given my not-so-bright packaging of said empanadas into neat foil bricks.

eigenvector

I've flown with fish and meat within Canada several times, the key of course is proper packaging that will keep the contents cool for several days if delayed.