Originally Posted by
Iain B
I had the same thing happen on a flight from Amsterdam in August, was asked to consolidate bags as it was a full flight so my SLR ended up in my checked luggage, when we arrived home the camera had vanished, the only time the bag would have been opened was during security checks at AMS.
My insurance didn't cover because they claim my bags were left "unattended" and British Airways are pointing the finger at security. Not one seems to want to take responsibility. Next course of action for me is to report as a crime.
Never, ever, EVER put valuable camera gear in checked luggage. Ever.
Last February I flew from BOS to MIA (overnight stay) to EZE (overnight stay) to USH for a trip to Antarctica. I was bringing lots of camera gear so my carry on was at the maximum weight allowed for carry on. But I had an arctic parka with cargo pockets so I stuffed those with more gear. And I wore the parka in Miami (temperature 89F) and Buenos Aires (92F) and onto the plane in both airports. You do what you gotta do to not check your camera gear.
BTW - as you take photos on a trip, if you care about the photos you
BACK THEM UP. Back them up to the cloud, back them up to other memory cards, to a laptop, whatever. My phone has a 200G uSD card. I back up all my Nikon D800 and D300 pics to my phone's card via my laptop. From the phone it goes to the cloud. So there are 4 copies of every photo - the original, the laptop, the phone, and the cloud. For a trip of a lifetime like Antarctica you can't be too careful.