Morgo

I need to check a couple of bags for a close friend on a forthcoming BA flight. What will happen at check-in when I declare that they are not my bags?

I presume we will be directed somewhere for the bags to be specially screened? Or will the bags be denied?

tom139

I guess it depends on the agent but I would have thought you will be denied travel/unable to check in the bag as soon as you declare it isn't your own.

LeisureFirst

What do you mean check bags for a friend? The friend isn't actually travelling? Who are the "we" that you're referring to?

Morgo

It will be just myself and my partner. Our friend is not travelling with us - being already in the country we are visiting.

hammythehammer

You shouldn't be able to travel with the extra bags, if you make that declaration.
Fedex them.

AGSF

First, unless you know what's in the bags you should -- under no circumstances -- be checking them in on any flight, let alone an international flight. Full stop. Period.

Second, the simple solution to this problem is simply to ask your friend's permission to open the bags, and then conduct a detailed inspection of the contents of the bags. Once you've done that and are sure every item is an item you would personally carry across international borders, I would say that you could safely say the bags are yours without making any reference to your friend. If it is truly a close friend, they'll understand your desire to make the inspection.

I've flown several times with a borrowed bag from a friend or family member with unwrapped gifts, packages, etc. As long as I've emptied out all the pockets, and know about every item in the bag, it is my bag as far as that security question goes.

Ex Amex Card

I haven't done this for years, but they sent me to oversized baggage to get the bags x-rayed and checked in there.

You could just say "Yes" when they ask if these are your bags.

LeisureFirst

which means no electronic items, no bottles of liquids (even if they appear to be shampoo or whatever they say on the bottle), no padded coats that could contain something in the lining....

I'm not quite sure where you stop, but I'm not entirely joking. If you want to be sure there's not a bomb in the bag, I don't think that's too hard (a bomb could be hidden in a computer, I think, but not the lining of a coat - but I'm really no expert). If you want to make sure your friend hasn't asked you to transport some other illicit substance, that's far far harder.

I've never been asked but I have friends who have been asked to travel with small sealed packages and they've simply refused - quite sensibly in my view.

If you really want to take this bag, I suggest you somehow start your journey at TLV where they really know about security. Explain to the nice pre-screening people there that the bag belongs to a friend who has asked you to take it on board. By the time they've finished with your friend's bag, you can be pretty sure it doesn't contain a bomb. Every other airport I've been through has a bunch of amateurs running security by comparison.

LeisureFirst

I'm sorry. I don't want to sound too sanctimonious about this, but a big to this.

Remember that people have been asked to carry bombs on board by close friends - not just by strangers who sidled up to them outside the airport WHSmith "Oi guv, would you mind carrying this bag to New York for me? Give ya a tenner. And don't tell the check-in people I sent you ".

I know we take risks when we travel. It's always possible someone could tamper with my case when it's left at the hotel after I check out (although I often open it between there and the airport so they might get detected). AGSF's suggestions isn't totally absurd. But I think yours is pretty out of order.

ThatT1Feeling

At the risk of being flamed, I have done this twice. Both times for work colleagues who have ended up sans bags through no fault (or plan) of their own, once ex DME and once ex MAN.

Each time I told the agent that the bag was not mine. Both times the agent nodded and then checked the bag in. Whether of course it was searched later on I don't know.

I have also once brought back a wrapped present for my daughter from our closest friends in the USA. Once again I volunteered the information and was allowed to do this, although this time I had an SSSS written on my BP and the bag was separately searched and x-rayed.

Reading the other posts have made me reconsider whether I would do this again however......

bealine

Hmmm......

I am not going to be sanctimonious because, although it is strictly against the conditions of carriage for any airline, I know people will do this all the time and no amount of waving the rule book is going to stamp it out.

If you approached my desk in Terminal 5 and stated the the bag belonged to "a friend", I would ask if you had been present when the bag was packed and were you 100% certain that you knew exactly what the bag contained?"

I would then explain that, to be safe and secure, we would have the bag screened in your presence and direct you to the G4S screening facility where the G4S operator would scan the bag's contents.

Whilst it is true that every bag I despatch down the belt is screened, we are only looking for weapons or explosives - as an airline, we aren't looking for little wraps for snorting, smoking or injecting which could land you, as the duped trafficker into a lot of trouble, perhaps even costing you the death penalty in some parts of the world! Similarly, large amounts of cash secreted into the lining of the bag or jewellery may take some explaining.

You also learn, in aviation, never to take a chance! Sod's law dictates that if I make an error, someone else who is supposed to capture that error fails to do so and you end up with a problem - in aviation, usually a costly delay or a hefty fine! So, as a passenger, I would declare if I was carrying something for someone else and let an additional screening save me any worry.

Personally, there are only a couple of close friends that I have known from childhood that I would trust enough to carry a bag for - but those friends, whom I have known from childhood, would happily let me see what I was carrying first!

heartybob

+1

Well said bealine.

It's not worth the risk otherwise IMHO.

ginger50

I have carried belongings for my brother but the rule I insist on is that I pack his things myself. Essentially, if I carry my brother's belongings then must I take full responsibility for them and for the purposes of travel make them my own. It is not a only matter of terrorism but the stupid things such as gas cylinders etc. that people can forget about. So when I checked bags in containing my brother's belongings I could safely say that this is my luggage because I packed it myself and I knew that there were no dangerous articles present.

Remember that if you carry other peoples belongings on an aircraft they are considered to be YOUR responsibility if they are found to be hazardous and YOU will face the music not the owner because it is you who chose to check in the baggage.

Genius1

The rules changed after Lockerbie for a reason.

Under no circumstances should you be carrying anybody else's bags.

Morgo

Bealine - thank you for your reply confirming that we will have the bags scanned.

Indeed, we are carrying home the bags of a lifelong friend and have done the precautionary look through the bag. However, good to know that the bags will be scanned additionally.