simonrp84

Hello,
A friend of mine will be flying with Austrian/Air India on the route KTM-DEL-VIE-CPH and wishes to take a poster tube with them.

Do you know whether it's permitted to take a poster on Austrian flights? Their website seems to indicate that it is not but that's a strange policy as I've never heard of airlines refusing a poster tube in hand luggage.
If any of you have information or experiences with this then it'd be great to hear them.^

mmff

What is the dimension of the poster (and correspondent poster tube)?

simonrp84

The poster tube would be under 10cm diameter (probably around 5cm) and about a meter in length.

malmostoso

It's probably not allowed as checked luggage (it would get lost in a heartbeat) but as hand luggage it's probably OK.
Is your friend flying C or Y? Especially in business it shouldn't be a problem. Just to be sure, don't travel with a large hand luggage (a small backpack at most) and you shoud be fine.

TRAVELSIG

I have hand-carried some artwork in poster tubes/similar however never in the dimension of 1m in length. I have a tube I use for artwork which is about 0.5m in length and it works very well and I have never been stopped or asked about it when flying in business- I don't know about 1m as I am not sure it would fit in the overhead bins as they have dividers in them at certain points?

My suggestions are to firstly see if it is possible to get a tube which is shorter than 1 m in length (which is very long) and secondly get your travel agent to send a message and ask or alternatively contact your local sales agent of each of the carriers for the journey. The other idea of course is to send by courier- DHL for example offers a service for higher value article transport which has worked without problems in my limited experiences.

kanor

Scientific posters would come into my mind first, but yes art is another possibility.

I have carried ~1m tubes many many times to almost all continents with a lot of airlines, it was never a problem. And it always fit into the overhead bins (sometimes slanted).

OT:
Once entering the USA the security people asked to open the tube for inspection because xraying it was apperently not enough. And a friend of mine even had to explain his scientific thesis to the inspectors to proove that this is really just a harmless plastic tube. Was quite funny

makos

If my information is right Austrian flies 763 from Del-Vie. Overhead bins are very very small on this plane, also in general storage space is limited inside the cabin. I assume he flies coach and not in business.

TRAVELSIG

Good point. I did not think of scientific data as I generally think it can be transmitted electronically and then printed at place of arrival- although now that you have pointed this out in many cases that is not very practical nor workable.

VictorXray

With status pax, crew sometimes can put it in the their locker/cabinet (plenty of space there), if their mood is good this morning/day/evening....))

simonrp84

Thanks for the reply, seems like the answer is: Maybe
I have no idea if she has status and am she is in Y class. I tried calling a call center (as local agents in KTM are Air India, not Austrian) and they refused to give me an answer. I suspect this is a case of simply trying on the day and seeing what happens.
Will report back in case it's useful for others.

Viennafly

I would not worry at all. I regularly (several times a year) carry a poster roll (~1m length, 10cm diameter) on various domestic and international flights on OS, LH, LX, SQ, UA, US, DL … and in the last 10 years there was never ever a complaint from FAs, gate agents, check-in agents, other passengers. It is basically the size of an (oversized) umbrella, which you are anyhow allowed to take as an extra piece of carry-on.

mmff

This happened to my sister upon arrival in Tel Aviv. According to her, the officer had majored in her field and actually managed to make a couple of interesting questions!

AFAIK most faculties have their own printing facilities (or a contract with a specific company) and will not pay if members decide to print their posters in a different place. Besides, there might be a time issue because an A0 poster (I am guessing this is it from the 1m length) is not quick to print in most plotters.

It will probably work out. If it does not, in principle you can ask for it to be gate-checked and returned to you once you step out of the plane. As always, be polite and smile.

simonrp84

Yes, I agree - mainly was looking for some anecdotal evidence to help ease my friend's worries about this! Considering how many people travel to conferences etc with posters it seems a very strange policy from Austrian not to allow them.

But for the benefit of anyone searching in the future I will definitely report back on how it went. And I'll pass on the gate-check idea, could be useful.

simonrp84

For the record it was no problem - she was asked about it on one flight and the poster was stowed elsewhere (I presume in the wardrobe). On the other flights it just went in the overhead bin.

mmff

Glad to hear.