Asking same flight customers if they would agree to put my knife in their checked luggage

Question

Issue

When flying with only a carry-on allowed, I am often bothered by not being allowed to carry a small knife that I will need at my destination (backpacking trips). So far, every time I faced this issue, I just bought a knife at destination and offered it to someone before flying back home as it is generally cheaper than having to pay extra for checked luggage in which I would put nothing but my knife! I could also mail my knife but that leads to other problems (e.g., what address to mail it to).

I am wondering whether I could just ask customers checking luggage for the same flight as me if I could put my knife in their checked luggage. I am afraid that some customers would find it offensive for me to ask and afraid that I would put them in a very delicate situation as it is generally recommended to not accept such solicitation (and they can't tell whether I somehow hid some illegal substance in the knife). I am also afraid that security personnel would target me.

The next time I will experience this situation will be a flight from Vancouver, BC, to San Diego, California.

Question

Can I get into trouble for asking people if they'd agree to put my knife in their checked luggage?

An answer could be "Sure, give it a try, you've got nothing to lose. Just be polite and don't be frustrated if it does not work!" or "No, don't do that. You're going to get into serious trouble from airport security, and maybe even people helping you could get into trouble." I am sadly expecting an answer closer to the second option.

Answer 1

Sorry, it's a valid idea but it's not going to happen

1. It's tricky to find passengers who will be on your flight before you pass through security. You would have to catch them at check in, before they check in their luggage. If you check in with Air Canada in Vancouver, there are flights to many different destinations. How would you find someone going to the same place?
2. It's specifically against safety instructions that are blaring through the loudspeakers every 10 minutes

   Do not transport items you have received from strangers

3. If security asks the passenger

   Have you received any items from someone else?

   (which they occasionally still do), the passengers would have to either lie or a lot of awkward explaining to do.

4. You'd have to figure out how to meet at the destination and potentially exchange phone numbers.

So yes, you could get in trouble since you are asking people to do something that security specifically and very publicly prohibits.

Answer 2

Sensible people will call security on you and you're probably going to get arrested.

You may find a "mark" but you'd be placing a naive and people-pleasing person in a very bad and nerve-wracking predicament.

Drug cartels have been known to smuggle drugs in very unusual places (sown inside dogs, in the texture of Virgin Mary statuettes, watermelons) and I doubt they haven't considered doing exactly what you're saying.

So no, don't do it, don't put someone in that situation. Mail your knife or replace it, consider it part of the cost of the trip. Or just check in your own bag.

Answer 3

Even ignoring the practicalities, it's a terrible idea.

Without being too paranoid, I don't know what you have done with that knife.

I don't want my finger prints on it, I don't want whatever substances it has been in contact with in my own bag, and I don't want to have any kind of explaining to do to law enforcement, especially upon arriving in the US.

Answer 4

Forget the fact that it's a knife for a moment.

Would you accept a deal where you risk arrest just so a stranger can save (say) $30?

If you're like most people, your answer is no. If you're not, well... there's your answer.

Answer 5

Once when I found myself at the airport with no check-in baggage and a swiss army knife I wanted to preserve for sentimental reasons, I asked the airline staff giving me my boarding pass, if they could arrange to transport it for me.

They agreed, and I was able to hand it over (at no cost) and later collect it at at airline's ticketing counter at my destination. I think cabin crew carried it on the flight; this was in 2009.

Asking a fellow passenger seems like a bad idea.

Answer 6

I've been in more or less this situation in Charles de Gaulle on Air France. I was travelling with carry-on only and had bought a souvenir letter opener that I subsequently forgot about. I had arrived at the airport quite early and it was found at security and I was sent back.

I did in fact have a baggage allowance but I didn't want to check in my carry-on because it had reading material, snacks, music etc. The check-in counter declined to check in a single letter opener on the grounds that it was too small and would probably get lost or fall through a crack so I went to a newsagent and bought a roll of sticky tape (and a free plastic bag), one roll of tape and plastic bag later, I had something that could be checked in. It got a sticker stuck on it and rolled off down the conveyor belt, I collected it at the other end. It must have weighed about 500g so if you are paying for baggage weight, it might not be very much.

Answer 7

I think your second option is closer to the mark. As a passenger, it is ill-advised to agree to carry items on behalf of other unknown individuals. For all that they know, in principle your knife could contain an incendiary device, or illegal drugs, or some other prohibited substance. Passengers are supposed to only carry items the safety and legality of which they themselves can vouch for. This is especially delicate when crossing an international boundary, where they will be responsible for your knife through customs. I would be quite uncomfortable if you asked me to do this, and I think in general it would be rather rude to ask.

I agree with you that this is a rather sad state of affairs, but I believe it's the world we live in.

Answer 8

If price/service is sane, send it ahead via postal mail

This gives you the best of all worlds:

• restriction is not an issue
• low cost
• no lingering around waiting for checked bags

Heck, I do this strategy for regular luggage. UPS is often cheaper than checked baggage, and it means no wrestling bags at the airport, queuing up to check... and when I walk off the plane, I'm free.

Answer 9

Aside from the security issue, you are also circumventing the carrier's pricing structure.

Admit it: you are being cheap, flying on a discount airline (e.g. Spirit) whose revenue model is about upselling checked baggage as a perk.

You want to haul things that need to be in checked baggage, that is to say, enjoy the benefits of that privilege. But without paying for it. It's like conspiring with someone to split a 10-day Disney pass, which is cheaper than two five-days.

The airline has the right to object, and if it's not a violation of their terms of service today, it would be well within their rights to change that. This may also be a matter of fine interpretation of their ToS, in which case it boils down to, "we disagree, if you wish to argue this, you will not be flying today". Regardless of ToS, they could play the security card and threaten to fetch TSA.

What courts have said in the past, is that if X has the right to set a rule R... and Rule R is reasonable on its face and not inconsietent with their rules and good business practice... then X has the right to enforce Rule R, even if they haven't yet spelled it out explicitly in their list of rules. So if you visit your favorite concert venue on 9/12/2001 and suddenly they're calling your boxcutter a knife, when they didn't before... yeah, they get to make that rule on the fly. So if you got in a legal punching match with the airline over this, you will lose.

In other words, courts are not amused with crafty rules-lawyering and twisting a companys ToS against them.

Answer 10

I experienced this once, when my teacher gave me a bag of his stuff because he had too much of it. I carried this as my own.

It was around 1984.

I simply cannot imagine this happening anymore except for people I trust with my life (or about that).

With a stranger this is not only impossible but I would probably warn security.

just don't do it - not only nobody sane will take it for you but you risk to miss your flight because of detention.

Answer 11

There are plenty of other ways of getting items to a location before you arrive there other than, at the very last moment, asking someone to take it on for you, which won't work because of all the reasons shown above.

Investigate one of the many services which provide a solution to this, such as lockers you can have things delivered to or posting it to someone you know in the area you're going to or couriers who'll hold it for you for an amount of time.

Answer 12

You could ring (or better still email so you have a reply in writing) the airline beforehand, tell them you need to take a knife, and ask if you can hand it to them to be returned to you at your destination airport.

Answer 13

An approach that you could take, if you were bent on this course of action that, frankly, seems ridiculous given the cost of a decent knife for camping is $10-30, is to use a site like Craigslist or Facebook where you can post personal ads.

Your odds are probably slightly better at getting someone to take your knife rather than approaching them at the airport, but it's still a fantastically bad idea. You're already paying a few hundred dollars on your ticket and you're waffling about less than 10% of the cost? There are much better things that you could be doing with your time and effort that would give you the funds to just go out and buy a knife when you get where you're going.