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I thought I'd share an interesting occurence not long ago while flying for the first time declaring a weapon.

Flying down, handgun stowed and declared at Love Field checkin-counter with no incident. Very easy and professional. I was simply asked to "place card on top of the contents inside my suitcase".

Short stay in San Antonio and then...

Upon my turn at Southwestern's check-in counter, I again declared my firearm in my suitcase, stating it was "unloaded and locked in a handgun case". I had opened the suitcase while making the statement.

I was then handed and filled out the declaration card. 30 sec later, I then handed it back to the ticket agent and he then stated "ok, open the case and place it with the firearm".

I had only 1 suitcase...it was already open...the only other "case" to open was...my handgun case.

I replied "Excuse me?"

His face then went confused...and we both seemed to agree I needed to bring my luggage to luggage security, which at that time I was asked to place the card in my "suitcase".

Perhaps it was in-experience, confusion on semantics by me, him, or both of us. Maybe they should be the ones to place it in the "case".

Thoughts?

i think TSA has you take an exam, and you must score at least 60 to pass. if you have at least a 60 IQ, you're in.

Not sure how many times you have flown with your firearms. Not all ticket agents do it the same and neither do TSA. I have questioned agents before but always wind up dooing it their way since they are in charge.

Most of the time the tag is placed in the same case as the firearm.

Anygun

I might be the one strange one around here but...

... I never fly! I drive to where I want to go in my own personal automobile.

I go to Amarillo it takes me 5 hours...
Compared to flying...

Drive to airport 1 hour from my house
Arrive airport 2 hours early.
WAIT...
Go thru screening, can't have my weapon on me, must check it.
Wait more
on the plane, Oh, it's delayed... needs a tire change or gas or something another 30 minutes.
Taxi to the runway (At DFW that takes a good 15 minutes)

So I've already invested three hours and forty-five minutes...

Flight is 1 hour to Amarillo

That's four hours and forty-five minutes...

Land and wait for the luggage that's another 25 minutes or 30.

Now we have 5 hours 15 minutes.

Drive to where I was going from the airport, another 45 minutes,

So I have 6 hours invested flying and only 5 hours invested in driving to where I was going.

Hmmmm.... Nah, I'll drive.

Can stop when I want, to use restroom or to eat (much better than the airplane peanuts and mostly a much larger restroom is available).

I've flown,
Not anymore.

Russ

kw5kw wrote:I might be the one strange one around here but...

... I never fly! I drive to where I want to go in my own personal automobile.

I go to Amarillo it takes me 5 hours...
Compared to flying...

No offense, but that's a pretty short trip for some of us. I have family I visit in northern Wisconsin. I also have family just outside Washington, D.C. In both cases, that's a 20+ hour drive from here (just north of Houston). I can make the flight in just under half that time.

I personally wouldn't mind the drive, but spending two days traveling with two unhappy children that both get motion sickness in a car can be a challenge (and can you imagine Grandma & Grandpa if I came without their Grandkids? )

Anything over six hours and I'll fly, especially if my girls are going along. I grew up flying all the time so its no big deal - even with all the change in security. The convenience - and yes, to me flying is a convenience - is hard to outweigh.

I'm in Green Bay WI as I type this, and while I agree with KW's assertion that it's sometimes easier to drive than fly, I also couldn't have gotten here in as short a time by driving. OTOH, I go to Ashland WI today, driving, and then on to Superior.

Southwest airlines usually asks for the tag to go in the gun case with the gun. At Love Field that was the standard practice for the three years I was there. We sometimes asked SW employees why they couldn't put the tag on the outside of the gun case so that we could tell the gun HAD been declared without having to open the case, and were met with dual logical points.

First, if the tag was just floating around in the suitcase there was no guarantee tht it would be with the gun case, not all of which have handles ot things to tie the tag to, and second, what about rifle cases which usually travel by themselves.

It's a far reach better then the bad old days when the gun declaration was tied to the outside of the suitcase that the gun was in inviting any and all with such inclinations to remove the gun for their own nefarious purposes.

Mithras61 wrote: No offense, but that's a pretty short trip for some of us. I have family I visit in northern Wisconsin. I also have family just outside Washington, D.C. In both cases, that's a 20+ hour drive from here (just north of Houston). I can make the flight in just under half that time.

I personally wouldn't mind the drive, but spending two days traveling with two unhappy children that both get motion sickness in a car can be a challenge (and can you imagine Grandma & Grandpa if I came without their Grandkids? )

My youngest lived in Sacramento, California (as well as Santa Barbara for a while and Fremont (outside of San Jose) before that.) We flew out twice (in the '90's) and drove out six times. Yes, it took us, basically, three days to drive to Sacramento from Ft. Worth (1800 miles one way) but we stopped off in Las Vegas for a night. We saw some really pretty (and ugly desert) as well.

I was commenting to the wife just last night how I was going to MISS the drive out to Sacramento. Miss seeing the airplane graveyard at Mojave, miss seeing the view as you go from Mojave to Bakersfield. Miss seeing the fiberglass dinosaurs along I-40 in Az.

Now she lives in Golden, Co. 800 miles away. So now I can drive to Amarillo and be with family for a night/day, then I can drive to Golden and stop and see the sights. I can stop and see the Royal Gorge, I can stop at Mt. Capulin and drive up Pikes Peak en-route!

My new car gets >30 MPG and we can drive to Golden--Myself, my wife and our dog (+ my .45 and my 9mm) for right at $100.00 in fuel (one way so $200.00 round trip plus what ever side trips we make while there).

Since we'd have to eat either way, food is not figured in.

Airline tickets for 2 to DIA from DFW are what for the round trip for two:

aa.com reserversations wrote:Average Fare per Person - 988.00 USD

Passenger Type Used in Pricing Fare per Person Additional Taxes and Fees per Person Total Price
2 Adult
988.00 USD
20.60 USD
2017.20 USD

Total Price 2017.20 USD

That didn't even include our dog!

Nah, I'll drive...