I spend the better part of my year on the road teaching photo workshops and shooting assignments. I just walked in the door from Finland, and I’m off to Baja in a few days…60-70 flights a year. Since I travel with groups, we often share our travel stories dealing with camera gear. For the most part, other than being a little challenging getting all that gear to your destination, things go smoothly. Here is a link to a roller I like to use. But there is one bad occurrence I have seen happen multiple times. A workshop participant arrives on a trip with a broken camera. How does this happen?
My number one rule for flying with my cameras is to make sure lenses and bodies are not attached. I never put a camera in my roller or backpack that has a lens attached if I am headed to the airport. I have seen photographers put their camera with lens attached into the overhead compartment, then get off the plane hours later and the lens has been snapped off. Blame it on the other person stuffing their bag on top of yours. Or maybe you are cramming your bag under your feet. I always put a body cap on my camera and a lens cap on front and back of my lens and pack them into a nice padded roller or camera backpack. I’ve never had a camera or lens break during air travel, even if I have to gate check my roller for those small commuter flights. When I get to my location I attach lenses. And I will carry cameras with lenses attached during the day in my backpack. But if I am getting on a plane I separate lenses and bodies.
In Finland yesterday we had some of our group get randomly checked for the weight of their carry on rollers. Of course they were all overweight since they were loaded with camera gear. So they had to be checked and loaded with normal luggage under the plane (unless you wanted to buy a seat for your camera gear!). But since no one had their lenses attached, all the gear came through just fine. Just make sure to remove all your rechargeable batteries from your carryon. I always make sure to smile and be super friendly to the gate agent, this goes a long ways towards not having a problem with your gear getting checked. Cree always learns a few words of the local language which also helps. Happy travels!