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Curious TAP Carry On Policy

koilife

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
CF '13; CF/Salvador/Ingles '16; Portugues '22
According to the TAP airline website (www.flytap.com/en-us/baggage/dangerous-goods), the following are prohibited items in carry on:

Objects with a sharp point or sharp edge:
objects with a sharp point or sharp edge capable of being used to cause serious injury, including:
  • items designed for chopping, such as axes, hatchets and cleavers,
  • ice axes and ice picks, — razor blades, — box cutters,
  • knives with blades of more than 6 cm,
  • scissors with blades of more than 6 cm as measured from the fulcrum,
  • martial arts equipment with a sharp point or sharp edge,
  • swords and sabres;
This would seem to permit the very small Swiss Army knives (www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Classic-Pocket-Knife/dp/B00004YVB2/). Also, I cannot find anything that would explicitly prohibit walking sticks.

If boarding my TAP flight to Lisboa from T2 Madrid, can I really keep those in carry on, or am I being overly optimistic? I KNOW the TSA won't permit them carry on when boarding in the US to Madrid, but it would be nice not to have to check bags when going to Lisbon.
 
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Understood. However, there was a link on the airline page that went directly to the Portuguese Civil Aviation Authority (www.anac.pt/vPT/Passageiros/InfoPassageiro/ArtigosProibidos/Paginas/ArtigosProibidos.aspx), and best I can tell is the airline shows a direct translation of ANAC:

Objectos pontiagudos ou cortantes - objectos que, devido à sua ponta afiada ou às suas arestas cortantes, podem ser utilizados para causar ferimentos graves, incluindo:
  • objectos concebidos para cortar, tais como machados, machadinhas e cutelos;
  • piolets e picadores de gelo;
  • lâminas de barbear;
  • facas tipo x-acto;
  • facas com lâminas de comprimento superior a 6 cm;
  • tesouras com lâminas de comprimentos superior a 6 cm medido a partir do eixo;
  • equipamento de artes marciais pontiagudo ou cortante;
  • espadas e sabres;

I assume there is little to no variation within Europe on something as fundamental as air security (though maybe that's a bad assumption).
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
@koilife, there is nothing unusual about this list. It is copied word for word from current EU law on common basic standards for aviation security. It tells you what is explicitly prohibited. It doesn't tell you what is explicitly permitted. Individual EU countries and individual airports within a country can have stricter rules.

You will depart from a Spanish airport to fly to a Portuguese airport. In my limited experience of departing from a Spanish airport to another EU airport during the last few years (Bilbao once, Santiago twice, Madrid several times), there is no problem with pocket knives with blades shorter than 6 cm. I was asked twice by Spanish airport security staff (once in Santiago, and once in Madrid when I had erroneously packed my usual knife and a tinier one) to show my pocket knife so that they could inspect and measure it, and then they gave their ok. I'm always confident that I will not be barred from carrying my pocket knife inside my backpack with me when travelling by plane within the EU.

Poles are a different issue. One or two people on this forum have reported that they were not allowed to carry their poles in Madrid but people are often not very specific about where they came from and where they were going to and what they were doing and what kind of poles they had and whatnot so I remain skeptical about these reports. Santiago has a different policy but this is well known. Santiago is not relevant for this thread.
 
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and best I can tell is the airline shows a direct translation of ANAC
The English and the Portuguese text are quoted from current EU law: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1998 and Regulamento de Execução (UE) 2015/1998.

Not sure if this will work but this link should give you the two language versions side by side: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-con...2705321&uri=CELEX:02015R1998-20190201&from=EN. The list is in Attachment 4-B / Apêndice 4-B. These are consolidated versions which makes easy reading.

I hope we've now exhausted the topic because experience has shown that it can easily get controversial or seriously confusing and confused. 🙃
 
The English and the Portuguese text are quoted from current EU law: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1998 and Regulamento de Execução (UE) 2015/1998.

Not sure if this will work but this link should give you the two language versions side by side: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-con...2705321&uri=CELEX:02015R1998-20190201&from=EN. The list is in Attachment 4-B / Apêndice 4-B. These are consolidated versions which makes easy reading.

I hope we've now exhausted the topic because experience has shown that it can easily get controversial or seriously confusing and confused. 🙃
I wonder if, once Britain has self-exiled herself from the rest of Western Civilisation, I can "take back control" and rid myself of these irritating EU rules and board a plane proudly carrying my hiking pole, throwing stars and butterfly knife . . . probably not ;)
15 days to go and I cease to be a European 🇪🇺 - 🇬🇧 = :(
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
I was not able to take them from DFW to MAD. Also, my poles were not allowed from MAD to Lisbon either.

Buen Camino,

Texasguy
 
I was not able to take them from DFW to MAD. Also, my poles were not allowed from MAD to Lisbon either.

Buen Camino,

Texasguy
I assume by your list under your avatar that you were blocked with poles in MAD in 2015?
 
Yes I was. I tried again in 2018. I had to check my poles again.

Texasguy
 
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If there is a possibility that your stuff may be confiscated when trying to board your flight then why take the risk? It is extremely unlikely that you would need your pocket knife or walking poles on your flight anyway!!!
 
If there is a possibility that your stuff may be confiscated when trying to board your flight then why take the risk? It is extremely unlikely that you would need your pocket knife or walking poles on your flight anyway!!!
I can answer your question for myself, not for others: it saves time and it avoids that your backpack gets lost or delayed. This is perhaps more interesting for people on short haul flights and short Camino walks than for others. In my experience and those of my companions, with Iberia within Europe on flights with a short connection time in Madrid or Barcelona for example, it is not unusual that you make the connection but your backpack doesn’t. Iberia will deliver it, of course, but with a delay of many hours or even days. Time that you’d rather spend walking than waiting.
 
If i was worried that my back pack may not arrive then i am sure i could pick more important things than a pen knife and my walking poles to carry on board a flight knowing that they wouldn't be confiscated. I have spent plenty of time tramping/hiking carrying stuff that never gets used just in case i need it. I'm pretty sure i could do the camino without a pen knife, or walking poles if they were lost in my luggage at the airport however i would prefer to load them on with my luggage rather than risk having them confiscated.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
On my camino two years ago I had a clear plastic knife (no point) from a fast food restaurant confiscated when going through screening. I was quite surprised!
I guess they thought it was designed for chopping, but it was world's apart from a cleaver.😂
 
I have never had a problem carrying on my hiking poles, but I have recently heard two first hand reports from people going through Madrid who have not been able to take them on. Since I will not have a lot of time between my arrival and Madrid and my departure to Alicante (and since I will have to go through security again), I am reluctantly going to check my poles in big cardboard tubes. They have only been lost once, so I suppose the odds they will get lost again are minimal.

But I would never ever in a million years check my pack. It is hassle enough to have to buy new hiking poles while rushing from the airport to the AVE, but it would be an enormous problem (though a First World problem, I admit) to have to replace pack and contents in Spain.
 
If i was ... i am sure i could
It's nice to exchange views; it's a major component of this forum. However, this thread is mainly about legalities and practicalities of taking stuff with you into the cabin on flights within the EU and more precisely those starting from Madrid airport and ending in Spain or in Portugal, not about personal preferences within these legal and practical frameworks.

On a more personal level and since we've probably exhausted the topic already, I can add that I've not been much of a backpacker and tramper throughout my life, unlike you, @Stuart Smith, and welcome to the forum, btw 🙂. So let me open a window into a different world for you: that of the Bavarian Alpine walkers. When I was much younger and more impressionable than I am now in my more mature years, it was they who shaped my views. We feel kind of naked or incomplete when we set out without our Swiss Army kind of knives in our backpacks. There were no bars every 500 m in the mountains, and so even today on the Camino we may stop and sit on the grass and peel our apples with the larger one of the two small blades, or cut our bocadillos, especially when we once lost a crown on one of our front teeth when we bit into a bocadillo in that place with the clock tower on the roundabout whose name escapes me at the moment, we like to buy a piece of hard dry local sausage from time to time and need to cut off a few bits for a snack now and then, we cut a Compeed into half with the really tiny pair of scissors because that's the way we use Compeeds now and then ... I could go on.

We are used to the way of doing things our way, and it would take a really compelling and convincingly logical argument for us to change our ways. That's why 🙃. Oh, and we know that we could always buy an Opinel upon arrival but we don't want to do that each time we travel because we would consider it as a waste of resources. Not ours. The Earth's.
 
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St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
@Stuart Smith, this is a topic that has been discussed numerous times in past threads. The point of my post was to see if there was a changing of policy/practice based on what I saw on the TAP/ANAC site so that I could plan the timing of my move between long-haul and regional flights.

I have used my pen knife frequently on past Caminos. Simply replacing a knife is, as @Kathar1na states, wasteful (money, natural resources, time). I have specific poles that I prefer, and I have used them extensively on past Caminos. Replacing my preferred poles with whatever happens to be available is definitely not preferable (for the same reasons). So, I know what I want and what I need, and I know the difference between them, and I know what I can live without and what I can replace. I simply prefer not to waste money, time, and aggravation if I don't need to.

Therefore, I will be taking a later flight so that I have the time safety margin if there is a long line to go through baggage check. I will, as @Kathar1na and @peregrina2000 suggest, only check my poles and penknife in a mailer tube, and will carry my pack onto the plane with me. It's what I've done in the past, and was hoping not to have to do this time.
 
Oops, sounds like i unintentionally raised a few hackles, sorry, :oops: i have unfortunately a say it as it is approach.
If i was sat at home planning my travel and i thought i may have difficulty boarding a flight with walking poles, a penknife or indeed anything else i would prefer to pack in with my checked luggage rather than have a stand up argument with security with an audience of travellers behind. Whichever way you choose to transport your stuff there is a possibility it may be lost.
Hi Kathar1na, thanks for the welcome. FYI I Would never set out tramping in NZ without at least one knife in my backpack and plenty of other stuff that i hopefully would never need. A bar every 500m would be a bit too much, a bar occasionally would be nice, but more often than not there is neither a bar at the beginning or the end:(
 
I wonder if, once Britain has self-exiled herself from the rest of Western Civilisation, I can "take back control" and rid myself of these irritating EU rules and board a plane proudly carrying my hiking pole, throwing stars and butterfly knife . . . probably not ;)
15 days to go and I cease to be a European 🇪🇺 - 🇬🇧 = :(
Me too, and I live in France!
 
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A selection of Camino Jewellery
@Juspassinthrough, it's the pink that scared them. Something was very suspicious . . .

Every now and then, I'll forget to pull one out of my laptop bag. I've lost several of those when traveling inside the states. The TSA contemplated permitting blades this length, but the US airlines lobbied against it and it died.
 
Ah yes, DFW, my wife had this weapon of mass destruction confiscated.
View attachment 68708

I totally forgot to put mine in my checked bag and left it in my backpack. It was found when I went through security in Madrid and they gave me the option of checking it in or mailing it (my 1 bag with our poles and some stuff had been checked in already) or tossing it away. Unfortunately I had to toss it. Which really sucked because I got it as a wedding present from husband 30 years ago :-(
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
I totally forgot to put mine in my checked bag and left it in my backpack. It was found when I went through security in Madrid and they gave me the option of checking it in or mailing it (my 1 bag with our poles and some stuff had been checked in already) or tossing it away. Unfortunately I had to toss it. Which really sucked because I got it as a wedding present from husband 30 years ago :-(
I guess that happened when you returned home and not when you changed planes in Madrid to fly to another airport in Spain and Portugal? Passengers of flights to the United States have their own security lanes/areas with different rules about what is allowed in cabin luggage.
 
I guess that happened when you returned home and not when you changed planes in Madrid to fly to another airport in Spain and Portugal? Passengers of flights to the United States have their own security lanes/areas with different rules about what is allowed in cabin luggage.
It was in Madrid going back to the US.
 
According to the TAP airline website (www.flytap.com/en-us/baggage/dangerous-goods), the following are prohibited items in carry on:


This would seem to permit the very small Swiss Army knives (www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Classic-Pocket-Knife/dp/B00004YVB2/). Also, I cannot find anything that would explicitly prohibit walking sticks.

If boarding my TAP flight to Lisboa from T2 Madrid, can I really keep those in carry on, or am I being overly optimistic? I KNOW the TSA won't permit them carry on when boarding in the US to Madrid, but it would be nice not to have to check bags when going to Lisbon.
You cannot rely on being able to take your poles on board, nor your little knife. The final say is always the security check at the airport and they have a lot of leeway in deciding whether or not something could potentially be hazardous or used as a weapon. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't, but trying to argue semantics with a security person is a waste of time and can potentially get you into quite a lot of trouble.

Try it by all means, but be prepared for the possibility that you will be refused and allow enough time to take your bag back to check it in if necessary.

I sometimes have to bite my tongue at airport security because they get into a fantod over some things yet ignore other perfectly good weapons such as the pin in my hair clasp, or a pen, or the necklace I'm wearing which would make a great garotte. It's mostly theatre designed to make people think that something is being done but it is what it is, and there is no point in arguing. Just smile, say sorry, ask whether you can go back to check it and move on.
 
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Anyone have experience with carry-on trekking poles when starting from Boston?

Neither my spouse nor I have had any problems with trekking poles in our carry-on packs in Canada (Fredericton or Toronto) or Madrid but this time I depart from Boston.
 
TSA is highly likely to make you check them.
 
Anyone have experience with carry-on trekking poles when starting from Boston?

Neither my spouse nor I have had any problems with trekking poles in our carry-on packs in Canada (Fredericton or Toronto) or Madrid but this time I depart from Boston.
I have never had a problem in the US carrying on hiking poles. I am sure I have gone in or out of Boston with them. I don’t think the problem is US TSA, I think the problem is in Spain. If I were just flying into Madrid and getting on a train or bus, I would carry on my poles. But since I am going to transfer to a flight from Madrid to Alicante, and since several people I know have not been able to get their poles through Madrid security, I will very reluctantly check my poles this year (first time in probably 12 years).
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.

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