Air travel baggage advice needed

[sbs99]

Gonna take a trip to Netherlands, it's my first plane trip counting from the 9/11 incident. I read through flight restrictions, and searched cs's threads for any past Q threads.
Just need a little more advice from regular travellers...

I have two bags,

Hand-carry with a shoulder camera bad
camera+standard lens
spare camera batt (with tape for contact points)
card reader
thumbdrives
mobile harddisk
flash (thinking of putting this in check-in luggage to reduce hand-carry weight)
small mp3 player + earphones
monopod ( am i allowed to hand carry this?)



Check-in with a soft trolley bag
clothing/footwear
camera battery charger
handphone charger
toiletries (small scissors, cotton buds, etc or is swiss army utility tool allowed?)
spare haversack bag
snacks (cup noodles)
gift for friend (was thinking of Tigerbalm, but it's an ointment, is it allowed in check-in luggage? and how much is the amount allowed?)

my soft trolley bag has a number lock on it, must we leave it unlocked? or locked? during customs, I'm confused by conflicting info online.
Do i need to get additional locks for the trolley bag?



any other things i need to take note on flight restrictions? Or other crucial pointers?

 

[mohgui]

not too sure about the monopod as hand-carry luggage. some carriers may not allow it. as for the tiger balm in check-in luggage... no problem.

do lock your bags at all times. only open it when required by the customs.

 

[tribal.snake]

monopod => generally no. but sometimes u get lucky.
toiletries and tiger balm => no problem so long as it's checked-in.

as for locking the checked-in bag, if customs have an issue with anything inside and they deem it urgent to open it, they will by all means. and you would not be able to claim against the damage. my friends and i have had conflicting experiences in airports all over europe. kinda messy the rules abt this.

 

[sbs99]

not too sure about the monopod as hand-carry luggage. some carriers may not allow it. as for the tiger balm in check-in luggage... no problem.

do lock your bags at all times. only open it when required by the customs.

monopod => generally no. but sometimes u get lucky.
toiletries and tiger balm => no problem so long as it's checked-in.

as for locking the checked-in bag, if customs have an issue with anything inside and they deem it urgent to open it, they will by all means. and you would not be able to claim against the damage. my friends and i have had conflicting experiences in airports all over europe. kinda messy the rules abt this.

ah...ok...so lotions and stuff are all right in check-in.

Bout the unlocking bag, im just worried they might just do so coz of the battery & hp chargers in it, wiring stuff, and if i put my monopod in as well, they might mistake it for a mini bazooka (as i noted in another thread..haha).

 

[gnimus]

Its better to check with the airline.. Rules always change this days. I will be flying with tiger air in 2 weeks time and they don't allow me to hand carry my tripod (in a tripod bag). Check in is needed. That's what i got from calling the airline.

 

[2evans]

As other posters mentioned, if you lock checked in luggage, security can break the lock if they deem it necessary to investigate the contents. If you really need your luggage locked, there are flight approved locks that can be used. These are locks that can be opened by airport security if they require opening it.