Going to be flying next month to Arizona for some hiking and backpacking. How do I handle my hiking poles on the flight?

I think this is a tough problem, one I'm dealing with on three separate trips this year.

One of my hiking partners tells me he flies periodically with poles in his carry-on baggage and doesn't check a bag (and thus doesn't carry a knife either). I've always checked baggage when bringing poles, and will do so in future too.

Coming home from my last trip just a couple of weeks ago, the security checkin was just empty so I asked the uniformed security guy there if poles are okay in carry on baggage and he told me definitely not. So my sense is that it might be sort of hit or miss. I wonder what the official policy is for folks that have a medical need for some sort of a walking pole (cane) ?

It gets worse if you fly overseas, because then you have multiple countries policies to adhere to. So again, I just check bags, or if with my wife, we'll check one bag between us.

I would be very nice if some day I could fly with collapsible trecking poles and a pocket knife with a thin 1" blade.

The catch with checking baggage is you then get into the risk of a possibly lightweight (not terribly durable) backpack being damaged by the airline. Multiple solutions to that, but none of them are optimal for the sorts of trips that I usually go on.

If you need a cane (I have on occasion), it has to go on the conveyor belt to be Xrayed with your carry-on stuff, while you hobble through the electronic gate that reveals all your innermost secrets. However, walking canes do not have sharp points, which is the TSA's objection to trekking poles.

I haven't ever tried flying anywhere to backpack, but I think I'd box up the trekking poles and knife and check them, rather than entrusting my lightweight pack to the baggage handlers. Of course then I'd need a place to leave the box while on the trip.

We've put our pack in a beater suitcase and put the poles in there as well. We stay in a hotel the first night, leave the suitcase there with the bellhop, and pick it up on the way home...

Good Idea, may keep it for the future. This trip we're starting at the Grand Canyon and ending up a Cochise (top and bottom of the state), I'll be flying into Phoenix, but out of Tucson.

Box up sounds like the best idea, it's too big for my pack, and I wouldn't trust strapping it to the outside.

Quote:

"We've put our pack in a beater suitcase and put the poles in there as well. We stay in a hotel the first night, leave the suitcase there with the bellhop, and pick it up on the way home..."

Different techniques for different trips; my wife and I have done this one a couple of times, and the hotels seemed to have no problem holding on to rather low volume stuff --- something like a cheap and relatively thin duffel bag works great in that way. So IF you start and end your trip in the same town, that can be a fine approach, though some towns or cities are easier than others to leave stuff behind in..

Typically, however, I do a linear trip where I fly back home from a different airport, without having booked passage ahead (for longer trips it's challenging to predict an end date that doesn't leave you either rushing or waiting around at the end).

A real beater suitcase or duffle, one perhaps purchased cheap at goodwill or the like can simply be left at a local goodwill or equivalent. I've got one or two such at my house from trips friends have made where we start in my region.

Or as I think someone suggested, package everything in a box as checked baggage, and dispose of the box on the other end. In this scenario, I can't necessarily repeat that trick on the way back home, so I like to use an older backpack, one that I'm less concerned about damage/loss to if it gets messed about en route back home at the end of the trip.

The problem with these approaches is that on the way home it's often not practical to try to get a box and tape or another "burner" suitcase or the like.

I've had reasonable luck with yard waste or contractor plastic bags. Coming home from Florida recently I didn't have a contractor bag, so just used all three very thin yard waste bags I had with me over my aging ULA pack. At the airport I pulled the yard waste bags up to close to the top of (this top-opening) pack, and used the little bit of duct tape I generally carry to tape it to the upper pack fabric, above all of the strapping. That way, the baggage handlers have something to potentially grab (strap across the top), and TSA can open the pack without taking off the pack-protective yard waste bags. My trekking poles collapse relatively small and put in diagonally they worked okay --- wadded/wrapped my bandanda around the slightly protruding pole tips and put rubber bands around to keep that in place. Anyway, this worked fine, and is sort of my default, fall-back approach when nothing else works. The catch is, it seems like every airline or maybe airport (?) is different. I've had at least one experience (don't remember now if it was plane, train or bus) where I was told that the outer plastic had to come off before I could check my bag.

Flying places in the U.S., I've on occasion shipped my stuff ahead to a starting-the-trail hostel or trail angel or a local friend. Since airlines charge to check baggage anyway, this isn't necessarily a lot more expensive, and I generally feel more confident this way that my stuff will be there, intact, when I'm ready to start hiking. Most recently (going to Florida last month), however, I found this to be a bigger cost increase over checked baggage than it has been before (I think I used UPS this time). Maybe because Florida is farther away than most domestic places I've hiked in (?).

I'm going back to Spain in late September to hike the Camino (again) with a couple of friends who are doing it. For that trip I'm tempted to leave the poles home; I used them some on the Camino, but had them in my pack more often than not. I can borrow or buy a cheap knife to cut bread/fruit, etc. And it's possible that an Albergue along the way will have poles left behind by someone else that are free to whoever wants them --- I remember that being the case at least once last time. Would be nice to just do carry-on for an overseas backpacking trip!

Air travel has come a long ways from the days when I flew to South America and elsewhere with bottles of white gas in my checked backpack! But stoves and fuel are another topic.
I believe you can no longer trust to get away with taking trekking poles as carry-on. Because I am generally flying for backpacking trips where I want my poles, I simply put them inside my pack and check it (and I use poles that collapse pretty short). To protect my pack from getting holes poked in it, I wrap the ends of my poles with socks I always lose the rubber protector tips.
I can appreciate the concern of losing checked luggage, but I've never lost my backpack or had it damaged on a backpacking flight, knock on wood. However, I ALWAYS make sure to wear my hiking boots on the plane, because losing those would be thing that would most ruin my trip.
On a side note, anyone care to recommend their favorite short-collapsing poles? My old faves wore out. I briefly tried z-poles and hated them: I want some length adjustment.

My poles are Leki Carbonlight--about 5 years old now. I have an older pair of much heavier Leki Makalus. Unlike what others report, I've never had them slip.

I have to have adjustable poles because, being short, the length I need to support my tent is longer than the length I need for hiking.

I use the old Makalus for exercise walking around town, with the rubber tips on the pole ends. That protects both the points and my neighbors' sidewalks. Using the poles turns exercise walking into a whole-body exercise that really works on my core muscles.

I haven't tried air travel for backpacking. As long as I have a dog with me, I have no choice but to drive.

Backpacking with a dog is one of the joys in life. I was fortunate to have good dog care from friends when traveling abroad, though. Still, back then I never went backpacking locally in National Parks, but rather in wilderness areas, just so I could take my dog.

Right now I'm caring for a Jack Russell Terrier whose human "parents" are in Europe for a year. Oscar is a real cutie, but when he leaves (July 25) I'm going to look for another Lab or Lab/Golden cross.

i often travel with my good friend who walks with a cane. airport security makes him put the cane on the xray belt then hobble thru the electronic screening. once they let him keep the cane and go thru an alternate way but he had a full pat down and they did a thorough check of the cane before he was released. if i was traveling with poles, i would check them. my last stint thru security they weren't happy that i had left my fitbit one on me when i went thru electronic screening.