Packing Pacer Poles Air Travel

[copado]

Hi Pacer pole Users.

Mine arrived a short time ago. Due to the angled handle and 5" width at that end , I am having a very hard time finding a shipping tube to pack them in. Do you think it is okay to ship them in the flimsy mesh bag they come in. Any recommendations or things that have worked for you?

Thanks

Copado

 

[Kitsambler]

I always put them, disassembled, into my pack, which I check. Six years of walking, and Lufthansa (4x), Delta (1x), and Air France (1x) have (knock on wood) always deliver the pack just fine. I put the handle end, and the pointy end, down, on either side of the pack.

 

[Mike Savage]

Hi Pacer pole Users.

Mine arrived a short time ago. Due to the angled handle and 5" width at that end , I am having a very hard time finding a shipping tube to pack them in. Do you think it is okay to ship them in the flimsy mesh bag they come in. Any recommendations or things that have worked for you?

Thanks

Copado

I have checked mine in only the mesh bag in Santiago with no problem and no damage.

 

[Kiwi-family]

I usually don't check my bag through but always wrap up the poles - disassembled - with my Opinel knife and nail clippers in cardboard with lots of duct tape. I take extra tape wrapped around my little tub of muscle cream to use on the return journey. On the occasion we used the tape en route to mend someone's backpack, I just bought more at a Eurostore - and picking up a cardboard box from the street has never been a problem.
The time we checked a pack through I still wrapped the poles in this way for protection.
I leave the mesh bag at home.

 

[peregrina2000]

I usually don't check my bag through but always wrap up the poles - disassembled - with my Opinel knife and nail clippers in cardboard with lots of duct tape. I take extra tape wrapped around my little tub of muscle cream to use on the return journey. On the occasion we used the tape en route to mend someone's backpack, I just bought more at a Eurostore - and picking up a cardboard box from the street has never been a problem.
The time we checked a pack through I still wrapped the poles in this way for protection.
I leave the mesh bag at home.

So, what in the world is "muscle cream?" Sounds like a body building supplement but that doesn't sound like you, Rachel! I always bring a lot of duct tape. I think @dougfitz has a different word for it from your part of the world, but I see you have said "duct tape." In any event, I was just going to say that I always wrap duct tape around one of my hiking poles. I inevitably need it (or find someone who does), and I can say with certainty that there is no way to predict the many ways in which duct tape might help you out in a pinch!

 

[Anemone del Camino]

My Pacer Poles do not fit in my backpack, so when heading back home I took them to the Santiago post office, bought all sorts of wrapping material and mailed them home like that. Mine are carbon, so I would think twice about checking them without any protection. That angled,handle is a pain when it comes to packing them.

 

[mark connolly]

You may get a shipping tube at FedEx/UPS/USPS or at an office supply store such as Staples. Last year when I went to Madrid, I packed my poles via checked luggage, with a bag I bought at a church flea market for approx. $5. Next month when I walk the camino, I will do the same in a bag I bought a bag for $25 that I will toss after I arrive in Spain. (This is contingent on the fact that I will bring my backpack on board and the bag with poles in the checked bag are checked since the airline allows me one free checked bag and when I get to Santiago, I will toss then.)

Buen Camino

Mark

 

[Anemone del Camino]

You may get a shipping tube at FedEx/UPS/USPS or at an office supply store such as Staples.

Because of how the gripmin shapped with Pacer Poles tubes don't work. That is the challenge the OP is facing.

 

[Sheesh]

Prior to my outgoing flight in 2013, I purchased a very lightly used soft-sided suitcase/bag for $3.50 from my local Sally Ann. It was almost like an old fashioned carpet bag and in fab condition. In it I put my Pacer Poles and anything that I could not carry in the cabin, crossed my fingers that it would arrive and checked it in. (I carried my backpack into the cabin.) In Spain I left it in my first-night hotel room, with a note that it needed a home. I would not have left just any old thing in the room, but this really was a very nice bag.

On the return flight from Madrid, I had my whole backpack, with my poles inside, plastic wrapped at the airport and checked it in, as I had done on my 2009 camino. But the wrap service had really increased in price in the intervening 4 years, from about 4 Euros to 10 or 12 (can't recall exactly.)

 

[wonzi]

I hate to part with my Pacers so i take them apart and put them in my back pack and carry it on the plane. I have done this three times and never had a problem. Well, once maybe, on the way home when I got to NY and I was questioned. Only an hour and a half from home and they questioned it??? But, they let them go thru.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

I hate to part with my Pacers so i take them apart and put them in my back pack and carry it on the plane. I have done this three times and never had a problem. Well, once maybe, on the way home when I got to NY and I was questioned. Only an hour and a half from home and they questioned it??? But, they let them go thru.

WIlling to bet you didn't fly out of Santiago with the poles in the cabbin...

 

[maggiec]

Hi Pacer pole Users.

Mine arrived a short time ago. Due to the angled handle and 5" width at that end , I am having a very hard time finding a shipping tube to pack them in. Do you think it is okay to ship them in the flimsy mesh bag they come in. Any recommendations or things that have worked for you?

Thanks

Copado

I always attach them to my pack and get the whole thing wrapped. Guess you could just have them wrapped and checked in too. Post them home from Santiago.

 

[jmcarp]

We didn't take poles on our recent CP, but when we did the CF a few years ago I bought a cardboard tube at an office supply store, cut it in half, and taped it together with duct tape and checked them at the airline counter. I also packed our liquids and my Swiss army knife in one of the tubes. I put a few patches of reflective tape on the tubes also, thinking that they would reflect any light in case they slipped into an obscure area of the baggage hold -- this was probably unnecessary. Also, since I had pre-purchased a Spanish SIM card for my phone, I put that number on the I.D. label so in case the tubes were lost so the airline could call me. Also, since we had reserved rooms in Pamplona and SJPP, I put that information on the label as well (I know, that's overboard, but what can I say -- I'm an anal retentive, retired technical writer). Everything arrived in good condition, so I simply discarded the tubes in a rubbish bin at the Madrid airport when we arrived and retrieved the tubes.

Of course our poles were straight, but those who have pacer poles could cut slots in the end of the tubes to accommodate the offset handles and then wrap the end(s) of the tubes with bubble wrap.

 

[grayland]

My wife simply puts her Pacer Poles, disassembled, into her pack and carries them on board on the outbound flights from the U.S. I do the same with my Z-Poles.
We have done this for the last 9 years or so...sometimes more than once a year. Never a question from TSA agents even when something else in a pack has required the pack to be hand inspected and the poles are taken out along with other items. Not even given a second look.

We always check our packs on the way home, less valuables, as we are not concerned that they arrive at the same time as we do.

 

[jmcarp]

My wife simply puts her Pacer Poles, disassembled, into her pack and carries them on board on the outbound flights from the U.S. I do the same with my Z-Poles.
We have done this for the last 9 years or so...sometimes more than once a year. Never a question from TSA agents even when something else in a pack has required the pack to be hand inspected and the poles are taken out along with other items. Not even given a second look.

We always check our packs on the way home, less valuables, as we are not concerned that they arrive at the same time as we do.

That's a good plan, but probably only works if you don't have an intermediate stop in the EU where you'd have to go through another security checkpoint. And I agree with just checking most stuff on the way home. We always carry valuables plus a change of clothes in a separate daypack that goes under the seat anyway in case we're forced to gate check the main carry-on.

 

[JudyInTexas]

I went to my local Fed Ex/Kinko's looking for a tube. They recommended their triangle box with fits two pair of regular straight collapsible poles. The edges are 6.5 inches wide and it is 38 inches long. It was free. They said they didn't have a way to charge for it. The corregations run sideways, not lengthwise, so I'll be able to fold it up and put it into the suitcase I'm forwarding to Ivar.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Here is how I wrap mine for checking on the airlines:

 

[copado]

Thank you all for sharing your tips & photos. Fabulously helpful. Lovely!!!

 

[Kiwi-family]

So, what in the world is "muscle cream?" Sounds like a body building supplement but that doesn't sound like you, Rachel! I always bring a lot of duct tape. I think @dougfitz has a different word for it from your part of the world, but I see you have said "duct tape." In any event, I was just going to say that I always wrap duct tape around one of my hiking poles. I inevitably need it (or find someone who does), and I can say with certainty that there is no way to predict the many ways in which duct tape might help you out in a pinch!

Duct tape around the pole - brilliant! Consider your idea stolen;-)
As for muscle cream....
https://goo.gl/images/Zkcrxn

And they do one for joints too.
Both are brilliant and have eased the aches of many a pilgrim I've walked with. And they smell divine!