If you’re travelling internationally via Air Canada, the following will be the most important tip in your entire trip and you’ll thank me for it. A hint: Airline rules and airport rules don’t necessarily match. A lesson learned by many travelers the hard way.

Everyone is getting into the habit of checking airline websites or calling hotlines to make sure that what they wish to pack in their luggage will be allowed through security and customs. Even the size, weight and number of pieces is rigidly controlled nowadays. I did all of that. The measuring tape was my best friend and for once, the scale wasn’t my enemy. I thought my eyes were betraying me when I read Air Canada’s regulations and saw that each passanger was allowed TWO carry-on bags. I double and tripple checked and even phoned the 1.800 number to be sure. This was great! I had my laptop bag with me so I really needed a second bag to carry all my essentials anyway so I was relieved…until London.

My trip to Oslo, Norway meant a layover at Heathrow airport. I’m usually mad with boredom during those three hours in Terminal 3 but not this time. I couldn’t even get past security. You think Americans have become paranoid? Enter the British. My first obstacle was the carry-on issue. Apparently, you are only allowed ONE bag in London. It doesn’t matter what kind of bag. As long as it’s a separate item, it’s considered a bag. It could be a big backpack or a clutch. It doesn’t matter. If you have two separate items, you have to somehow magically transform them into one. As I watched a security officer try to stuff another traveller’s large shopping bag into a camera bag, I could only shake my head in disbelief. What’s the point?? Everyone had flown in from another destination and had gone through a security checkpoint already. Why did we have to go through it all over again? Because someone may have secretly passed us a bottle of water as we were leaving the plane? Needless to say, many were held back and forced to leave the terminal to check in additional bags. I lucked out because I decided not to bring too many extra items in my bag and was able to stuff everything I was carrying into my laptop bag as I made a mental note to give Air Canada an earful for promoting their incompatible rules.

Another thing to keep in mind is that different airlines have different weight limits for checked-in bags. I’ve always flown with airlines that allowed 30 kg bags and I knew that I was under. When I checked in at Air Canada in Vancouver, I was told that I was three kilograms over at 26 kg. Apparently, the maximum for AC is 23 kg. Curses! I had an additional overnight bag to check in so I had to open up my luggage and repack everything, transferring some of the heavier items from the big bag into the small one. I just made it. Not a very good start to the trip.

So remember, even if you’re told you’re allowed to do something, unless you’re flying direct with no layovers, you’d better check the regulations for all the airports that you stop at. And don’t think for a second that measurements for the bags don’t matter. Some airports have a metal box frame that you must fit your carry-on bag into in order to take on board and if you get a testy airline worker, they’ll make you use it (and I swear those boxes are smaller than the dimensions they claim to have).

Funny thing is, as I unpacked when I reached my destination, I realized that I had been carrying a two-inch knife during the entire trip. With all the fuss, no one had picked up on it! So much for the airport’s impenetrable security system!

Speaking of airport security, I came across this amusing story that I’d like to share. Boy do we live in a paranoid world now:

A Terminal Case
By: Jason Solomons
Source: The Observer

Director Mike Figgis spent longer at LAX airport than intended. He’d arrived in Los Angeles, along with half the acting and directing world, for what is known as ‘pilot season,’ when the big studios try out new scripts, directors and actors in a two-week frenzy of auditions and career make-or-breaks. When Figgis was being grilled by airport immigration, he was asked the purpose of his visit. Unthinking and tired after a long flight, Mike replied: ‘I’m here to shoot a pilot.’ After five hours in an interrogation cell (yes, really), he finally made it into town.