Putting corals under the plane?

[EpicWin]

I am flying Southwest Airlines to Colorado. While I am there I am picking up some coral. My question is if I can put them in a suitcase under the plane? Is there anything I should be aware of when doing this?

 

[jtgordon20]

I'd worry about the temperature and all the shifting of the backs from the workers loading and unloading and stacking.
Maybe someone who has traveled via plane with coral will chime in

 

[reefkoi]

Id pack them in a box and use heat packs its cold here!! OH AND DONT TELL THEM its corals......southwest employees have denied me bringing corals a few times now.

 

[KoleTang]

Treat the corals the same way you would ship something overnight.

Reefkoi, that stinks, what did you do?

 

[EpicWin]

Wow. Yeah Chris what did u do? That's my worst nightmare! I am not bringing back to to many so I think I'll have them bagged in a Tupperware in a suitcase that also has my cloths and stuff as well.

 

[reefkoi]

well in Denver they hassled 3 of us flying corals to cali, we each checked in different times and different baggage agents, one guy got away clean, I had to take the two "critters" I had brought (harlequin shrimp) and throw them in the trash :( The supervisor then decided the rest of it was ok but she was making an exception and let me fly.

Next one was in Orlando the TSA guy that x-rayed the box opened it, alerted the sw people and they told me I had urchins and other creatures that were not allowed, I argued for a while, they even accused me of illegally collecting it all (this was in florida mind you) so i had to spend the night there, re-book my flight and send it all on my cargo account (note the boxes go in the same place, same packaging etc, I just had to pay more). I also had a snag in Indianapolis and had to cargo it all, luckilly I was at the airport early enough that time to run to cargo and ship it all.

 

[red02]

i have put them in normal shipping box with heat pack and my clothes and did not have a problem that was out of Orlando when i bought corals from WWC

 

[EpicWin]

But I mean of they are just in a suit case that I'm checking under the plane can u see any hang ups? I won't have any critters. Just coral.

 

[reefkoi]

If you put them in your suitcase with a heat pack and wrapped to protect inside (I have used soft sided lunch box type coolers) you should not have any problems!

 

[EpicWin]

Thanks koi! I really appreciate your input! I've met u a bunch of times before I moved from Colorado to Texas. When I'm back sometime ill have to shoot down to the springs and buy some stuff from ya :-). Love my evo's btw :-)