Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Just How Many Bags Can You Take on the Plane?
Aired November 07, 2001 - 07:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back at 23 minutes after the hour. After the security lapse at O'Hare Airport over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration plans to hire more security workers to oversee airport screening during the upcoming holiday travel season.
Meanwhile, a preliminary hearing is set for tomorrow for Subash Gurung. He is the man accused of trying to board a United Airlines flight at O'Hare carrying knives and other weapons. The transportation security has recommended that United be fined and that security personnel be given more training.
Airport security guidelines now in place have some passengers scratching their heads. Just how many bags can you take on the plane?
CNN's Martin Savidge gets to the bottom of that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Americans struggle to carry on with life in a post-September 11 world, airline passengers are simply struggling to carry on. Just how many bags are you now allowed to take on a domestic flight?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I'm not sure. I think one.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Onto the plane, I can carry about two bags, yes.
SAVIDGE (on camera): Two bags?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: As long as they're light.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I've had no trouble carrying on my purse, my PC and a piece of luggage. So I haven't had any problem.
SAVIDGE: According to new stricter FAA regulations, the correct answer is one bag. Well, actually, one bag plus a personal item. So really one means two. But one definitely cannot be three. Here's how one airline clarified it.
TAD HUTCHESON, AIRTRAN AIRLINES: Now what if you showed up with a computer, a diaper bag and a purse? They would make you check probably two of them and, you know, or maybe one of them. But they would, you couldn't carry three bags on board.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Ah, not so fast. Actually, one can be three since airlines have exemptions to the one plus one rule. For instance, if you have a child safety seat, a wheelchair or a coat. But that's it, right? Wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: This is one and that's his briefcase.
SAVIDGE: Listen to the new math of carryon as this couple reduces four bags to two.
(on camera): So the answer is two.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If you want to call that a carryon. But I would call it just a suitcase and that's what they said to us.
SAVIDGE: And what about you?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: This is my carryon and my purse.
SAVIDGE: That's two.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes. That's one.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): This passenger has his own exemption, the freebie. Note the golf clubs.
(on camera): And then you've got a briefcase.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I've got my briefcase, yes.
SAVIDGE: And then you've got another bag.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I've got another bag, yes.
SAVIDGE: So you're taking three on?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I'm taking two bags and one free item on.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): And this man pulled us aside to tell us his strategy, the old bigger bag trick.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: This is really two bags inside of here, a briefcase and a laptop in one larger canvas bag.
SAVIDGE: For many passengers, the issue of how many bags you can carry aboard is tough to get a handle on, leaving them yearning for the days when the only thing they feared was whether their bags would make it at all.
Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
