No, you can’t take hiking poles in your carry-on bag (and other TSA misadventures) - cleveland.com

Oct 15, 2024

Hiking poles were helpful on the challenging Kalalau Trail in Kauai. But if you want to make sure they make it to Hawaii, put them in a checked bag.Susan Glaser, Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – You can pack ice skates in your carry-on. Tennis rackets, too, and umbrellas, football helmets, bowling balls and boxing gloves.

Here’s something you can’t pack in your carry-on: Hiking poles. Unfortunately, I learned that lesson the hard way.

At the end of my recent trip to Hawaii, I surrendered my poles to the Transportation Security Administration at Lihue Airport on Kauai. The only good news: I had already used them throughout the trip.

Perhaps I should have known that hiking poles aren’t allowed in carry-on bags.

But checking the TSA website for prohibited items isn’t typically on my last-minute, must-do list before vacation. Perhaps it should be?

In my defense, it seems many TSA agents aren’t sure about the rules, either.

I flew from Cleveland to Honolulu (via San Francisco) on Feb. 10, with the collapsible poles in my carry-on.

Then, over the next 10 days, I flew from Honolulu to Maui, Maui to the Big Island and the Big Island to Kauai – and not once did TSA flag my bag.

Finally, at Lihue Airport at the end of my trip, en route to Cleveland, an agent pulled my bag aside and told me my poles weren’t allowed in carry-on luggage.

He gave me the choice of either getting out of line and going to check my bag or leaving the poles behind.

And while I wanted to argue – why such inconsistent enforcement? – I learned a while back that debating the rules with federal law enforcement officers isn’t really a winning strategy.

So I left them behind. The poles, after all, did what I needed them to do – helped me complete (and very much enjoy) 4 miles on Kauai’s tough Kalalau Trail, which is often ranked as one of the world’s most difficult hikes.

Read more: Five days on Kauai: North Shore vs. South Shore, and the view from a doors-off helicopter tour

Jessica Mayle, a spokesman for TSA, said agents have final discretion when it comes to allowing items through security.

“Hiking poles are not allowed in carry-on baggage because they could potentially be used as a bludgeon or other instrument to hurt someone onboard,” she said. “However, canes and mobility aids are permitted, and the final decision rests with the TSA officer on whether an item is allowed through the checkpoint.”

She added, “Officers are focused on detecting explosives and items that pose major risks to passengers onboard.”

Were my poles determined to be a major risk to passengers?

I can’t say. Maybe the agent was having a bad day.

Something similar happened to me years ago at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. One of my kids, 14 at the time, was playing lacrosse for her middle-school team and decided she wanted to take her stick to practice in Florida during a trip to see her grandparents.

Should I have known that lacrosse sticks weren’t allowed to be carried onto a plane? Maybe. But I’d traveled with a tennis racket before, without issue.

Honestly, I don’t understand how hiking poles -- especially the collapsible kind that fold into pieces no more than 18 inches long – are more threatening than knitting needles (which are allowed) or pickleball paddles (also allowed).

True, I could have gotten out of line, walked back to the United Airlines ticket counter and paid $40 to check my bag and saved the poles.

I opted against that because I didn’t think my poles – hand-me-downs from my late mother – were worth that much. (Indeed, on Amazon, they’re listed at $29.)

Part of the reason I traveled to Hawaii with just a carry-on bag to avoid such fees – not just on my flights to and from Cleveland, but also the three interisland flights I took while in Hawaii. (Hawaiian Airlines, FYI, charges $30 per checked bag for those interisland flights.)

So what happens to the poles now?

Mayle said that abandoned property such as my hiking poles are stored and then donated to the state at regular intervals. “They can auction or sell items as they wish,” she said. “Some categories of abandoned property that can’t be donated hygienically, such as toiletries, are disposed of.”

The state of Hawaii is conducting an online auction of items surrendered at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. Among the items for sale: a bunch of hats, AirPods, locks and a ukelele.

No hiking poles, but I’ll keep an eye out.

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