Fiend at Court Unplugged
Today we are examining the pros and cons of checking tennis racquets in your luggage when taking commercial airline flights. There are some players in my orbit who have strong opinions that racquets should never be checked. That feeling is based on the fact that it can get pretty cold in the cargo hold of a passenger airplane. Most sources place the temperature lows somewhere in the 40 degree Fahrenheit range. We have a word for that in Texas. It is called “January.” I think the word for that in the Northern USTA section is “July.”
The fundamental question is what is the impact of extreme shifts in temperature on racquet frames and strings. I have never heard a credible first hand account of racquets warping under rapid temperature shifts. Players routinely keep their racquets in their heated houses in winter and then go out and play in cold temperatures. I personally don’t think that is all that different than the temperature extremes a racquet is subjected to in the cargo hold.
I also know some players who never check their racquets when flying out of concern for tension maintenance in their strings. If I was playing with natural gut, I would probably be more cautious about putting my racquets into the cargo hold. However, that concern would be due to the potential humidity changes rather than the temperature. For a racquet with a full bed of poly, I don’t harbor any reservations.
Things That Go Bump in the Night
Have you ever sat on a commercial plane while it is loading and listened to the bangs and bumps emanating from the cargo hold? Now imagine every overweight bag on the plane being unceremoniously chucked on top of the bag that contains your racquets. For that reason, I never check my tennis racquets in a soft sided bag. In related news, if there is a tennis racquet bag that is not soft-sided on the commercial market, it has completely escaped my awareness.
On the occasions that I have checked my racquets in my luggage, I do so within a conventional hard sided suitcase. It may seem counter intuitive, but I have on occasion checked my full tournament racquet bag stuffed with clothes and a large business suitcase containing my racquets. This kind of brings me to another pair of concerns. Theft and loss.
Dude – Where are my Racquets?
My baby brother used to routinely lose his luggage and racquets whenever he flew anywhere back in the 80s and 90s. While electronic tracking and video surveillance has sharply reduced luggage theft in more recent times, I believe that a bag emblazoned with a premium sporting goods brand and the promise of high dollar equipment contained within, is more likely to go completely missing than a nondescript bag.
On those occasions when I have taken my large tournament racquet bag on a commercial flight, it has to be checked per TSA guidance. I have a nice bag that is emblazoned oversized letters and logo of the premium manufacturer of my bag and racquets. It might as well say “There are a bunch of expensive tennis racquets in this bag – Steal me.”
Even through I never actually carry my racquets in that bag when checking it, a prospective thief would have no way of knowing that. As a mitigation to the theft risk, have a large plain black canvas duffel bag which I carry my racquet bag in when I am going to check it. That’s right… I carry my racquet bag inside another bag. I hope that the black bag with no lettering at all on the exterior says “There are probably a lot of smelly gym clothes in here.” Ironically, that is sometimes exactly the case.
Remember in Part 1 of this series when I indicated that I overthink how to take commercial flights with my racquets? That would be an example.
More Bet Hedging
I haven’t had an airline lose one of my bags in at least 20 years. However, I have experienced misrouted, temporarily lost, and significantly delayed bags on a few occasions.
When flying out to a match that matters, my personal preference is to carry everything I would need to play at least one round onto the plane with me. That includes one racquet, tennis shoes, and a complete set of tennis clothes appropriate for the expected weather and playing conditions at the tournament. I do not want to be running around the morning of a match looking for a racquet and shoes that fit. (Honestly, the shoes would likely be a more significant issue for me than the racquets.)
It is my personal preference to take my racquets as a carry-on item. Tomorrow I will share my experiences on the best way to do that. Will there be more overthinking? It seems likely…
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