Rules Station

Three rule makers, one traveller

Travel rules feel inconsistent because they come from three separate systems that never coordinate. Security agencies decide what can pass a checkpoint. Airlines decide how much you may carry and what it costs. Individual airports and states add local requirements on top. The traveller stands at the intersection of all three, usually at six in the morning.

Knowing which system owns a rule tells you how much room there is. Security rules are not negotiable at all. Airline rules are commercial and occasionally flexible. Airport quirks are local and often unpublished until you meet them.

Documents come first, always

Document problems are the only category on this page that can end a trip before it starts. Everything else costs money or time. A passport that is three weeks short of the required validity costs the whole journey.

• Validity: many destinations require the passport to be valid for six months beyond the date of entry, some require three, and some only require validity for the stay.
• Blank pages: several countries require one or two blank pages for stamps.
• Condition: water damage and a loose cover can be treated as an invalid document.
• Authorisations: electronic travel authorisations are increasingly required even for visa-free travel, and they are not issued instantly in every case.

Check the requirement for your nationality and your route, including any country you merely transit through. Transit rules catch people out more often than destination rules.

Baggage: the allowance belongs to the fare

The single most useful correction we can offer is this: your baggage allowance is a property of the ticket you bought, not of the airline you bought it from. The same carrier can sell you a fare with two checked bags and a fare with nothing but a laptop bag, and both look identical on the booking confirmation until you read the fare rules.

Cabin bags are typically capped around 55 x 40 x 20 cm including wheels and handles, with weight limits between 7 and 12 kg. Personal items are usually around 40 x 30 x 20 cm and must fit under the seat. Checked bags are commonly 23 kg in economy, with a linear dimension limit that people discover only when buying oversized sports gear.

Security screening in practice

Screening is a process, and the process rewards preparation. Liquids in one clear bag, at the top. Laptop in a sleeve near the outside. Belt, watch, coins and phone already in a jacket pocket before you reach the tray. Done well, the whole thing takes ninety seconds. Done badly, it takes five minutes and produces a queue behind you.

Manual swabs and bag searches are routine. They are not accusations, and arguing extends them. If an item is refused, the practical options are to surrender it, post it, or in some airports place it in a paid storage locker landside, which requires time you probably do not have.

Restricted items on both sides of the bag

Some items are banned from the cabin, some from the hold, and a few from the aircraft entirely. The two directions confuse people the most.

• Lithium batteries and power banks: cabin only, never in the hold.
• Sharp blades and tools: hold only, subject to length limits.
• Aerosols: limited quantities, and some types are refused in both.
• Lighters and matches: usually one on your person, none in the hold.
• E-cigarettes: cabin only, and using them on board is prohibited everywhere.

Airport procedures and timing

Check in deadlines are separate from boarding times, and both are separate from the security queue. Online check in usually opens 24 to 48 hours before departure and closes an hour or two before. Bag drop closes earlier than most travellers assume, often 45 to 60 minutes before departure for short haul.

Boarding gates typically close 15 to 20 minutes before departure. The uncomfortable truth is that a gate closing on time is not a mistake by the airline, and there is no obligation to wait for a passenger who is airside but distracted.

Visas, transit and entry

Visa basics come down to three questions: do you need permission before you travel, can you obtain it on arrival, and does transiting a third country create its own requirement. The last question is the one that gets skipped. Some countries require a transit visa even when you never leave the airport, particularly if you change terminals or collect and recheck baggage.

We always link to the official source rather than paraphrasing a requirement into something more comfortable. Where a rule is genuinely ambiguous, we say that it is ambiguous.

Keeping this Station current

Rules move. Limits are relaxed, then reinstated, and scanner technology changes the liquid rule airport by airport. Each article carries a review date, and where a rule is in transition we describe both the strict and the relaxed version so you can prepare for the worse one.