Do you fly with a sewing machine in your carry-on?

My DD is flying home for Thanksgiving. I want to send her featherweight home with her. However, I don't want to have her pack it in her suitcase. Several years ago I carried my sewing machine on as a carry-on, but am not sure about any new regulations that may have gone into effect. Do any of you have current experience with this?

I would call the airlines before I risked having them take it away.

call the airlins she will be using. Thay should have the information.

They may ask the size of this, so you might want to measure the length, width & height to be able to tell them. Good luck

I can't imagine why you couldn't carry it on. We carry on computers, I even carried on a small projector. People carry camera equipment too. If you take the needles out and pack them in the suitcase they should have no objections. But to be sure call the airline and the TSA office at the airport. They would be the ones stopping it.

What would it cost to ship it thru one of those pack and ship places?

You might need to turn it on before you can take it on board. They love to see that objects are what you say they are and not some bomb made to look like a sewing machine. Call first and have someone who can take it if you can't.

I fly alot , and there are a few factors to be concidered.
What kind of plane is she flying? If it is a small regional jet the overhead compartments are REALLY small and would not accomidate the machine, leaving the underseat area. The underseat area on the regional jets are small as well. So if she has a carry on she is planning on putting under the seat , the machine and the carry on will not fit.

If she is flying on a larger jet , the biggest consideration is when she will be boarding, if she is in a boarding group that is one of the later ones to board all of the overhead space may be taken , especially during the holidays. This would leave her with the under seat area in front of her seat.

On the regional worst case is if she can't fit it she would have to gate check the machine. She carries the machine all the way to the gate , and then it gets loaded via a guy who takes all the bags that don't fit and puts them directly into the baggage part of the plane. She would pick it up on the jet way when she gets off the plane. Gate checking does not cost anything , and it bypasses the typical path checked luggage takes. It is a BIT safer. It does count as a bag though , and the arilines allow two bags as carry on ( this count includes a purse). A typical feamle passenger would have a laptop and purse, this would count as two.
I am not sure I would ever trust the people in baggage handling to properly handle the machine if you checked the machine the traditional way.
Hope this gives you some info.

Thanks for all the information. I guess I have some phone calls to make.

i travel with my Featherweight from time to time and have never had a problem.

the most recent time was about 3 months ago.

i live in NY and as you can guess they are very strict and no one has had a problem with my carrying on the featherweight but they did take away my stork scissors - so just don't bring on scissors no matter how small they are.

needle free, woudl be important..

I think if it will fit in the overhead ( and she can lift it over her head.. )compartment it should be ok..

I have found TSA and airline phone in lines to be of little value.. everything is subjective to the TSA or airline associate at the time u board.

calling the airline is great advice

I just flew back home to FL. from IN. with my Featherweight as my carry-on bag. I flew out of a small airport and they took the machine out of the bag I had it in to check it out really well even after going thru the x-ray. I made sure I had a case that had a handle & a carrying strap because wouldn't you know it I had to walk from one end of the airport to the other. Even though the Featherweights only weigh 11#'s they do tend to get heavy if you have to carry them any distance.

Sounds like I had better make a carry bag or get a rolling tote for her to manage the featherweight. Hmmm... I think I have some canvas and strap materials here. Best get started!

Why not just pack it up and mail it to her?

Yes, just put it in the carryon and when you get to security, just tell them you have a sewing machine in there. If you tell them, they will look at the scanner and chuckle. If you don't tell them, they will open the bag and ask you to disassemble! Flew from Dallas/Fort Worth to Salt Lake City in April. No problems when I told them what it was! Just be sure to pack all cutters, scissors, etc. in checked baggage.

I am not sure I have the skill to pack it well enough to send it through the mail. I realize others have done it, but it scares me to think of the possible tossing and dropping that packages get, and the featherweight in that context. But that is a thought.

Did your scissors come to a sharp point? If so that's why. I've taken a short blunt scissors and even showed it to them and was ok.

If you send through UPS they will help you pack it (they would actually prefer to help to make sure it is packaged correctly).

That would be nice. I didn't think to ask about that.