Pool Sticks, Airplanes, Players, Sad State

T

tommyceilings

The Netherland Nihilator
Silver Member
If you want another point to help you gauge how bad the state of pool is right now at even the amateur level. Bring up the topic of carrying your stick on the plane.

How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for VNEA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for BCA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for APA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for (Insert Event)

This is just considering Vegas. We have Hundreds of thousands of players who fly with sticks, lets also consider the player who takes his stick with him. By now, there should have been a very aggressive push to let the people we elect know where our feelings are on our main hobby, and the sticks we've lost in transit having to Fed Ex or UPS them.

No, you paying me $500 will not help me get another Southwest, because that's your fee for a lost item or bag. No, I don't want to fight with your insurance investigator because he doesn't think that any pool stick should be worth over $150. No your payment will not get me back MY stick with the feel that I play with and I've grown accustom to.

Why is the APA with the most money of any group, not lobbying to get that fixed. I know it was going to be reviewed and possibly changed, but that got side-channeled.
 
when it starting affecting the sanctioning body's money, then they will try to do something. Other than that, they don't care.
 
tommyceilings said:
If you want another point to help you gauge how bad the state of pool is right now at even the amateur level. Bring up the topic of carrying your stick on the plane.

How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for VNEA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for BCA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for APA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for (Insert Event)

This is just considering Vegas. We have Hundreds of thousands of players who fly with sticks, lets also consider the player who takes his stick with him. By now, there should have been a very aggressive push to let the people we elect know where our feelings are on our main hobby, and the sticks we've lost in transit having to Fed Ex or UPS them.

No, you paying me $500 will not help me get another Southwest, because that's your fee for a lost item or bag. No, I don't want to fight with your insurance investigator because he doesn't think that any pool stick should be worth over $150. No your payment will not get me back MY stick with the feel that I play with and I've grown accustom to.

Why is the APA with the most money of any group, not lobbying to get that fixed. I know it was going to be reviewed and possibly changed, but that got side-channeled.
Click to expand...
i think they changed that check out this link http://www.insidepoolmag.com/201303/billiard-news/tsa-to-allow-billiard-cues-on-planes.html
 
tommyceilings said:
If you want another point to help you gauge how bad the state of pool is right now at even the amateur level. Bring up the topic of carrying your stick on the plane.

How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for VNEA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for BCA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for APA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for (Insert Event)

This is just considering Vegas. We have Hundreds of thousands of players who fly with sticks, lets also consider the player who takes his stick with him. By now, there should have been a very aggressive push to let the people we elect know where our feelings are on our main hobby, and the sticks we've lost in transit having to Fed Ex or UPS them.

No, you paying me $500 will not help me get another Southwest, because that's your fee for a lost item or bag. No, I don't want to fight with your insurance investigator because he doesn't think that any pool stick should be worth over $150. No your payment will not get me back MY stick with the feel that I play with and I've grown accustom to.

Why is the APA with the most money of any group, not lobbying to get that fixed. I know it was going to be reviewed and possibly changed, but that got side-channeled.
Click to expand...
I think in the beginning that was a knee jerk arbitrary list. If you focus on each item you see they are not really deadly, not in the sense that you could take over a plane with them. What are you going to do, jump up and say, "No one move I have a pool cue". Yea right, in like two seconds two or three guys will take it away from you and shove it up your ass.

You can't rob a bank or a store with a pool cue. It is just not a deadly weapon. Some one fists are more deadly if they have any training. What are they going to do, put everyone in straight jackets. Knives guns and actual deadly devices yes, but not a guitar or a pool cue or nail clipper and so on. The whole thing was ridiculous from the beginning.
 
caught me as funny

macguy said:
What are you going to do, jump up and say, "No one move I have a pool cue". Yea right,
Click to expand...

For some reason this caught me as funny and i picture , a guy jumping up with a cue in his hand " this is a highjacking the first person who moves I am gonna run out on you like the building was on fire "

Me and my pictures lol :thumbup::D
 
tommyceilings said:
If you want another point to help you gauge how bad the state of pool is right now at even the amateur level. Bring up the topic of carrying your stick on the plane.

How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for VNEA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for BCA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for APA?
How many people fly to Vegas every year with sticks for (Insert Event)

This is just considering Vegas. We have Hundreds of thousands of players who fly with sticks, lets also consider the player who takes his stick with him. By now, there should have been a very aggressive push to let the people we elect know where our feelings are on our main hobby, and the sticks we've lost in transit having to Fed Ex or UPS them.

No, you paying me $500 will not help me get another Southwest, because that's your fee for a lost item or bag. No, I don't want to fight with your insurance investigator because he doesn't think that any pool stick should be worth over $150. No your payment will not get me back MY stick with the feel that I play with and I've grown accustom to.

Why is the APA with the most money of any group, not lobbying to get that fixed. I know it was going to be reviewed and possibly changed, but that got side-channeled.
Click to expand...

They should make it carry on plane but not in compartment above you, like over sized bags that you thought you could carry on. They should have a closet or something lockable for items like this, golf clubs ..etc.
 
Cues haven't been allowed since 9/11. That was nearly 13 years ago, this country still is still gripped in terror, and policies have not changed nor likely in the near future.

It may be hard to believe, but pros do not get any special treatment travelling. They may not have experience playing amateur nationals in Las Vegas, but have years of experience traveling for tournaments. Many pros simply stick their cues and cue case in an oversized roller duffle and be done with it.


Or declare as a devil stick :-)
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/0...s-flutes-because-they-were-agricultural-items


the unfortunate thing (that I have learned to my regret) is that certain things are not allowed in carry-ons and will be confiscated anyway. and you *have* to check them. any useful tools for example. I've nearly had pliers and screwdrivers confiscated, (and that was before 9/11.)

one entertaining example (from 2004) was the day I traveled with a devil stick, (juggling toy,) that looks a bit like a disassembled pool cue. at the checkpoint they asked me if it was a pool cue, I said no and they said okay, but if it were a pool cue they would have had to confiscate it.

now mind you it looked just like a pool cue, weighed about the same as a pool cue, made out of similar wood to a pool cue, but because it wasn't actually a pool cue, they didn't have to confiscate it. if it had been in checked baggage, it wouldn't have been an issue. but it probably would have broken.

due to traveling with some odd juggling toys on a semi regular basis, I have taken to writing long, detailed notes to the TSA, explaining what all my props are and leaving it in the suitcase with the props. I have never failed to get a 'your bag has been searched note' and I haven't lost anything, (yet.) incredible pain in the ass.

on the other hand, I was once driving back into the US from Canada, where I had bought a flute to play. (normal metal type of flute.) and I nearly got penalized and the flute confiscated for not declaring the flute as a 'commercial object'. oddly, they said nothing about the 10 packs of peanuts that it was sitting on when they found it searching my car. I'm beginning to think Customs just has a thing for flutes...
 
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