Thanks for the Advisory,
You are very detailed in the extent of damage, but a few items remain untold...
What kind of container did you origianally pack the boat into? If that had
been dropped and broken open would that explain the damage; or were your bags
pulled open for inspection out of your custody and mishandled when repacked?
I have been flying kayaks with Alaska for 7 years without incident, and fly
again with an expensive Klepper on Friday...stumbling upon this advisory is
troublesome but won't substantially change our packing strategy...several bags
under the 70 lb limit, extreme padding of the frame with the boat hull, dry
bags and life preservers, and now, a call ahead to the airline to see if any
other special procedures need to be followed. The folding kayak opens up the
world to traveller's like us. I would vigorously pursue a claim against Alaska
on this and not assume that this is the norm, or swallow the bull**** they
brushed you off with concerning coverage of sports equipment. We flew the boat
to Siberia last summer with no incident. Indeed the world of air travel is
changing, but we can only hope it won't go
in the direction of permanantly excluding our styles of travel.
Good luck!
S.