Checking a hard-sided cooler as a checked bag?

[alyssa810]

Can you use a hard-sided cooler as a checked bag, specifically on Southwest? We have a baseball tournament where wouldn't be packing it with stuff that needs to be kept cool for the flights, it would be more so that we wouldn't have to buy a cooler at the tourney site.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Maximum weight is 50 pounds and maximum size is 62 inches (length plus width plus height).

Within those parameters, yes. But something like a Yeti 110 would be too large.

 

[spiders]

You’re question was already answered so I’ll just share this moment. My wife studied spiders in grad school. We used to have to take trips to go collect spiders and bring them back. We used a hard sided cooler to transport them. We used to take the ketchup style to-go cups and put a single spider in them and then put regular ice in the cooler. The cooler…well, it didn’t exactly look pretty with it being beat up and with duct tape around it. The TSA guy said “What’s in the cooler?” I responded “About 150 live spiders & regular ice.” The look on the his face was priceless. I continued “There’s nothing to declare when transporting live spiders but you’re obviously within your rights to inspect the contents.”

He elected to send it through the machine.

 

[Akck]

Living in Alaska, checked coolers are a regular thing to see at baggage claim and being checked in. The only thing to be aware of is that they don’t allow ice in the cooler, only reusable blue ice packs.

 

[bumbershoot]

He elected to send it through the machine.

Total massive gigantic phobia issues aside, that's how you end up with mutant arachnids, by sending them through the xray machines!

Ack! If I have nightmares tonight, you're to blame LOL.