Cremated Ashes

[JMorris271]

Hello everyone. Strange question here.

When visiting a European country and a spouse dies. Does anyone know if those cremains can be hand carried on the return flight or do they need to be checked in at the luggage counter?  Thanks.

[fbgd]

Depends on the airline. Google is your friend.

 

You'll also need to check the regulations for the departure, transit and arrival countries. Generally speaking cremains just aren't another piece of luggage.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, JMorris271 said:

Hello everyone. Strange question here.

When visiting a European country and a spouse dies. Does anyone know if those cremains can be hand carried on the return flight or do they need to be checked in at the luggage counter?  Thanks.

It’s a bit more complicated than “checked in at the luggage counter.” If you are truly concerned that someone may expire while on a cruise, you can (for starters) consult with your cruise line’s Special Services department regarding the general process.  Flying? Your preferred airline can also explain the situation.

[cruising cockroach]

I have experience transporting cremains.  You need a death certificate and some sort of certification by the people arranging the cremation (and the container may have to be sealed/certified).

 

It can certainly be hand carried.  Just under 10 years ago, my wife and I carried her parent's cremains for interment in their village of birth, by air (so they got to travel home in KLM business class).  Had to go through the security procedures at our point of departure and at the transit point in Europe.  Handled with dignity and took an extra 10 minutes or so.

 

It looks like you are expecting this sort of event.  Met someone on our last cruise whose husband did die, very unexpectedly, on her previous cruise.

 

Just a note, cremation may still be rather unusual practice in some countries.  My wife's parent's religion's position is (or was) that the body was to be left whole for the rapture (transition to this practise can be observed in underground tombs of a certain city where the practice of cremation by the very immediate pagan ancestors were abandoned).  Practice carried to the part of Europe where they came from, and where cremation was apparently pretty much unheard of until 10 or so years ago.  Only when the church graveyards were getting full (and they've been burying people on top of each other in family plots for years) was cremation permitted and accepted.   Only within the past decade was the very first crematorium built in the region where my wife's parents came from!

[cruising cockroach]

I should also add that possession of human remains in any form (including cremated ones) may be forbidden in some countries and everything (including transportation) may have to be handled by those licensed and sanctioned to do so.  It certainly seemed my wife's family in her parent's native country thought it may/could have been so and the whole event; keeping the cremains in the relative's domicile where we landed in the capital city until we interred the remains in the rural village - her cousin dug up the family plot (apparently this is customary) so we could inter the urns - wasn't not widely publicised.  

[cruising cockroach]

One other tip, tell the security screeners when you get to the front of the line that you are carrying cremated remains, and offer the documents I mentioned above..