Most places you go you can bring your personal affects with you and not be hassled. It’s always a good idea to check the rules. For instance there are prescription drugs you don’t want to bring to the UAE, and your duty free liquor may be confiscated when all of your luggage gets x-rayed when leaving baggage claim on arrival in the Maldives.

As easy as most travelers have it going through immigration and customs – most U.S. citizens, anyway, I wouldn’t want to be Indian arriving in Japan – flight crew are usually given even more flexibility. That’s one reason why flight crew make attractive smugglers.

Airline employees aren’t always given a free pass, though. And in some places they may not be afforded even the usual allowances (sometimes customs employees may be looking for some cash on the side).

Apparently though airline crew shouldn’t bring any musical instruments with them to Mexico,

Some countries have weird extra restrictions for crew. An example is Mexico, where it is not allowed for crew to bring a musical instrument with them.

In fact one pilot shares the story of what happened when they tried to bring their guitar,

Used to carry a guitar. Went to SLP overnight. No problem. CUU overnight. No problem. AGU overnight. “Excuse me, you need to pay taxes for your guitar! ” They asked me how much I paid for it, and a girl with a calculator said I needed to pay them some exuberant amount in Pesos. Yeah, like I carry that around. The agent then said I can leave the guitar at the airport. Yeah, sure I am. Luckily I was able to put the guitar on the flight with outbound crew back to the states and stored in CPO. Never again am I taking personal items there again.

They were fine in Cancun – the most popular flight destination in Mexico – but ran into trouble in
Aguascalientes. Sometimes crazy things happen in Mexico.

(HT: Jonathan W.)