Cremation Urns Shipping or Travelling - Laws and Regulations
Are you planning to travel with the cremains of your loved ones? Often, people take the cremains to the sea to scatter or to a favorite destination of the deceased person to be buried. Such decisions to travel with the cremation urns are made as per the last wish of the person or the decision of the immediate family members. Sometimes, people just love to carry the urns wherever they go for a vacation. This gives them the feeling that the deceased person is always with them. Moreover, sometimes people ship the cremains to the loved ones of the deceased person. But for doing so, there are certain rules and regulations to be followed.
Shipping the cremains
Planning to send necklace urns containing ashes of a deceased family member to relatives staying far and wide? You must know that the United States Postal Service or USPS allows domestic and international shipping of cremains. In fact, it is the only licensed organization to ship cremains. For domestic shipping, the USPS sends the cremains via Priority Mail Express Service and for international shipments its Priority Mail Express International Service. If you are planning to ship the cremains of a beloved family member through USPS, there are certain things that you need to remember…
Packaging
The cremains should have a double layer of packaging. First, the urn needs to be wrapped using a protective and leak-proof container. This is then put inside a secure shipping container. Moreover, on the address side of the packaging, the contents should be identified as “cremains” and sender’s contact details should be provided. You will get identification stickers from a post office itself.
Choice of urns
Whether you are purchasing necklace urns or wooden urns to keep as decoration pieces, they should be strong and durable. The urns should secure the contents inside. While transferring the ashes it is important to note whether the packaging is properly sealed and sift-proof. Ashes inside such a vessel are in loose powder form, thus it is very important for the container to be sift-proof.
Travelling with cremains
If you are traveling with cremains in an airplane, you must remember that most of the airlines allow traveling with cremation urns. You have the options to carry the cremains as a carry-on, ship as a cargo, or as a checked luggage.
Traveling domestically
Are you planning to travel with the pet cremation urns within the boundaries of US? Then choose materials for the urns, which will easily pass through an x-ray machine. Some of the non-scannable materials are stone and metals.
So, for travelling, you can purchase security-friendly, temporary containers for carrying the ashes. Wooden urns are scannable. However, often metals, stones, and ceramic ones are opaque to the scanners at the airport and the contents remain hidden.
When traveling with cremains in airplanes or by road, it is important that you carry the Death Certificate and Cremation Certificate. At least one day prior to traveling with the ashes you must contact the airlines and check their specific requirements for shipment of pet cremation urns or urns for humans that you are planning to carry.
