ELLJAY

Has anyone that has emigrated...landed in Australia at a different airport (ie Gold Coast) for a bit of a holiday, before then flying to their chosen new destination (eg Sydney).
I believe that you get an extra luggage allowance(40kg) for emigrating. But are you able to land at one airport - holiday - then fly on - still with all your luggage?

sorry if this sounds complicated, but would appreciate any advice.
Cheers

L-j

suzannepatricia

Sorry can't help you. In fact I was wondering about the luggage myself as I am travelling alone.I'd be interested to know of the emigration allowance. Is it perhaps dependent on which airline you chose?

CtrlAltDel

I think it varies depending on the airline; we're flying with Cathay Pacific in (checks calendar) five weeks, with a two night stop-over in Hong Kong, and Cathay don't do an increased allowance. When we spoke to the travel agents, they said we would only be able to get an increased allowance if we flew via the States, which wasn't in our plan. You can also ask the airline to hold your luggage over, so that you don't have to go to baggage claim at the stop-over point and then check it all in again when flying on to your final destination. That's a great plus if you're only going for a few days and you can carry enough clothes in your carry-on luggage.

NJJ

I flew into Perth, after travelling around Thailand / Malaysia / Singapore to have a look around WA first, but my destination was Victoria. I did not have too many belongings though. Sold most of them in the UK to fund my travels.

sherie_in_oz

Hi ELLJAY,
Don't know if you remember us from the last North west meeting but we arrived Melbourne 15th Sept, came with Malaysian on a very cheap one way deal so couldn't get increased baggage allowance from 20kg, In the end we did go over ( mainly coz Peter put loads of tools in our suitcases ....) but a really nice person at Heathrow said he would allow up to 10kg over with no excess but don't rely on this as someone next to us had to pay!!
Know of others who have flown with Singapore Airlines and managed to get 40 kg allowance but generally if you want 40kg you usually have to pay more for your airfare and go via the US.
Anyway now we're here we are in Mellie, we are looking to go to QLD for some hotter weather and possibly later on Sydney.there are lots of cheap internal airfares if you look on virgin blue and jetstar websites.we are flying Mel-Brissie for 99$ each next week with Jetstar and Bris-Sydney is 79$ if you catch the cheapest deals. Fares to/from Brissie are generally cheaper than flying from the Gold Coast but check out the sites. If you come via the US u won't have excess baggage probs,but I know others who had to pay excess luggage on internal flights, after coming from the UK, so often depends if you get an old stickler on the check-in who even weighs your hand luggage!!
All the best,
Sherie and Peter.

philian4

Hi,

have Cathay changed the rules, they gave us 40kg each back in January??

cranni

We left Heathrow last December, we was allowed 30 kg with them
Denise, mind we never got one of the suitcases, Denise

ljj

Hi,
we got double luggage allowance with Singapore (really recommend them). We arrived in Sydney, had a week there with rellies, husband drove luggage in hire car from Sydney to Melbourne while me and kids flew.

Louise

CtrlAltDel

I can definitely second the vote for Singapore Airlines; last time we came to Oz we flew SQ with a one night stop-over in Singapore (stop-overs are fantastic - you get to sleep in a proper bed, and it breaks the flight up into more manageable chunks). However, this time we wanted to go via Hong Kong, and SQ don't fly that way, so it was Cathay for us. We're not taking that much stuff anyway, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem to avoid going over the limit.

alexc

We took the States option. It was the same price as an Eastern routing although the stop off in LA was far more expensive than if we'd have stopped off in Singapore (hotel, taxis, food etc). ALso, if you don't stop, its a hell of a long journey, esp with kids.

On the up side, we got 64 Kgs allowance each (instead of 20) and our infant got 32Kg (instead of 10) so in total, we had triple the allowance (160 instead of 50). Dread to think what that 110 kgs would have cost to ship over.

glittababe

We landed and caught a ferry to moreton island for a 3 day break. We had to take all the luggage with us! It was a nightmare. We weren't allowed to leave them at the airport or port because of the terrorist threat. I recommend landing, putting the stuff properly into storage then going on your travels just taking with you the bits you need!

ELLJAY

Thanks for all your replies. really useful. We've been discussing it today and I think we will land in Sydney. Drop most of luggage then get an internal flight up to Brisbane for a weeks holiday. Thats initial plan. could change :scared:

l-j

Centurion

Good plan but dont try to take more than permitted luggage allowance on Jet Star or any of the cheap domestic airlines, you WILL pay excess baggage costs here Just a hint.

Jokat

Hya - hardly ever post but spotted this thread, because also relevant to us. We're flying to Oz via San Francisco to visit family there. We're using United Airlines because we have some flight vouchers that they gave us as compensation for a 24 hour delay earlier this year. With United we each get 2 pieces checked in up to max of 23 kg per piece (there are 4 of us, and 2 kids get the same allowance as us). United fly to the East Coast, so we will land in Sydney, have another short holiday over that side before flying across to Perth about a week or so later. Virgin Blue will allow max 32 kg each (no stipulation on no. of pieces), so we are likely to be over. The excess charges don't look too unreasonable, but they offer a freight service that can take care of accompanied baggage, next day delivery. So the plan is to fly most of our luggage across as freight, our relatives will pick it up at Perth airport, and we'll travel light over the the East side.Not enquired what the cost is yet, so all this could change!

lee/jane

Hi

We flew into Perth for a weeks holiday before we went onto Brisbane. We went into Perth with Singapore Airlines with our extra luggage allowance, and we were right up to the limit, 7 bags in total. From Perth to Brisbane we flew Qantas, the extra luggage was so cheap it is only $10 each bag not weight over our allowance which is one bag each. So we paid $30. We did get some funny looks in the queue, as mostly people had little overnight bags, I think they must have thought we were in the wrong part of the airport.

Jane