hwilson

We will be emigrating to Sydney in December. I have been told that it is possible to get extra baggage allowance if you are emigrating. does anyone know how this is done, since it isn't obvious from the Airlines websites?
My preference is for Emirates. Any tips to get best price fares?

I wan tee go oz

Hi, enquire about an 'immigrant ticket'. You often get a 40kg baggage allowance as oppose to the usual 20kg limit

emma75

OH flew tonight with Singapore airlines. He only got 20kilos but gave him an extra 5 kilos as a goodwill gesture as he is on a 4 year buisness visa and not a permanent visa. I know some give you double the allowance depending on your visa.
Emma

Centurion

Emirates give you 30kg anyway. They wont give you any more for migrating.

BA will allow you extra at the cost of 32GBP for the first bag and I think 72 for each bag thereafter.

Singapore will offer you 40kg provided that you have an unused PR visa in your passport (ie. you have not entered Australia since its issue).

Those are basically the best options luggage wise. If you have a lot more consider sending it by a company such as excess baggage or freedom shipping who will charge you by the box.

As to fares, consider trawling the usual suspect sites, expedia, travelocity etc. Don't discount looking at the airlines sites directly as usually they offer the same prices but give you additional perks. Such as, with Singapore, if you book with them directly you can choose your own seat on booking rather than waiting until check in.

Sadly, nobody is going to give you a massively discounted fare over what the airline offers you usually.

bcworld

Try a search, there are loads of threads in this.

In a nutshell, the only airline which seems to have a defined, albeit not published policy on FREE excess baggage allowance is Singapore Airlines...you should be travelling on an UNVALIDATED PERMANENT visa. This gets you 40kg instead of 20kg - best to email the airline in advance and get written confirmation to avoid any issues at check in.

Emirates standard economy baggage allowance is now 30kg anyway. At one time they had a promo code which could be used to obtain 50kg however some say that this has now ended.

Some migrant fares which come with extra baggage, e.g. Qantas, seem to cost just the same as buying the flight + the excess bags anyway!

bcworld

For Sydney there is of course also Virgin Atlantic who have a similar/identical extra baggage cost.

snurse42

Hi, we flew in April with Emirates on a 457 4 year visa. We just called them and told them the situation, they give you 30kg anyway and they gave us an extra 60kg for the 4 of us at no extra charge. We got them to send us an email to confirm it but when we got to the airport it was showing on the screen no problem. Biggest problem was managing 180kg of luggage and 2 kids