sharonmcallister

Hi everyone, I was just wondering for all you people who got the extra luggage allowance of 40kgs per person, how did you manage?

I know each case shouldn't be over 32kgs for H&S reasons, we have 2 children and one is in a buggy so we will have that too! Just thinking of the best way to do it, ie 8 cases, with 2 kids a buggy and 2 adults! Or 5 cases of 32kgs each, how did you do it when you went?

thanks in advance for your replies,

Sharon

Pollyana

32 kgs is a very heavy case. Remember you will have to lift it on and off the baggage belts, in and out of cabs etc. I'd be inclined to go for more - lighter - bags, rather than going up to the limit per bag.
The pushchair you can keep till you get up to the aircraft.

travelbug

Hi there - because we've already validated our visa's its possible we wont get an airline to allow us the double luggage allowance when we go later this year. However, we're planning on taking the 80kg we would have plus perhaps paying excess if need be on a further 20kg. We took about 65kg and a buggy with us in November - and that was enough luggage then to contend with. Our heaviest case was about 28kg. We only just managed to fit everything into our hire car - alongwith our handluggage bag and the kids handluggage rucksacks... I know people have been known to take 160kg but if you're shipping all your stuff anyway - i would try and reduce what you take to essentials that you wont be able to wait for or want to buy out there whilst you're waiting for your stuff - otherwise it's a nightmare moving it all! Or you could end up having to do more than one trip to your accomodation when you get to the airport! If you're planning on flying with Emirates - they did "lose" our buggy in November - we flew to Perth and when we got there our buggy had accidentally not been put on the plane when we'd took it to the gate with us at Gatwick - so make a point of saying to the flightcrew at the gate that it must be put on! We had to borrow an airport buggy for the 1st few days of our trip until ours arrived in Australia!
Also, Virgin Blue make you check your buggy's in when you check your luggage in - they then "loan" you a buggy for the time you're at the airport...

Nu-Shooz

Fly the LA way, you get more allowance.

ausi dream

We only had one case each(adults) and our two teenagers had a big holdall each. Mind you i was a little over on mine. They can charge thirty pounds for each kilo over i think, so i was told.

travelbug

Who's that flying with? We'll be heading to Tasmania - so were planning on going to Melbourne - buying a car and then getting the ferry over to the Island...

herrchook

OMG I remember it well, we had a pile of luggage which resembled the great wall of China. We had 2 trolleys full to the brim and 2 kids to keep in check and I remember it being horrifically stressful. Saying that, we got there in the end and thankfully, we'll NEVER have to manage that much luggage ever again lol.

Take the advice to have more lighter cases if you can, it's much more manageable.

My best bit of advice is not to overdo the hand luggage. We had those little cases stuffed full of activites for the kids and they spent most of the flights either sleeping or watching the TV and we hardly even opened the bleedin cases whilst on board the plane.

Machiavelli

I love my wheel on hand luggage, and it gives us approx 5kg extra luggage each (once we subtract the weight of the case) that we can take.

If they allowed us to transfer that 7kg handbaggage allowance to hold baggage I wouldn't use it though.

M

Buzzy--Bee

We travelled with 2 toddlers and 200kg+ - it is all explained here -

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=463889

Buzzy

Jackier

We flew out of Heathrow in October 07 and had checked with Singapore Airlines that we had a luggage allowance of 40kgs each (just hubbie & me), plus 7kgs each hand luggage. Unfortunately, we were staying with the MIL for the last 5 months in the UK and she had a set of scales dating from 4000BC, so we had to guess all our weights. We discovered at check in at Heathrow that we had a total of 96kg! We had one case over 32kgs which we unpacked at the desk, and threw extra bits into the other 3 cases to even out the weights, and off we went! If you're prepared for a little bit of embarrassement when unpacking your smalls in front of a crowd of people who you're never going to see again, you'll be fine, and they don't seem to worried about the allowance so long as each case is under the Health & Safety Guidelines of 32kg

curly

We had so much we needed 3 trolleys you don't half get some stares! we were way over too, luckily we were allowed it!

EvannTel

Its unlikely they'll validate but good luck. Excess baggage is normally 1% of the First class fare per kilo so be very careful!

Pollyana

Yep, about £30 is the usual figure. If you are over 32kg for one item though they HAVE to make you reduce the weight of that item - not airline rule, but a health and safety rule.

Machiavelli

Emirates quoted us GBP29.71 per kilo over 20kgs allowance last year.

M

curly

Think I've seen someone put it was about 35 GBP per kilo with SA, all the airlines vary, but all will rip you off