suzy1

We have already validated our visas so will not qualify for the Quantas migrant fare which has a larger baggage allowance. Can anyone give us some guidance on how to increase our baggage allowance from 20kg to 32kg without taking out a small bank loan!!

medwaymark

I was looking at Excess Baggage http://www.excess-baggage.com/ yesterday and I thought their charges were quite reasonable. U have to have more than 25kg to send.

asher

have you thought of posting some ahead of you to your office or a friend? can be cheaper


Kim

Buzzy--Bee

Fly via the USA and you get 46kg per person automatically.



Buzzy

medwaymark

Is that all airlines, or particular ones?

Buzzy--Bee

all airlines.



Buzzy

dade

How come you get 46kgs automatically? Is that to entice people to use that route?

We can't get the extra allowance from Qantas because we don't want to fly straight to our final destination. With a young child we definitely need a stopover. However we'll be airfreighting some luggage about 2 weeks ahead of us, not cheap but we needed the extra kilos.

Buzzy--Bee

It's because the flights are shorter and Americans need more luggage!

Air New Zealand flies this route, United, BA/Qantas, Virgin/Air NZ - a few others, take your pick.

It's a far better way to fly.



Buzzy

chrisandvee

I thought youot 40kg travelling if you were emigrating for good one way!

SunshineGirl

Not if your visa has already been validated.

Mr_California

As long as you fit the required dimensions, excess bag fares on Qantas seem pretty reasonable -- they quoted me $105 USD for each extra bag (in the right weight/dimensions) from the US to Sydney. Much cheaper than shipping.

TheRutters

This advice is purely anecdotal and comes with a very heavy health warning, however, when we flew two weeks ago (Qantas, Heathrow to Sydney), whilst our bags were weighed we were averaging 25Kg per person and 12Kg hand luggage and no questions, warnings or charges.

Could be worth winging it?

Tim

SunshineGirl

We had an allowance of 42kg each (30kg as it was business class and 12kg as we were silver Skywards members on Emirates). It actually weighed in at 49kg each (had to take stuff that we needed immediately and couldn't wait for the container to arrive). I was reconciled to paying extra but they simply asked if we were emigrating as it was a one-way ticket, and waved us through.

There were spare places on the plane so maybe we were just lucky.

bredennis

We flew by Singapore Airlines after validating our visas and they wouldn't allow us any extra. After a lot of negotiating we had another 10kg each. By the time we had packed for baby and us, we were well over. I begged and got no where. Dede (my wife) begged and amazingly we got 90kg - would have been 100kg if we had emigrated on our validation trip. When we reached the airport we were still 10kg over. The check-in guy let us off with it, so we got 100kg for the price of 50, saving us £100s.

The moral to the story is, find someone very good at negotiating and begging, i.e. my wife and you'll be right!

Good luck.

Ben

carolk

That's great news Ben! I take it your wife spoke to SQ directly not via the travel agent? Or did you book directly with SQ anyway?
I am Australian and will be travelling back with my husband who is a visa holder so I wonder if I can talk my way into extra baggage allowance...? And our baby will have an Australian passport, so I'll have to organise something. Were you going direct or did you have a stopover in Singapore for a night or two?