ELLJAY

Travelling as we did with 2 adults and 3 rugrats - that's a lot of luggage!
8 cases and 5 carry-ons

On the back of each luggage label we numbered them 1 to 13 (yeah a know...unlucky for some......read my timeline re plane breaking down!)

1 - Laptop bag
2 - my hand luggage
3,4,5, kids hand luggage
6 - 13 suitcases

then you can continually count and check you have all your luggage at a glance. Once cases 6 - 13 have been "checked-in" you can just count 1 - 5.

THEN......I also wrote an inventory of what was in each case. Putting night clothes and clean undies in say for example - case 6.
THEN - if you are delayed at airport...and have to spend nite in Manchester Airport (as we did) you know exactly what case your bed clothes are in.

ALSO - when you arrive in Oz - you may be staying with people - so you don't necessarily want to open up lots of different cases before you find your swimmers and thongs (swimsuit n flipflops)

YEAH A KNOW !!!! call me an anorak if you want.....but i bet i hear some of you say "Great idea"!......or then again.....praps not.

Oh well - off to beach!
Where's me cossy?......in drawer 3

L-j

I know i know ...i need a job!!!!.....i start on Wednesday

Weasy

Well I think - GREAT IDEA!!! Need all the tips we can get with rugrats travelling with us...

Lou
xx

Juliecabs

Yup, I think it's a great idea too.
Thanks
Julie. x

Ozzy dog

I think thats a great idea, we travelled with 15 cases all in all and it was an absolute nightmare, we stayed over in LA for a couple of days and normally I'm so orgainsed, but packing was a rush for us and boy did we regret it in LA and again when we got to the rellies in Adelaide. Who were bloody nuts hence we are now in Brissy.

I have vowed to travell as light as possible from now on.

Tracey.

biggy

we got some nice bright ribbon and tied it to the handles of all our cases so it was easy to see them on the convayor....so u could stand at the back and make a mad dash for it lmao

Keith&Lol

Nice one Linzi, that's exactly what we will do, good luck for Wednesday Lol x

iPom

This is so true ... all the cases coming off were black and an identifying ribbon is such a great idea... Can't stress that enough.

Can I suggest you don't put anything valuable in a case? Foolishly my husband put our digital camcorder into a bag and one of the baggage handlers took it. If I'd known it was in there, I'd have put it in hand luggage, but leaving is stressful and you don't always get it right.... poor guy.

We got off with 14 pieces of luggage .... It's all very well saying pack lighter, but when you're emigrating, your packing is so totally different to when you're on holiday.
Here's what we did.... We went with Singapore Airlines, who were just superb by the way. At check in, we were wished the best in our new lives, and I am quite sure one of the bags was over in weight, and it was just waved on. What lovely people. (Kind of makes up for the disapearing camcorder.)
When we booked our tickets, we asked for help at the other end taking our bags through.
You'll end up with about 4 trolleys if you're anything like us.... and with three children, it's nigh on impossible to get that through on your own unless you work in shifts!
When you check in, confirm again that you are getting help at the other end, and when you arrive at your destination, your airline should have provided a few people to help you.

HTH.

Ozzy dog

Isn't it funny I NEVER thought to ask for help - very British LOL, and yes you can't really pack light when you leave for good can you.

Tracey

iPom

Hi Tracey ... well this time we took all our relevant paperwork with us so that was one bag, then there's things you just 'need' at the other end - laptops for work, shoes etc that you need - suits for interviews. It's very tricky to balance what gets packed and what goes in the container, but this is why your allowance is so much larger for emigrating.

I got 40kg as I was the only british person, but my husband and three children (all Australian) were classed as 'Returning migrants' and were allowed 30kg of luggage each. If you're travelling with an Australian back to Aus then do mention this when you get your tickets.

Ozzy dog

Another good thing if coming here for good is to come via the states, we did and got a whopping 64kg each!!!!!!! Only a total of two pcs of luggage plus cabin luggage, each case could not be more than 32kg, which I think is the limit for a one man lift! So we took full advantage of this and had our top allowance each. They were very particular about this, and made us move some stuff around between cases.

Tracey

jayney

Am a little confused, we have booked flights and are leaving in June with Malaysia airlines short stop in KL, on our travel docs we have only 20k weight and am assuming that we can only take one case each (max 20k) and one hand luggage each think max 5k. Is there anyway that we can up the luggage allowance maybe if we phone the airline and tell them that we are migrating. I know diff airlines give diff bag allowance but is there a chance if your migrating to up the baggage. Any help would be appreciated

pioneer

Hi,
We have booked to go one way with emirates, in August. We booked via Expedia. You have to inform them at time of booking you want extra luggage allowance (40kg) as you are migrating. But saying that this means nothing as expedia didn't pass info onto airline. We phoned airline to check and it hadn't been done. So after a few phonecalls this has finally be sorted out. (I hope!!).
Im not sure if you can obtain extra allowance at a later date.
Sharon

jayney

Thanks for quick response sharon will give them a bell, only just received tickets so maybe in with a chance.

lesleys

In addition to Elljay's tips I'd add one more - don't put all of anything, eg shoes, all in one case. It's all too common that one bag gets delayed for a couple of days so don't make any one case 'critical'.
And another thing I found useful - subdivide things into large transparent plastic bags in each case, eg A's underwear, B's shirts, C's socks. It makes living out of a suitcase much easier when unpacking and repacking.

geordie mandy

A woman after my own heart, exellent idea, karma on its way
Mandy