Folks,

Can anyone recommend an airline which does not charge a lot when shipping excess luggage/baggage?

I plan to leave the UK in Jan '08 for Kitchener

Any help would be great

Thanks

Brian

Ship it as air-cargo.

Book a first class ticket now and get the extra baggage allowance on the ticket.

Better still - go through your stuff and really ask yourself if you need all that.

i'd recommend the second option also. reduced my baggage alot by simply saying i can live without that. premium seats on canadian affair boost the allowance from 20-30 kg and i was a little over that without being charged so i think there is some leeway as long as you are not obnoxious at the check in when wieghed. this worked for me.

oh i'm over <sighs, cocks head to one side like a bad dog, tearful eyes and further look of despair> i'm very sorry <pauses> <long silence>
reply: <takes a sneaky look to both sides like looking for the baggage allowance cops> oh you'll be ok.

unlike this for the canadian woman next to me who perhaps unsuprisingly paid for every last ounce, and this is no exaggeration, if anything i've toned it down with no swearing.

what, i'm over, i can't be over, what are you talking about, this is just ridiculous, this country, i've never had this problem in canada, why is everything so small here, even the planes are not big enough to carry my bags.

Go for the upgrade wherever possible to get an extra 10-20Kg each and then chuck out everything you don't really need. We ended up paying for extra at check in and even then it didn't cost too much with Air Transat.

Still looked like dossers at the other end though.

Are you sending anything over by sea, if so send as much as you can that way with the bigger things.

I started working in Kitchener this April, a big difference from Ealing in London.

An economy long distance ticket with a normal airline (not budget airline) will give you 2 checked in bags at a max of 23 kilos each! That is a total of 46 kilos per person! (do check individual airlines website and NOT third party website).

Bump up to a business/first class ticket and you generally are allowed 2 bags at 32kilos each - a total of 64 kilos per person.

Some airlines will charge a flat fee for excess baggage and allow you an extra bag with the same weight allowance per previous bag. Delta did that to me in US when I started accumulating more than I had brought over to start with.

It's worth checking out stuff like that.

I'd check the baggage allowance.....we flew out in April and only had 23 kilos and one bag as our allowance each.

Who did you fly with?

Fly globe span are excellent

If you fly business you get 40kg per person plus you can pay £15 per person to get an extra 10kg each.

We are not shipping anything so wanted a big luggage allowance, so flying 22nd July - 50kg each for £1100 which we thought was rather good.

H&J

you are quite right as others who have mentioned this, we did check it out, but its a lot lot more money to fly with a normal airline. the last time i did a search on opedo the same flight was £2000 more with air canada, lufthansa and the like, over canadian affair, if you can afford that, obviously not an issue with baggage, we couldn't, which is why i am writing this in nothing but my knickers and a smile, picture that if you want a nightmare.

I just the other day priced up an economy flex ticket for a relative of mine flying London to Toronto return (he flew out today) and it came to just over £500 inc tax. That gives him an allowance of 46 kilos in total - two bags + carry on.

When are you leaving?

Hiya we were going to book with Flyglobespan as you can pay upfront a set amount for excess baggage but after all the reviews we've read we thought against it!! So we've just booked Economy with Airtransat (think they're part of the Canadian Affair company) for beginning of September from Manchester to Vancouver. We mailed Air Transat before we booked the flights to enquire about excess baggage payments as some were £8.00 per extra kilo!! They said there's was going to be the same if we flew on the Saturday but we now have it in writing that as we are flying on the Friday they will only charge us £3.50 per extra kilo. Hopefully we will have some nice check in chick who won't charge us for the full excess :-)

Look suicidal or homicidal at the counter... it worked for us!

(Actually, homosexual might be better)

Brian,

I can say that I chose to travel wit Air Transat. OK they arent the best airline, but the ticket was reasonable, and they are by far the cheapest for excess baggage. I brought two big bags weighing in at 32 kgs each and paid 108 pounds in excess, Which to me wasnt a bad deal. Try that with Air Canada you will pay probably three times that amount. If you can bare the airline then I would reccomend them.

Good luck!!

Neil

Thanks for all your replies folks!!!!

I have flown with Air Transat before, and I don't have a problem with flying with them again.....

I should have also said that the excess luggage will be just that.....probably in the region of 6 suitcases full of clothes.....everything else we plan to ship via a removal company by sea.....cheapest option.....