Hi folks im after info on the actual process of taking goods with you on the plane as opposed to following in a container.Is there anyone here who could advise of whats involved .

We want to take with us a travel cot , pushchair , laptop , dvd player and some extra suitcases with clothes in etc.

Im wondering what the cheapest way of doing this is and has anyone had experience of this and if so what did they take.
Oviously our bigger goods would follow at a later date but what items did you take with you on the flight?

cheers Dave , going from Gatwick to Halifax

It varies, so it's best to check with the airline. Typically it'll be 20-25 kg, then you can opt to pay something like £6/kg above that. Depending on who checks you in on the day, you might have to pay all of this, none of it, or somewhere in between.

What the airline will accept as checked-in baggage is one thing. What airport security will let you take in the cabin is another. Check the Gatwick website.

Don't believe what the airline says about what you can carry on. Believe what the airport says. The guys at security don't negotiate; they send you back if you have too many bits of carry-on. I've seen it happen.

For me, it was worth paying the extra to fly business class with the increased baggage allowance, and they let me thru with all that i had.

Worth shopping around for upgrade fares, etc.

would agree with robski , flying AC exec first gave us 69kilos each. We shopped around , purchased tickets early , and managed to get the flights for only about 80 quid more than economy

the next week the price quadrupled!!

Thanks for the info ,

much appreciated , Dave

Remember pushchair doesn't count for your weight allowance or piece allowance - it's exempt. You might get away with travel cot in that vein too, we've never had one so don't know for certain.

Don't pack any 1 piece >32kg, other than that, take what you want and pay. Don't fancy the DVD player's chances of being in one piece at the other end though

Oh and Souvenir's spot on - I'd happily flown several times on this continent with laptop bag and separate hand luggage bag, but that is an absolute no-no on UK departures it seems. I saw several poor transit passengers at Gatwick getting serious grief for 2 bags, bags that no way in hell would fit inside the other bag as the security people were insisting they did. I don't know what happened, it's a slow moving queue but thankfully not that slow

They actually weighed our single pieces of hand luggage and made us unpack them and check a load of the stuff in because it was a bit on the heavy side (about 12 kg each when we should have had 5 kg).

For that very reason I always try and check in myself online or at a kiosk to avoid contact with airline staff who might weigh my handluggage