SimonR

Im off on a 2 week trip to AKL, just found out I only get 20kg total with Singapore Air, and excess fees are $60US/kg. Ouch. Was hoping to transfer some stuff ahead of our move, but not likely.

So what do people recommend for getting bags from UK to NZ by air, either now or closer to the move date? Or I suppose we could ship the bags so long as they take less than about 2 months, but either way we need some stuff for our initial life in NZ as our main container will be a few months behind us.

ellenarosemary

Ring up and enquire whether or not they do new migrant deals, some airlines do, Emirates for example, - worth the telephone call. Other than that find out about airfreight for small amount, might work out cheaper and quicker than sea.

MrsFychan

we tried that and got nothing.

Mind you you do need to make sure that all the flights on the route will agree with the baggage allowance or you might find it rather expensive.

But we managed with a family of 4. Bought over the Wii inside coat pockets (obviously not the balance board). bought cargo pants to stuff the pockets out with stuff. we had 2 carry on bags each. jumpers with pockets, coats with large pockets.

moonie2011

If your going into Auckland or chch and not using internal flights open an ANZ bank account and then book emirates and you get double luggage allowance.

We are flying with qantas and get 30kg plus we have a free 25kg air freight from the shipping company

ellenarosemary

We flew with emirates, luggage allowance via ANZ was 45kg each and that included the children too.

We just packed everything we needed, (there were 4 of us), and we didnt have to worry about going over, we would never have had 45kg each we had a total of 19 bags, one carry on each, plus two suitcases and a couple extra bags etc. Remember there is usually someone from the airport at the other end to help with baggage to the car if you are on your own with children, there was at Auckland and she was brilliant/

escapedtonz

Hi,
First of all have a good scan through Singapore Airlines website especially where it mentions baggage allowances. Usually airlines offer a much cheaper rate for excess baggage if paid upfront or you can buy an extra allowance for a cheaper price.
For an example you can do it with Air New Zealand - costs $30 for another 23kg allowance if paid up front :-)

When our home was packed up into a shipping container, we kept some essentials aside and sent them as an air freight package - things like work clothes/shoes, winter coats, little boys proper cot, mattress, sheets etc - things that we didn't want to lug all the way with us on the journey but things we didn't want to be without for any length of time.
In all, this air freight package took approx 5 weeks. Don't know why as we were told it would arrive a few days after we did which was 3 weeks after it was packed up, but after some phone calls it was eventually tracked down
It can't arrive before you do unless you can assign it to someone already in NZ to be responsible for it.
When you get the call that it has arrived you have to go to Customs/Maf office to get the clearance certificates then you hand these to the company who's holding the parcel and make a swap - easy, but you need to make sure your car is big enough to pick it up or you'll have to pay more for delivery.

qssue

Our removal company has offered us an extra 40Kg baggage allowance on our flights. We will be going Singapore airlines.

escapedtonz

Hi,

Don't understand ?
How can your removal company give you an extra 40kg baggage allowance for your flights ?

Regards,

Tom1983

When is the actual date you are moving

Because we flew with Singapore Airlines and we got 40kg per passenger in total. The wife and I took two bags each

The only excess that we paid were the golf clubs which ended up costing a further 200 quid to bring over. Must have been the calculations they used

Whatever, even with the extra 200 quid charge - it still worked out a lot cheaper to fly Singapore Airlines to New Zealand than the next cheapest which at the time was British Airways at just under 2000 quid

I don't think yuor going to get much since your only coming for 2 weeks. Airlines (Singapore, Emirates, Air New Zealand and Qantas for definite) will only give you the extra allowance if this is your moving flight. From the OP, it seems that this is not the main emigrating flight, therefore you'll only get the 20kg allowance

SimonR

The main flight is end of June, haven't booked that yet.
Was hoping to use the allowance for that one for all the kids stuff though but tis not to be.

Anyway, it's amazing what you can carry in a 20kg load, so I should at least manage 3 months worth of clothes for me, provided we do a lot of laundry this year. Was hoping to take my bike as well, but never mind.

M_and_M

I emigrated last month to NZ, and air NZ were cheapest by far for luggage. You were able to buy extra pieces for around 75GBP each. they also charge the least for excess weight charges.

qssue

They pay for the extra