XS Baggage costs on flights

[Mark of Loxley]

Hi,

 

I have just tried to 'pre-book' my gear with Thomas Cook for a trip to Egypt in November only to be told they "dont do an allowance" and I will have to pay at check in. At a cost of £4 a kilo that soon adds a fair chunk to a holiday cost when a board and a few kites come in over 20kg or more.

 

BUT !!! you can get a 30kg allowance for diving equipment ??!?!?!?

Now is that fair ?

Her argument was kiteboarding is an extreme sport ?

Like, diving is so sedate of course and there is no danger involved ?

She wouldnt put me through to a supervisor so i am none the wiser as to if i book saying its diving equipment will they search the bags at check in ?

 

Anyone had any similar experience ?

Last year with another airline i just had a £20 pre-book fee to pay and that is quite reasonable and no hassle at check in.

 

Mark

[gillstah]

don't tell them it's kiteboarding gear. diving, surfing and golf stuff seems to be much cheaper.

 

eg i went to greece. i only took one kite but packed it in a suitcase so they couldn't tell what it was. the board went in a board bag. the check-in desk lady said that it would go under excess baggage cos of it's size. if it had been checked in as 'kitesurf equipment' it would have been £40 each way (despite it only weighing 8kg). so she put it through as a surfboard and it was £10.

 

completely ridiculous.

 

this was with XL (Exel) Airways but i think it varies from company to company.

 

btw you should try and speak direct with the airline rather than thomas cook. travel agents are complete numpties imo.

 

paul.

[Stupid Dave]

i was lucky ive just been to feutaventutra(spelling?) and took my buggy 4 kites and loads of other bits it was 20 kg over and they charged me nothing at all and that was flying with Thomas Cook.

[spewing]

If they will take diving gear your laughing

Put it all in a big black holdall the bigger the beter, chuck in some lead just to get the weight up and tell them your going diving.

 

Dosnt make any sense to me either?

[Neddy knacker]

When we went to tarifa we had a 20kg allwance on are kit. Now that was just for sports kit so if youve packed everything into one bag including your normal clothes etc it is still classed as sports kit (if its in there).

hope this helps Hope you get some wind!!

[GaRRy]

Also might be worth asking about "Winsurfing" or "LandYachts" which you can sometimes get special rates on.

[8015]

Pack as much as possible into your suitcases, remember you don't need many clothes and don't really need that much wet gear (what temp is it in November?). If you can get everything in (boards are trouble but light) within your regular weight/piece allowance you should be laughing. 20kg is a tricky target - consider weight reducing measures like taking one bar for all your kites and one pump for the group.

 

Pre-booking is always a lottery so I never bother anymore, just approach check in making your gear look light with a big happy smile and treat the staff like human beings and you'll probably be OK. Turning up demanding to have your stuff checked on will probably just have them reaching for the rule book and extracting every last penny they can out of you.

 

JIM

[akamini]

It differs so much between companies and between staff its a total lottery. Ive used the NSI ProGolf deceiver bag 4 times now - worked 3 times, got stung for a mighty £8 for being 2kg over (22kg total weight) by someone easyJet jobsworth. The ridiculous thing was I had put everything in the same bag (clothes and kit) - if id seperated it, I could have had a 10kg additional sporting equipment allowance FREE on top of the usual 20kg. I tried to argue it was basically all just sporting kit (only had 1 pair of shorts and some Ts in anyway) but she then decided only 10kg was allowed for sports kite so id have had to pay 12kg excess... Total and utter bollox, in my opinion.

[mkratty]

ye ive got away with taking stuff a few times but i just got stung by thompsons big time and i didnt even take any kiting kit with me !!!!!! £7 a kilo:mad:

 

i think some tour operators have taken it a bit more seriously coz of the rising cost of fuel .i would recommend you take as little as you can, but if you can prepay for extra weight then do it when ya book !!!!

[ride the wind]

I have managed to get a buggy and kites cheack in as extra with easy yet for free, as sports equipment, i just used a powerkite mag to ilistarte what the sport was and the lady let it go

[Jono]

hey up all

 

I was studying abroad for a year in 2003 and at the start of the year i had more than enough stuff what with text books and all my climbing equipment, to fill a normal suitcase and weight allowance.

 

i got round this by taking a big north face duffle bag (i mean it was massive i could fit in it). Every time i checked in i just said it was sprots equipment and when they asked what i said "diving or climbing" depending on the flight destination. which they never raised an eyebrow at and just le me be on my way.

 

In my experience from this and many climbing trips its just best to say what they want to hear, and if they have a golf or diving equipment free of charge allowance then say thats whats in the bag

 

hope you have a cool holiday

 

Jono

[BrianCalshot]

1. Never pay as you book with the travel agent...that is just silly as Thomas Cook will take a cut!

 

2. Tell them at the check in desk its kitesurfing then add quickly a snowboard styly thing ...which they understand! (which gets a weird look when travelling on the HRG flight in the middle of summer ...but they get on and process you anyway)

 

3. I've either blagged it or at most been charged £40

 

4. Snowboaring, windsurfing and diving are exempt to a certain extent from overweight charges so... last time to egypt I carried out 51kg ...and blagged it. time before paid £40 carried out 43kg but carried in 120kg (I wanted the overweight xs ticket so told them to charge me!)

 

5. They arent really interested at Gatwick in charging you they want to get the queue down ...but if you arrive late they will charge!

 

The above is relevent to Astrali? Excel, My travel, at LGW

[Mark of Loxley]

So is it an 'airport' thing then ? as me and my mates; there are 3 of us kiting and 3 girlfriends to keep us comfy at nite; are flying out of manchester. we will all be taking kit, at least one board and 2 kites each. so will have to really shuffle the bags around and made sure the girls bring as little as possible so we can 'use' their allowance.

[wayne kitesurfer]

I've just got back from Tarifa, flew out from Liverpool with Easyjet, we got charged 96 quid and 18 quid for one board bag containing 4 kites and another bag containing 3 kites, we were two couples, if we had been carrying bikes or golf or diving kit we would of had an extra weight allowance of 40 kilos for sports goods, an been charged nothing, by putting all the kites into hand luggage bags on the way back we were charged just 24 euro, the standard charge to carry a surf board.

 

The last time we went, in january we again flew from Liverpool, again with easy jet,this time only three of us and had approx 110 kilos of kit, we didn't pay anything although we did have to evenly distribute the weight between the bags so none weighed more than 32 kilos, this meant us carrying our smallest kites on board as hand luggage, the return journey was the same no charge.

 

The time before, same thing , loads of kit, going out no charge, coming back 24 euro per board bag.

 

Time before that, pre booked the bags on with ryan air, to Herez, for a trip to Tarifa, 15 quid return , no hassle.

 

Three previous trips to India, again pre booked, this time with Monarch, 30 quid return for long haul, no stipulation of weight allowance on the pre booking slip, just a note to say carriage is subject to space availability on the plane and they do not guarantee carriage.

 

So as you can see its a bit of a lottery, all depends on the nice person behind the check-in desk, but if i'm travelling long haul on my main holiday i prefere to pre book it, they just take the voucher and off you go.

 

Its just worth mentioning that according to easyjets terms and conditions they can charge you by the kilo AND charge you 15quid or 24 Euro handling charge for large objects.

[spooky]

Her argument was kiteboarding is an extreme sport ?

 

Whats that got to do with it? Nothing extreme about it when stuffed in a big bag in the cargo hold??

 

Jon

[mph8873]

More often than not, it's not down to the airline but is down to the girl / boy on the check-in desk... if they are pretty cool then they will just let it go, if they are new / moody b@stards / don't like the look of you, they will charge!

 

So, be nice, helpful and try to avoid the spinster who looks like she's sucking a lemon:p