Baggage Allowance when taking skis

freezywater wrote:OK, got back from hols yesterday and this is what First Choice at Stansted do. On arrival at the check in desk the computer tells them if you have pre-booked or not, they then ask you to WEIGH your ski bag, I guess this is more to do with Health and Safety issues here in the UK with the bag chuckers, wouldn't want them lifting something too heavy to throw!! Once weighed they were tagged and you then had to deposit them at oversize baggage where your boarding card was checked. On arrival at Innsbruck they simply stack them all outside the ski claim area, beware people on our flight found theirs had been nicked so if at all possible I would let one member of the party collect the 'cases whilst the other waits for the skis. Depsite having lots of racks for each country/airport the Austrians seem to bypass this nowadays and dump wherever the choose!! On the return leg through Innsbruck you simply take your skis to the oversize baggage area and give them your name and flight number and bingo!! skis are tagged and loaded. I paid the £30 carriage for mine and the wife's skis, and to be honest as they were packed in the one bag(along with some clothes for 'padding') I could probably have only paid for one ski carriage and not worried, but hey ho!!

Interesting, FW. I have travelled on the FCA flight from Stansted to Innsbruck a number of times, and never before have they asked to weigh the ski bags. You are right about Innsbruck though, they do just pile the skis up outside, so its best as you say to get someone to go outside and collect, whilst someone else gets the bags. Checking in at Inns is spot on though.

I am flying FCA from Manchester in 3 weeks to Turin, so not sure what policy they will adopt. I did however prepay for 2 sets of skis on this one, as we are going with a group, and everyone wanted to add their own skis to the invoice, so I forgot about chancing it at the airport!

Gatwick, with T Cook Airlines however, different ball game. Providing they dont read this forum, of course.

Let me share my experience as well. Flew with Alitalia from Heathrow to Bulgaria with connection in Milan.
On outgoing journey check-in was without a problem. On the website is written that I had to pay 20£ for ski bag , but surprisingly they didn’t want to take the money when I was checking the ski bag. I even insist to pay. I had 4 bags altogether - Ski bag -16kg, Boot bag as a hand luggage -6kg , 55lt. Backpack - 8.3kg small 15lt backpack -2kg. They did say that I can’t take boots on the plane but after few minutes talking we settled the issue. On arriving in Bulgaria I was told that my ski bag with my skies and all the ski gear inside is left behind in Milan. I was more than happy as I didn’t have to carry the back to the resort myself. They delivered the bag next day to the place I was staying.
On the return journey same thing but I was 10 kg heavier (8 cart. Marlboro,3 kg of dry meat, 2lts of local Bulgarian drink altogether without the hand luggage (ski boots and 2 more Marlboro)topping up the staggering 34 kg. The girl on check-in desk asked me to pay 14 kg excess luggage and after my refusal and pretending that I will throw all my clothes away but not pay £140 she let me go. The flight was delayed and I end up stuck in Milan in Novotel overnight , had a nice 3 course dinner with 2 bottles of wine
and booked on the afternoon flight the next day.(They did offer me a morning flight).
To end my story I will say - if you want your flights to be delayed ,bags to arrive after you, claim half of your ticket back in vouchers, and the other half on the insurance coz of the delay FLY ALITALIA.

Haha, nice story. I have heard many a bad thing about Alitalia, but it does vary from route to route. I heard that they put all their crappy old MD80 planes on routes to Eastern Europe, and they are always going tech.

Planes nowadays are much better than 3 years ago....there is another story coming...

summer 2003 return journey ALITALIA again form Bulgaria. I am waiting in the lounge area admiring the landing planes when I see this tiny dot approaching the runway ..landed ..and is still a dot… I can hardly read the “ALITALIA” logo on the side of it. Parked not far away from where I was standing and about 30 people left the plane. I was wondering how the hell they manage to squeeze to many people in that small thing.
Boarding time came and we was escorted to the plane -no need for ladder as the door stands less than a meter form the ground… After few smiles exchanged with my fellow travellers we began boarding or better say crawling to our seats . The overhead storage (size of a shoe box) was big enough to fit my 2 books ONLY. Hand luggage was strap on the seat on the other side of the alley. Lucky that we were les than 30 people. I spend the next 15 minutes thinking about the size of the steward and how big should be the food trolley to go down the plane. After this flight I stop complaining about the leg room in the economy class.

Basic rules I find are...

Charter or Budget = you pay for ski/board/boot carriage.

Scheduled flights = you don't pay extra.

Generally.

What I would say is ignore what Thomas Cook et al say, especially about pre booking, unless you know it's their own charter flight or a budget like RyanAir or EasyJet.

If it turns out the flight is a scheduled by BA or whoever, then just look on the airline's site. But usually it's your normal 23kg allowance or whatever for hold bag, plus you get to take a ski bag and boot bag extra. In this case, just turn up at the airport with the bags.

If it's a budget airline, check the airline first for fees as the tour operator might charge extra for pre-booking over the airline's fees.

I should add that I have never I believe had a ski bag weighed, and taking a bigger bag with more items (two skis, a board, etc) is no problem. A good way with the cheapos to get someone else's gear in. Another tip is if you are thinking of changing skis out there, a bigger bag means you can carry two pairs back. Customs are non the wiser (though a good tip is to post your receipts back rather than carry them in the luggage).

Also, if you're taking skis etc and paying for them, consider a scheduled flight instead. e.g. RyanAir costs with taxes + baggage costs comes out just about the same as a scheduled BA flight, plus with BA you get free food and more comfortable seats.


P.S. Hand luggage is the one bag plus now an extra for laptops etc. Ensure you have valuable gadgets in the hand luggage, and don't store lithium batteries in the hold. I just chuck chargers and stuff in the hold with clothes but all things of value (other than skis) go in the hand luggage.

Oh and finally, with skis and boards you will be spending extra time waiting at Oversized Baggage for your stuff to come off the plain. Worth considering if time is an issue when getting out of the airport.

I have been looking for cheap flights for March to take a late break this season and having found a few 1p flights with Ryanair, when you add items of luggage and skis, you are absolutely right, they are no cheaper than many of the other carriers.
BA in particular now seem to have good deals, the THE cheapest but certainly compeititve and free ski carriage too.
I also dont like having to fight for seats with Ryanair and Easyjet, or their weight restrictions, so depsite their claim for being the cheapest, they certainly arent the best VALUE FOR MONEY.

Think twice before booking flights.