Thomson/Crystal ski carriage

I travelled recently with Crystal for the first time, using Thomson Airways. They make a £30 charge per ski bag, and before we travelled I tried to seek verification on their limits and restrictions. I had some odd stories about People having to unpack items at check in, being asked to prove what's in their ski bags, being charged excess baggage, and other odd incidents.

Unfortunately, Crystal were unable to actually verify anything, and there is a very woolly set of rules mentioned. The only clear specification they state is that you can only pack ONE set of skis and poles or snowboard in your ski bag, assuming you've also got a hold bag to check in. You are also NOT allowed to put boots in the ski bag or hand luggage, according to their T&C's.

I had also read somewhere that they stipulated a 6kg weight limit, which if true would be stupidly low, but was unable to get Crystal, Thomson Airways or my travel agent, Skiline, to confirm. Crystal have a forum on their website where there is heated discussion on this subject, and even senior staff are unable to give a defInitive response.

Having flown with them recently, I decided to adopt my normal policy of filling my double ski bag with my skis and both mine and my wifes poles, entry of bubble wrap around the skis, along with 3 ski jackets, 3 pairs of sallopettes (not ALL mine I should add), a pair of walking shoes, several packets of chocolate bars, an iPod speaker, and my heaviest hoody - all of which packs the ski bag out nicely to protect the skis, and allows me to use the 20kg hold baggage allowance and fill my suitcase with ski boots, clothes, ski clothes such as fleeces, base layers, goggles and gloves etc.

We checked in at stansted, and were not asked to prove we had paid for ski carriage, which would have been £150 for all 5 bags we didn't need to pay for as it turned out, and they were also not interested in what was in the bags or how much they weighed. All they wanted to do was put the tags on them and get us to take them to the outsize baggage check in where they were simply x rayed. This is exactly how all my previous experiences of checking in skis has been at stansted, gatwick and Manchester, and confirms for me that ski carriage charges are simply a money making exercise for the tour operators. I know it's different with ryanair and easyjet, and BA allow you a full 23 kg for a 2nd bag if you pay the fee, but on package tours with charter airlines I think this is par for the course - certainly it is based on my experience. It suggests that you don't need to pay for ski carriage as you seem to be able to check in without anyone wanting to check. It also suggests that the reasons the tour ops give for applying the charges (ie extra cost of fuel) are nonsense.

I am sure others have very different experiences with tour ops and ski carriage, but I personally feel the time has come for a uniform policy on ski carriage so we all know where we stand. If anyone from the airlines or tour ops reads this, please think about these 2 suggestions;

1 - either don't charge for ski carriage, bearing in mind people are booking a ski holiday and would expect to be able to take their own equipment

OR

2 - apply a standard and sensible charge for ski carriage when holidays or flights are booked, say £25 per bag, and apply a clear and sensible policy regarding the weight per ski bag. I would suggest a 15kg limit would suffice, and simply writing the bag at check in would not cause delays. It should not matter what is in the ski gag provided people comply with the weight limit. Excess charges should apply per kilo in the same wY as it does/should with hold baggage. In addition, there should be a high charge applied at the airport for anyone who turns up with a ski bag if they have not paid or booked in advance, in order to put people off trying it on or not being organised. Skiers are not stupid people generally, and they know how to pack, and should know when they book that they will be taking skis or not.

Option 1 would be the simple option, but would probably involve the companies building the cost of ski carriage to the basic holiday cost, so expect to pay £25 per person extr even if you dont take skis, whereas option 2 would enable the tour ops/airlines to charge for skis prebooked and make a hefty charge for people skiers who try it on by turning up with non prebooked skis.
Either way, a clear allowance per bag across the companies should be introduced so everyone knows where they stand. 15kg would be sensible in my opinion. Any more is excessive, any less would be insufficient.

I'd be interested to hear peoples views on this, especially people within the industry.





Apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors, I'm on my iPhone, and its easier to edit later from my laptop.

Interesting; I travelled on a package (with Neilson) for the first time in many years in January. I paid £30 for ski carriage and their conditions were quite clear in stipulating nothing other than skis and sticks should be carried in the bag.

The check-in girl at Bristol checked my tickets/invoice to see if I had paid and asked me whether there was anything other than ski equipment in the bag. (She was ok, though, as my main bag was 3kg over limit and she let me off; I think as the bag checked in before mine was well under the weight limit!)

A standard system would clear up the confusion around this issue, but I fear would never happen. Too many variables - tour ops, airlines, airports and check-in staff. I flew Ryanair to Salzburg once - not charged for ski carriage outbound, charged on the return.

My solution is fairly simple: fly Swiss - no ski carriage charge.

LOTA wrote:

My solution is fairly simple: fly Swiss - no ski carriage charge.

Not much use for Austria, Italy, or France though.
I've looked at Lufthansa who also don't charge for skis, but you're limited where you fly to ie Munich basically.
Unfortunately, there are some really good priced packages out there (£529 for a week catered chalet in St Anton with half price lift pass) which are part of a package and mean you have no choice with your airline. This is where I think the companies need to get together OR BE REGULATED by ABTA or ATOL to come up with a suggested universal policy. Theres no reason why there should be any variables. It should be made simple:

1 hold bag up to 20kg included as usual
1 ski/board bag up to 15kg at a cost of say £25

Thats it, no more no less. Extra cost for being overweight £10 per kilo for example, and £100 for anyone not prebooking skis and turning up with them.
Should keep everyone happy.

Why dont they get on with it?
This would encompass Thomson, Thomas Cook and Monarch European charter airlines.
Other airlines like Ryaniar, Easyjet,Flybe, BA and Swiss for example have their own policies and tour ops do not charter whole flights, so you adhere to that airlines policy if you book a package.

When do I get the job?

Tony_H wrote:

LOTA wrote:

My solution is fairly simple: fly Swiss - no ski carriage charge.

Not much use for Austria, Italy, or France though.
with them.

Not quite so, Tone, Swiss to Geneva is pretty good for a fair bit of France. And Swiss to Zurich gioves good access by road or rail to the Arlberg, among others. I've been, very efficiently, to St Anton that way!

Tony - you are absolutely right and it would be great if your suggestion were to be adopted.

This area is a mess and we have had many threads over the years trying to get clarity on what is allowed in hand baggage, ski bag rules, etc. While you got away with stuffing your ski bag this time around, what would you have done if they had insisted on you taking out all the clothes, shoes, etc? Presumably, a nightmare unless you just happened to have an empty suitcase handy!

It would be lovely to think that all the carriers would adopt a standardised approach and apply a modest charge. Unfortunately, this will not happen anytime soon.

The so-called "low cost airlines" started this with charges for bags generally. They reckon that skiers (and golfers) especially those with their own skis are reasonably well-heeled and will live with the ridiculous charges imposed. They are also anxious to put off people from having too much luggage generally because it slows down turnaround times at the airports.

As usual they are suiting themselve and as long at there is no real alternative (part from the odd exception such as Swiss if it suits), it is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Governments won't intervene because they take the view that it is a market issue.

If somebody like the Sunday Times Travel Section were to make an issue of it, there might be some hope of limited changes but I doubt it!

I travelled with Thomson / Crystal this year and emailed them prior to travelling. The first response I got didn't even answer the questions I asked and the second reply was just a copy of their initial response. I then rang the travel agent and they said 15 kg. I got them to send me it in writing. I paid for 2 ski carriages and put them in the same bag but in hind sight did myself out of 30 quid because they never batted an eye lid at 2 pairs of skis in the same bag.

On the other hand last year I went to Canada and ski carriage was free. Once again put 2 pairs of skis in the same bag and nothing was said on the outbound journey, but on the return journey I was told that my ski bag of 20kgs was overweight. I tried to explain that it was because we had a double bag and that because our allowance was 10kgs each it didn't matter. The operative said it did because it was all about weight distribution on the plane and our skis needed to be in separate bags. I said to her do you think I'm stupid, it's the same bloody plane we came on. It's not like packing a car were you squeeze things in around your main luggage. Eventually I was let on but it just goes to show what she said was rubbish or I'd have been refused to check them in.

It's a source of concern every time. There could be some distance in going back to rentals!!

I stuffed my ski bag full of stuff when going with Thomsons and they said nothing, but I had 10kg of hand luggage and was made to put 3kg into my case.

They weighed your hand luggage? Jeez, people were getting on our Thomson flight with miniature suitcases and huge backpacks. Just goes to show there is NO consistency, and they do whatever they want to suit themselves on the day. The daft thing is that if you move 3kg from one bag to another, you're still taking the same weight on.

I might drop the Sunday Times travel section an email on this matter.