BA and bags

Ally, if its only £105 for the 3 of you on the train, its a no brainer. Thats a long and painful drive for you to do. I would charge a hell of a lot more to drive you that journey and back. Book it.

As for the cases, you clearly dont know me well as its me that takes a suitcase full of stuff, although you are right about straighteners etc for Mrs H.

Anyway, you dont seem to be able to book ski carriage online so I will wait and decide later I think.

Tony,
If you want to phone BA their number is 0844 493 0 787 and they are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. I was up early the other morning and rang them at 6-30 and got straight through. I would think they could book ski carriage over the phone, if you have made your decision.

Incidentally, if anyone wants to know, I was phoning them to check whether they needed a passport for domestic flights. At the moment they only need photographic i.d. (like a driving license).

And, the figures for my car versus train problem look like this:
Return adult ticket from West Wales to Heathrow = £102
2 teenagers on rail cards, outward half of the return fare = £67
Total cost = £169

Fuel cost for car driving 500 miles at 50 mpg = £57
One night parking at hotel = £7
Total cost of driving = 64

Money saved by driving is £105 over going on the train.

The point being, that they are going on the plane, and I'm not, and they are coming back on their own on the train. I am only going to help them. Heathrow airport is a very big place.

And, to satisfy your professional interest Tony, the cost of a Heathrow airport taxi transfer from here is £250 one way.

I won't have to decide until the last minute, because I can buy the tickets on the train. It will depend how stressed out (and short of money) I am feeling by the time we are ready to leave :D

Ally

Dave Mac wrote:6kg for skis, 1kg for bag, leaves 16kg for other luggage. Hand baggage, typically 10kg.

It's a good question, all my gear is weighed and recorded. My ambition is to go easyjet, just with hand baggage, (hire skis, or somewhere where I keep a set). For that to happen, Easyjet would need to give assurances they would accept the wearing of boots for going through security.

I don't think the wearing of boots is an issue that's airline specific- whenever I've worn boots airport security tend to make you take them off & put them through the XRay machine. I've not tried it with my ski boots on yet but can't see them being treated differently.

Andy, there were a couple of reports on J2 last year, where the punters were made to return from security, and put the skiboots through as hold baggage.
Equally, there was a pic of Jan Stenmark & family all wearing boots, waiting by the gate.

So where we at then?

Check in two bags of clothing (including boots) with a max weight of 23kg each - if that's even possible.

Pay £56 for one double ski bag containing two pairs of skis with a max weight of 23kg.

Our ski bag weighs 16kg so presumably if we're a bit over on our luggage then we'll have a bit of a buffer.

Failing that, I need to burn all my heavy Spyder gear and get something a little bit lighter.

I think the answer is to buy your own jet & take as much as you want,simples. :shock:

brooksy wrote:
I think the answer is to buy your own jet & take as much as you want,simples. :shock:

Or send Tony on ahead with his people carrier full of skis and wait for him to arrive from the Hotel Bar :wink:

Ellistine,

That is the best propsal I have heard.