Traveling - Snowgear

Hey,

I’m new to the forum and thanks in advance for allowing me to be a part of this.

I am currently in Europe (Finland) and will be flying home (Melbourne) in 2 months. I have been searching for flights and I always run in to the same issue with board bags. Who will be charging and how much will it cost to return with my gear. I used combination flights to get home last time and I kinda don’t want to lug around my board bag from one flight to another like I did on the way over. Heavy!

Has any one had good experience with an airline back from Europe to Oz? Who was the airline?

Any help would be amazing. Thanks!

My only advice I have is that I remember a lot of friends when they moved home from London flew via the US and US airlines to maximise their baggage allowances.

The other thing is if you don’t need the gear (but I am guessing you will as it will still be winter here and I am guessing you will want to board!) you can ship your gear back.

I used these guys and you can just pack up a board bag or similar. http://www.ossworldwidemovers.com/

I’ve never had to pay any extra as long as the combined limit of my board bag and regular bag is under the normal limit.
Thai airways are great
Have also flown with Qantas/British Airways without a problem.

P.S. Have you just done the season in Finland? How did you end up there? Few people on here with connections to sweden!

Yeah it seems its more by selection that they will charge you a lot of excess baggage. The problem is my bag is 20kg+ and the board bag is 20kg+, I may just put down board bag and see how I go.

Thanks for the help ozgirl & cords

I ended up in Finland as my girlfriend is Finnish but it was my second time in to Switzerland riding. I went to Verbier, Zermatt and also to the French side to Chamoix. I didn’t ride in Finland as the mountain is fairly small, I should have just for experience though. The better riding in Finland is a lot further North into Lapland.

Wowza! Thats a lot of stuff!!

One other tip is that you can sometimes get away with your carry on bag being super heavy - managed to do that a few times!

Otherwise ship a bag!

Hey bkrtron, welcome to Boardworld!!!!!

Most airlines will have a sports equipment size/weight allowance on their website!!!!!

And dependin on who ya flyin with, they will also have a pre-book extra baggage fee that is heaps cheaper than if ya just rock on up to check in on the day!!!!!

eg AIR CANADA charged me $70 one way for my board bag VAN > SYD pre purchased!!!!! If I had waited till check in time I would’ve paid around $300!!!!!

Just got quoted a similar thing when I was bookin my Japan Trip for next year, and QANTAS was goin to charge me $90 pre-book!!!!!

And I love my DaKine High Roller as it fits a shite load of gear in it, plus it’s easy to drag behind as it’s on large wheels!!!!!

Hope this helps?????

hahah sure is Ozgirl ... I have two sets of gear now ... two boots, two boards, two jackets, two pants, four pairs of gloves, etc…etc ...I’m going to go through them and get rid of some of the older stuff and send that through that mailing system.

Hey Mizu and thanks for the reply I found most are around $50-$100 with a pre-book and then some are included as excess baggage and some have allowances after I did some googling about. I have a Rome roller bag just for that reason to stuff as much as I can in it!

Sure does help

Currently living in Banff, Canada and wanting to send my snowboard bag home to Sydney has anyone done this in the past? or have any companies they would recommend. I’ve looked online and received many quotes but all seem quite expensive. any information would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

Are you flying home? An extra checked bag is way cheaper than sending.

When I looked into sending a bag back from Canada they were talking $400+

Do you have any friends heading back to Sydney? Pay them to have an extra bag?