travelling with skis

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plywood
Posts: 499
Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:13 am
Location: wilen, switzerland
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travelling with skis

Post by plywood »

dear fellow skibuilders.

i planned a trip to new zealand in the summer. 6 week - and of course i wanted to take the skis with me.

but now i`m extremely annoyed with myself about the flight - you can`t imagine how dded up these fu**ing airlines are with their stupid rules about the luggage.

at the moment it looks like this:
from zurich to london we fly with "swiss" - they allow you to take 2 pieces of luggage with 23kg and an additional ski bag. but in this skibag you can`t put more than the skis, boots and poles.
from london to christchurch we fly with "air new zealand" - there you can take just 2 pieces of luggage with 23kg. so the skistuff would count as one piece of luggage but could be packed up to 23kg.

and now, you probabely have noticed....
in conclusion we can take just one bag with 23kg with us and the skibag with just ski, poles and boots in it.
and we all know how much the rest of the skistuff weights, especially with all the safety equipment for the backcountry - now matter how...i can`t find a solution to get all the skistuff with me and all the other stuff i needed there! 23kg is nothing!

and all this just because the airlines are bigoted, inflexible and dumbassed

so i`m really pissed. anyone a good idea?
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
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RoboGeek
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Location: Middle of a cornfield...

Post by RoboGeek »

ship the stuff ahead of you via UPS. Then just stop by and pick up the boxes.
They don't lose stuff like the airlines do either. I used to do that with my guitars
I used to be a lifeguard, but some blue kid got me fired.
Idris
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Post by Idris »

I have flown from London to Christchurch with Air New Zealand. I've flown quite a bit internationaly with skis. What the airline tells you and what you can actually get away with are 2 completely different things.

What Air NZ mean is you can have a ski bag instead of a normal shaped bag (ski bag is bigger than max dimensions) but the ski bag can be up to 23kg (it was 32 when I went).

I just use a double ski bag and put my skis in it and most of my clothes. If any arline official complaines, tell them it's padding. but realy only security not airline should be able to look in your bag.

Make sure you have a printout of all their rules and regulations when you travel. i've had more than one airline check-in tell me I can't take skis. And many others try and charge me extra when they were not supposed to.

Don't be rude or pushy, but also don't let them push you around at check-in. If they are trying to charge you extra when the printed rules say otherwise. Demand to se a more senior person - it rarely comes to this but will work.

best of luck
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davide
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Location: Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
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Post by davide »

I did many flights with my gear: Canada, Norway, Japan, Sicily. Skis is no problem at all.
I have a snowboard bag, and I can put two pairs of skis, boots, clothes and gear (I did when I flyed to Japan and Norway). I admit my skis are light, and telelmark bidings are much lighter than alpine ones so it was always 20 Kg max.

To save some weight, you can bring boots and the heavy stuff (like the baryvox) as hand luggage.


A girl working at Geneva airport told me that you can ask the airline, when you buy your ticket, to bring more than the maximum weight. If the airline say yes, you can do it without paying more.
pentagram
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:39 pm
Location: queenstown New zealand

Post by pentagram »

to add my recent experience with air new zealand (being a kiwi)and most other airlines.
you are normally aloud one piece of luggage up to 20kg with the allowance of one further piece of luggage of up to 10kg for sports equipment...the thing is skis are ok but they say a big f..k you to some other sports equipment.(lucky for us) i would really reccomend to anyony travelling with skis-boards to find out exactly the baggage allowance for the airline they wish to consider flying on.when they say yes skis and the extra weight is ok, get some person from that airline to sign something for you before you buy the ticket...seriously for the people whop have not travelled on airlines with your gear it can be real bad.everyone i know has a "this wanker at the check in story"
plywood
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Location: wilen, switzerland
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Post by plywood »

thanks a lot for your tips

actually air new zealand would be no problem, the problem is SWISS.

lucky for me i read all emails again (there are a lot of it, i became nearly every week a mail that said something different, promised something else than the mail before and denied all the earlier informations etc.) and in one little mail my travel agent wrote a tiny little clause: you can take 46kg of luggage incl. ski.
sadly for him this was written just before we booked it. so it is part of the terms of the travel he offered us. in other words: i`ve payd for the luggage and i`m taking it with me to new zealand. but HOW my luggage travels to NZ is now the problem of the poor bastard at the travel agency :P
plywood freeride industries - go ply, ride wood!
davide
Posts: 260
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 7:13 am
Location: Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken, Japan
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Post by davide »

plywood wrote:you can take 46kg of luggage incl. ski
Are you moving to NZ?
46 Kg is enough to bring press, tools and materials to make skis.
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