UKC

"There are many stories of people who have managed to sweet talk the check-in assistant into allowing them to take their house as hold luggage and other stories of people who have had a mere sling confiscated on the grounds that it is a lethal weapon of mass destruction. With this in mind, ignore all the helpful advice and stick to the facts." says Jon Dittman in his FAQ article 'Airline baggage' in The Knowledge.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=165

Jon provides the facts, links to airline websites, and some very useful tips that will reduce the weight of your kit, those crippling excess baggage charges and all without leaving anything out.

Illustrations kindly provided by Steve Taylor (photograph) and a rare cartoon by Alan James.

If you would like to do a FAQ based on your own expert knowledge of a climbing subject you can upload it here.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/send.html

Mick

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Nice article, although where you say - leave the petrol stove at home and opt for gas - be careful with Easyjet as they won't let you take gas stoves anymore (from Liverpool):

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=156636

In reply to Scott_M@c: I have written to Mick about that but I have been away this weekend so I guess events have caught up.

Mick. Article looks ace! Ta. Ignore most of my comments a part from the stove bit. I guess Adobe isn't Explorer!

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:
Excellent article. Very useful.

Quote: "Make sure that your hand luggage bag isn’t too big and if it is very heavy, practice carrying it in a way that doesn’t make it look heavy, just in case someone suspects and wallops you with a hefty excess baggage bill."

I find my 28l Camelbak rucksack fit's nicely under my plane seat but I've managed to fit 15kg in it.
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.airports.uk.edinburgh/msg/98d9e6f110f8...

In reply to Jiffy:

When we came back from Murcia last week Ryan Air were weighing hand luggage. One of our bags was 10.5kg but they let it go - maybe because the other one was only 6kg.

Chris

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

flying back from Belfast today (work) on Easyjet, saw somebody charged excess for 21.5 kg (limit 20 kg), and his partner's was well under 20 kg. Applying terms and conditions to the letter

In reply to kevin stephens:

That's a bit rough!

We've booked RyanAir (fingers-crossed) to the Pyrenees in the summer. I'm quite keen to take my mountain bike for which they will charge £34. Is this a good idea and how well should it be packed? Would I be better hiring a decent bike in France for two weeks? Where from? (near Prades/Perpignan)

In reply to Father Faff:

Not sure, but the forums on cyclingplus.co.uk may offer some advice and experience

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=162714

re: boots - Yes they are now offensive weapons if hand baggage!

In reply to Mattyk:

That must be added to the FAQ.

Mick

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com: Can i add a few tips:

In big airports i.e. stanstead After weigh-in you take oversized bags elsewhere to be scanned.. if so you can run around corner and shove heavy stuff back in it.

Don't be ashamed to wear all your clothes on the flight.. I'll try and find a pic and post it on my profile.. highly amusing.

No rules about carrying 3 coats inside each other on flight (each one full of pants/socks etc in pockets)

Easyjet now have a no weight limit on hand baggage (just size) so: Good luck with that.

A mate suggested a stove solution - to take apart what you can and clip to your rack.. they won't notice amongst all that iron mongery!

Ryanair is difficult because 15kg is barely enough for all the stuff you can't take in hand-luggage.
Easyjet 20kg + unlimited weight on hand luggage is workable!
Matt

In reply to all:

Can I add a couple of top tips from my experiences? Just got back from Costa B having pulled these off quite successfully....

There are the obvious things that have to go in the hold - but these should easily total less than 15kg unless you're using steel biners - but you should aim to either wear, carry, or take as hand luggage almost everything else - no matter what it weighs!

If there are 2 or more of you at the airport, then leave loads of heavy stuff with your friend round the corner, check-in, complete with small light handluggage rucksac - then return to base and stuff everything back in your bag, pockets etc. Your bag is never weighed or measured after check-in.

If for whatever reason your hold luggage is over the limit, make sure you put it on the scales so that it is leaning against the side - that knocks a few kg of the reading. If you're really struggling then it's straightforward to leave the end of the bag slightly hanging off the edge and then take quite a bit of the weight on your foot. A friend of mine checked in a 35kg bag no problem like this.

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Anyone got any info on Sigg type water bottles? If they go in the hold are they likely to show up as MSR type fuel containers, and if in hand luggage will they be classed as an offensive weapon?

In reply to Ben Darvill:
>pockets etc. Your bag is never weighed or measured after check-in.

But a heavy carry-on bag will stop the x-ray belt (load sensing?) and they tell you that is too heavy for the flight. I think this was when mine was about 20Kg though.


I always try this but I can't believe they don't really know I'm doing it. I think they were just not that bothered at he time anyway. Coz they always roll it all forward to put the tag on and you see the scales jump to 58kg or something (for your two bags) and you swallow hard and pray they don't look back at the scales again.

Just put your stove in your hold luggage and keep schtum. It might now be a rather arbitrary 'policy' (more likely misunderstanding by staff) of one or two airlines not to allow stoves but I seriously doubt that it's anything airport security services are going to be interested in when scanning.

If you're going to really try it on with hand luggage bear in mind that agents at the gate and cabin crew may take exception and insist it goes in hold. Also have consideration to why size and weight of hand luggage is limited. A 15 kilo bag is neither going to be pleasant falling out of an overhead locker onto a child's head or easy to get past in a burning aircraft.

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com et al:
Do not know what budget airlines policy on carriage of golf bags on short haul flights is; however, my experience of long haul flights is that you can check in a golf bag, irrespective of its contents, without it being weighed. My current record for golf bag weight is 75kg.

I would recommend taking a rucksack to transfer the contents of the bag to as Fred Perry have yet to produce a trekking or high altitude range of bags. There are now available ‘golf bags’ that are large enough to carry kite boards.

regards

Pete

In reply to all: Thanks for your comments and I apologise for being a bit out of date. (The last time I travelled on Easyjet was June!) At the end of the day, if in doubt, ring up the airline. It would seem that Sleezyjet combined with Liverpool airport seem to be the worst. I have done extensive air travel internally around the UK in the last 6 months and the worst offender seemed to be my tuning fork which raised a few eye brows, but which was not deemed offensive enough to be banned.

In reply to Ben Darvill:
At standstead I've had a large rucksac (that was just handbaggage size) questioned going to security. Luton easyjet now has a sticker saying approved for handbaggage.

I still reckon a wheelie type exact size handbaggage suitcase is much better, less likely to be questioned or weighed and can be packed fuller than a rucksac. However, they are not exactly outdoors chic like a rucksac

In reply to Dux:
I was recalled to unpack a stove gas cannister from hold luggage! It was a stupid oversight, but proves that it can happen.

In reply to petealdwinckle:

Like-wise, in 130 flights I made last year, my lap-top bag was never weighed and I was always allowed to take it on board in addition to normal carry-on baggage (which sometimes was weighed). Without a lap-top in the bag, you can get quite a lot of stuff in!

In reply to Mick - UKClimbing.com:

Couple of minor points...

You've got a "memebers" instead of "members" in the "Don’t take any of the following as hand luggage" section.


And in the I am at the airport and have to pay an excess section

Most check-in assistants will take the total weight of all the bags in your party and as long as you are within the allowance on average, there is no problem.

Somone posted that Ryan Air don't allow this anymore - http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=163672 - so distribute the excess weight beforehand

In reply to Chris Shorter: Not often, but at least once a year over the last 3 or 4 years I've been asked to show them the laptop, and at least once to turn it on (think that was Dublin)

In reply to Dominion: we were lucky enough with that from Katmandu last year,30kg each,the three of us it came to 90kgs dead even though some bags were heaver by up yo 3 kg's !

In reply to Dominion: I appreciate that given the fact that I only wrote this two weeks ago, it is probably now out of date. I reckon the jobsworths at Ryanair and Easyjet have read it so that they can block all the loop holes.

I still maintain - if in doubt - ring the carrier up and check.

In reply to Doug:

Doug, was that at check-in or security?

I have had the same experience at Security at Dublin; it was the same at Amsterdam last week too.

Yes, last week coming back from Cogne the checkin assistant refused to allow us to "pool" our allowance. Said it was a new ruling from Ryanair. She also refused to allow us to check in our climbing gear as sports equipment. Apparently golf clubs are considered sports equipment but axes, crampons, ropes and ice screws are not.

I've written to Ryanair Customer service asking them about the change in the rules on pooling bagage and also asking for a statement as to whether they consider alpine climbing kit to be sports equipment. I'll post any answer received to allow update of the FAQ.