How to avoid excess baggage fees

Mark Bunce works for ParcelHero® , an international courier service based in the United Kingdom. They often get requests for luggage shipping as the airlines are charging more and more in excess luggage fees… He has put together an article about avoiding excess baggage fees.
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We all have a story or two about excess baggage fees and the following article holds interest for us, especially as we spent a small fortune sending a suitcase home to Perth from Vienna some time ago. I wish we had heard about ParcelHero back then.

Maybe you bought too many souvenirs or forgot to weigh your bag before you got to the airport. Or perhaps, you neglected to buy the extra bag allowance with your ticket and now you’re paying the price both figuratively and literally.

Whatever the reason, it’s never fun to be hit with a big fee.

Travelling as a Couple

When you are travelling as a couple, you want to be able to relax and enjoy each other’s company not argue over who packed more and who’s turn it is to pay the excess baggage fee. If you are travelling for your honeymoon or your anniversary, it’s worth planning ahead to make sure you get the most out of your trip.

If you’re travelling to Scotland, maybe you’ll want to grab a round of golf at St. Andrews with your very own club set. This would be a dream come true for many couples. You want be able to take a photo and tell all of your friends and family back in Australia what a great time you had, not what extortionate luggage charges you had to pay to transport your clubs.

How to Beat the System

The worse feeling in the world has to be that moment when you are standing at the counter, excited about flying to be side lined by excess baggage charge. Your palms sweat and your stomach flips, when the person at the counter tells you will have to pay an extra 100 dollars and that’s only one way of the flight. On your way back, you can expect to pay another 100 dollars.

Extortionate baggage fees often turn a dream holiday into a nightmare. What started out as a simple dream turns into a logistical nightmare as you navigate the complex mathematics of excess baggage fees.

Here’s good news. If you regularly fly or take long holidays abroad, there is another way: international parcel delivery companies. You can send your luggage to Australia via courier services. It makes sense particularly if you regularly travel with sportswear. By mailing your items ahead of a trip, you can save hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

The Risk of Budget Travel

If you thought excess baggage fees were bad enough, travellers now have to think about how they will travel between carriers. If you are flying from Australia to several destinations in Europe, chances are the rules will be very different between carriers. Just because one airline service didn’t change you to bring clubs or only charged a nominal fee, doesn’t mean another airline will have the same rules.

In fact, budget airlines like Ryanair are notorious for their stringent rules. Though their airfares appear very pleasingly cheap, they are under enormous pressure to profit. One way budget air carriers boost their revenue is through ancillary fees like excess baggage or cabin refreshments and snacks.

In Europe, budget airlines regularly make $83 AUD on bags that are only 7 lbs over the weight limit. That’s roughly the same weight of a very small, but expensive, cat. Ryanair typically charges $925 AUD to check in golf clubs for its European flights. For the same distance, a professional courier like ParcelHero® would only charge $256 AUD.

Comparison Chart

Failing to weigh your luggage in advance of the airport, can cost you dearly. However, you can avoid excess baggage charges by booking with a courier service in advance of your trip. This makes a lot of sense both budget wise and travel wise. If you will be staying in a destination for an extended amount of time with you partner, you’ll want all your creature comforts without having to worry about airport fees. Imagine how nice it would be to saunter out of the airport, smugly ignoring baggage reclaim and beating everyone to the beach?

To give you an idea how much you can save with a courier like ParcelHero®, we’ve included this handy comparison chart with Emirates Airlines.In the chart above, you can see that prices increase as the weight of the parcel increases. Sending a bag by courier can offer savings of £1,015.92 or $2,013 AUD depending on where the item is shipped from and the final destination. In the example above, the item is being shipped from England to Australia.

How Does It Work?

Most courier services offer door-to-door service and will delivery directly to your hotel, as long as it has a front desk or concierge. You just need to print out any shipping and customs forms to attach to your luggage. Most companies will include this at time of booking.

Simply affix a copy to your suitcase and the courier will collect your item from a home or office address.

Once your item has been collected, you can follow its movements with real-time scan information. ParcelHero® offers a really transparent, up to the minute tracking service. You can track up to 25 parcels at any time with real-time scan information.

Tell us about an excess baggage experience you’ve had. Would you consider using ParcelHero on your next big trip?

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