Temporarily moving overseas- excess luggage and bike gear tips please

[Bikernereid]

Has anyone has ever moved to Europe for an exptended period of time? If you don't go via the US the luggage allowance is a pathetic 20kilos and it will cost a small fortune to pay the airline for excess luggage. If you can suggest a cheap way of getting excess luggage, unwearable biker gear over there please do.

Leathers can be worn until it is possible to change into normal clothes but helmet etc is gonna be a different story.

[jrandom]

I suspect it's hopeless; you may (gulp) have to take only one hairdryer!

[Bikernereid]

Not for me but will tell shane about the one hairdryer suggestion.


I suspect it's hopeless; you may (gulp) have to take only one hairdryer!

[jrandom]

Not for me but will tell shane...

Oh, of course.

I did think it was rather odd, you having to deal with such limitations at your end.

:wacko:

Last time I went over-weight on luggage was HK->Auckland where my suitcase weighed 30-something kg instead of 20 because it was full of acoustic test gear.

The excess only cost me HKD120 (about NZD20) with Cathay.

What will Shane actually have to pay per kg over his allowance? I wouldn't have thought it'd be that bad.

[MaxB]

You could use a freight forwarding company to send the gear ahead of you. I use Schenker both personally and professionally. You just have to time the arrival date to match yours or have someone the other end to pick up the gear for you.

The cheapest is sea freight but takes 6-10 weeks. Air freight costs the most but it is still cheaper than excess baggage.

The advantage for me is with customs. The forwarders do all the paperwork and not having to explain why I'm carrying home made boxes with wires poking out at airports is a major plus for me.

[NhuanH]

I'm looking at these guys
http://www.excess-baggage.com/

Plus going through Merika.

[scracha]

You don't save enough sending it via normal post or courier to make the hassle worthwhile. Why the hell would you need more than 20Kg? If you're travelling about you'll learn that 90% of the $hite you carry around isn't required.

Put small heavy items in your hand luggage or pockets.

[Bikernereid]

Air New Zealand only let you have 7kg for hand luggage and when you are moving overseas to live for about a year you need winter wollies and summer gear.


You don't save enough sending it via normal post or courier to make the hassle worthwhile. Why the hell would you need more than 20Kg? If you're travelling about you'll learn that 90% of the $hite you carry around isn't required.

Put small heavy items in your hand luggage or pockets.

[scracha]

Air New Zealand only let you have 7kg for hand luggage and when you are moving overseas to live for about a year you need winter wollies and summer gear.

The trick with hand luggage is to give your heavy stuff to a mate when you check in. On the slim chance they actually weigh it, put the heavy stuff back in after check-in.

Just take your Gucchi and Prada stuff with you and buy "normal" clothes when you arrive. I know you're female but you honestly won't need to take 20 pairs of shoes with ya (saying that...decent shoes are one thing that's pricey over here). As for Winter stuff.....they don't really have Winter over here. Thick winter gear is a waste of time....just bring waterproofs. I bet you're bringing a hair dryer with you too eh? Mibby one of your mates/family could bring out another 20Kg of your gear when the come to visit ya.

If you need more than 20 odd kilos of clothing (gawd knows how) then you're as well just stumping up the excess luggage charge as the other methods don't save much money and are a MAJOR PITA.

Oh...and be prepared for all the colour coming out of your clothes as Kiwi's haven't figured out how to import colour soap powder yet.

You'll find the 20Kg + 7Kg is pretty standard for most airlines when not flying through the states. Think yourself lucky you're down south and not having to take a connecting BMI flight where the luggage allowance is just 15 + 5Kg. We managed a year on that and still found we didn't need half the crap we took with us.

[owner]

Bikern1mpo has kindly put this up for me.
I will manage but there has been some good tips here thanks KB.
A few clothes, riding gear and camera, lappy weigh in at 25kgs.

Another 10kgs and Id be golden:mad: but if I wear full leathers and all heavy clothing with big pockets and stash heavy stuff in said pockets onto the plane..... I think I'll manage to get all my hairdryers and gucci in.:lol:

[Joey1007]

Check out the airlines baggage conditions.. Air NZ give you an allowance of 10kg for sports gear. I'm sure you could chuck your leathers in their own bag. After all, motorcyling is a sport.

From Air NZ website..

"An extra 10kg baggage allowance is given for sporting equipment free of charge. Examples include bicycles, golf clubs, skis, snowboards. Only one item/piece of sporting equipment per person qualifies for the free baggage allowance and the allowance may not be pooled."

[sAsLEX]

Yip. I got work to pay for it all!

[LilSel]

the 10kg thing for sports gear may work... It didnt really help us taking our bowling balls tho... we still got charged overweight.

are you sure its only 20kg?? when I went to south america it was 32kg plus hand luggage... (my balls took up most of that but they let me over a bit)

[MVnut]

ey Owner, not a good idea to travel to Europe wearing leathers, basically you'll feel like crap for about 30+ hours whichever way you go. Flying via the USA is the best direction unless you specifically want stopovers somewhere else. Do you have any airpoints, these increase you baggage allowances. Otherwise I would check out the seafreight prices, tho I think they're not great. Big question is how soon are you leaving??:calm:

[owner]

ey Owner, not a good idea to travel to Europe wearing leathers, basically you'll feel like crap for about 30+ hours whichever way you go. Flying via the USA is the best direction unless you specifically want stopovers somewhere else. Do you have any airpoints, these increase you baggage allowances. Otherwise I would check out the seafreight prices, tho I think they're not great. Big question is how soon are you leaving??:calm:

Tickets already payed for, I leave in 6 weeks time,MV nut I wanted to ask you, Do you get travel insurance on your tours? if so, through which company?

[MVnut]

I usually just get travel insurance thru 'Mike Henry Travel Insurance Specialists' Auckland phone no is 356 2279 . 6 weeks is not long enough to guarantee seafreight to arrive on time so it's gonna have to be air. Do you have 1 or 2-piece leathers? Wearing a leather jacket would be okay but wearing 1-piece over to Europe would suck ! You are over 30 hours from leaving NZ until you land in Eu. and I presume with a 20kg limit (+7 carry-on) you are flying economy. If you have airpoints you will be allowed increased kgs. 35kg is the second stage. I think you are allowed 25kg anyway if you go via USA, but check it out. So what route are you flying ?? You will enjoy every moment on a bike over there, just be aware that the Italians all cut corners, but it seems everyone is used to it and they seem to have very few accidents. Euro drivers/riders in general are very good, couple of other points tho, they give cyclists a LOT of room and many streets in small towns are very narrow, we usually go pretty slow in town, maybe 45kmh cos when you get into the backroads you can have a ball. If you're on a motorway stay in the slow(er) lane unless overtaking, the fast cars are really fast and don't f^%k around. pm me if you want any more info. ciao MV:scooter:

[scracha]

good, couple of other points tho, they give cyclists a LOT of room

Or to put it another way, kiwi's give cyclists, horse riders, moped riders and pedestrians fuck all room when they squeeze past in their 4x4's. Very scary....

Oh...back to luggage.

Camera's go around your neck before you pop them into hand luggage :-) Actually, anything "expensive" should be in your hand luggage.

Laptops aren't usually counted in the 7Kg. Hand luggage is usually + laptop + purse (if you're a lady). There is no way I'd ever put a laptop in baggage....if you've ever had baggage go AWOL you'd understand....aside from the way they chuck baggage around.

Take a vodyfone moby with ya and just buy a european sim card for peanuts incase you break down or get homesick.

Be careful of the strange things the French expect you to carry whilst driving/riding. As MV Nut said...take it easy through towns and have a blast on the open road.