34 replies to this topic

[Alex_Mustard]

Easyjet are a good option for diving around Europe too, as this is their standard hand baggage policy. You can also pay a small amount more and get another 12KG of sports equipment (dive bag) on all their flights too.

Alex

[Roger Eve]

Another good tip with EasyJet is to book their Speedy Boarding option. There are no pre-booked seats, but you get to board first and can nab the legroom seats, great if you 6ft+ like me. It even worked at Sharm recently when just 10 of us speedy boarders were loaded onto the first bus by ourselves and had the choice of seats before the second bus arrived

Roger

[pauld]

Just back from Marsa with Thomson and on way out had hold luggage and hand luggage weighed. Asked for dive card and had extra 5kg on production on way out so 25kg. Weighed light but hand luggage weighed 11kg - limit is 5kg so a bit of rearranging did it... wasn't charged but was very lucky as certainly was over a total of 30kg. Other folk on boat were charged - excess £10 per kg...some paying up to £100 . Taking a basic SLR rig is now becoming an additional cost on many trips. All this was in the small print from Scubatravel but there was no info about booking excess weight up front which Tony Backhurst could do it seems.
Time to start weighing people with luggage...then again I might lose out again

[nstead]

Apparently Qatar Airways have stopped giving divers an extra 10Kgs now. I booked a flight to Manila back in October and was able to get it, but someone else who wants to join me on the trip has just been told that they don't do it any more. Apparently they changed the rules in November.

Time to add them to the "Hates Divers" list !

Neil.

[Alex_Mustard]

Just to add an update on BA that affects divers. As far as I have figured out - many of their Caribbean destinations have been down graded to just a single hold item as standard. North and South America (and Bermuda, I think) remain at 2 bags. But Bahamas and quite a few Caribbean destinations are just one.

However, I should add that I have not researched this thoroughly.

Alex

[scuba_suzy]

Just to add an update on BA that affects divers. As far as I have figured out - many of their Caribbean destinations have been down graded to just a single hold item as standard. North and South America (and Bermuda, I think) remain at 2 bags. But Bahamas and quite a few Caribbean destinations are just one.

However, I should add that I have not researched this thoroughly.

Alex

So how many bags will you take to Cayman Alex?

[greeceplan]

Good discussion is going here very good guys keep it up.

[GoinDown]

I've just returned from a week in Marsa Shagra (Gatwick-Marsa Alam) via Thomson. Hold baggage with PADI card is 25Kg plus 5Kg hand luggage. Thomson very cleverly exclude diving equipment from their sports baggage allowance meaning I have to put everything in the hold allowance. I normally require 38-45Kg's. They gave me the option of purchasing an extra 5Kg for £25 which is a total rip-off therefore I used 2 strategies for the outbound journey:

1. Booked my golf bag (I gave up golf 10 years ago but still have the bag and a golf travel bag) for a return trip as sports equipment, total return cost £15, with a max weight allowance of 20Kg's. This bag weighed 17Kg on top of my 25Kg hold allowance. I packed this bag with 4 golf clubs (just in case it was checked - see below *) plus strobe batteries, other batteries, cables, chargers, filters etc, clothes, toiletries, shoes.

2. Used the option of checking in hold allowance the night before thereby avoiding having my hand luggage weighed (weight 8Kg containing housing, camera body and 3 lenses) at check-in.

All went smoothly and it meant I could take all my dive gear, underwater camera gear and still had weight to spare for just an extra £15. The return journey is no problem as the Egyptians are never as bothered about hand baggage, or bottles of liquid for that matter!

* At the evening check-in, the jobs-worth on the desk asked to see if my golf clubs had been packed properly, so I quickly unzipped the top of the bag and showed him how well padded the clubs were with my clothing, I almost laughed out loud when he said 'OK' (Lucky for me I had decided to take a few clubs along to justify the bag).

Given that a normal set of dive equipment weighs between 10-15Kg, I think that Thomson are just trying to make money out of divers to Egypt (or anywhere) by excluding it from sports equipment, when you can still go with a set of golf clubs, a bicycle or surfboard etc with a weight allowance of 20Kg extra. So play them at their own game.

Edited by GoinDown, 04 June 2010 - 07:27 AM.

[fede_more]

very interesting!

[tdpriest]

Thomson very cleverly exclude diving equipment from their sports baggage allowance meaning I have to put everything in the hold allowance. I normally require 38-45Kg's. They gave me the option of purchasing an extra 5Kg for £25 which is a total rip-off therefore I used 2 strategies for the outbound journey...

...so play them at their own game.

Could it possibly be that this kind of underhand behaviour is why all divers are being penalised?

And why so much stuff? I can get a DSLR, stobes and twin regs into 32kg travelling to warm places...

... though I admit, I'm not American!

Tim

[Steve Williams]

Hard to believe you can get all this in your 32kg bag. Maybe it's a new Euro measurement thing.

Cheers,
Steve

[TheRealDrew]

Maybe it's a new Euro measurement thing.

Nah, you just wear it onto the plane.

[ChrigelKarrer]

Hard to believe you can get all this in your 32kg bag. Maybe it's a new Euro measurement thing.

Cheers,
Steve

I travel with:
50 lbs 1 big soft Delsey trunk containing a Pelicase 1600 and topped-up to 23 kilos/50 lbs with clothes to protect from impacts.
50 lbs 1 big hard trunk containing dive gear and personal things (if i go somewhere else than Italy as i have a complete set of dive gear there)
or big hard trunk containing personal things and Pelicase 1440 case containing Patima G11 housing with 2 ports, Inon D-2000 strobe and UWL-100 lens, SS tray and flexarm,
1 photographers west filled with hard disks, my G11, tickets, documents
1 photo backpack with the D90, 3 lenses, battery handle, SB800 strobe, various chargers and cables, Lenovo T61 notebook

The big Pelicase contains: 1 Ikelite D90 housing with tray and handles, 3 Ikelite ports, 1 Ikelite DS-125 strobe and charger, ULCS arms, small spare parts

I try to fly with Airlines where i have to pay only a minor sum for additional dive luggage declared as sport goods. Sometimes it's ways cheaper to fly with a "fancy" airline having higher baggage than with a "cheap" airline paying 10 Euros/12 $ per Kilo/2lbs.
I travel often with Ryanair oe Easyjet, am fine with them and enjoy their cheap flights, but this is only valid for travelling with cabin luggage. Travelling with them carrying heavy luggage will make the flight expensive.

When i flew the first time from Europe to Costa Rica airlines allowed for intercontinental flights 2 x 32 Kilos/70lbs. free and sport goods costed 50$ per piece. Now it's down to 1 baggage 23 kilos/50 lbs and all further baggage is at least 50$...

ARGHHHHH!

Slowly i start to hate trvelling by plane...

Chris

[GoinDown]

Could it possibly be that this kind of underhand behaviour is why all divers are being penalised?

And why so much stuff? I can get a DSLR, stobes and twin regs into 32kg travelling to warm places...

... though I admit, I'm not American!

Tim

And how would divers be penalised if they were subject to strict weight limits when they did have the sports allowance ? They would just pay excess baggage at check in time!! I suspect Thomson just decided to do it, because they know it would make them more money. And why would they be penalised for taking golf clubs in a golf bag that was well packed with holiday gear, when a golf bag with golf clubs is a legitimate paid for piece of sports equipment and I could have taken 20Kg?

So my total at 42Kg included 7Kg's for the golf bag empty, 2 kilos for the four clubs and 8 Kilos of gear (in addition to my 25Kg standard allowance), so my actual weight excluding the empty golf bag and clubs would have been 33Kg's (not far off your 32Kg's)!

Because of the bag configuration and weight limits, how would you have arranged to take 32Kg on this particular flight, because the extra baggage charge would have been £49 (£25 for 5Kg extra plus 2Kg x £12 excess baggage charge) vs my £15 !? Would you have just paid £49 or done your research and looked at your options if you had a spare golf bag lying around??

[rhinopias63]

has anyone travelled through stansted with airasia? do they generally weigh your hand luggage?

also is there anything stopping me (any sort of law or rule) that says i cant wear 3 pairs of trousers 6 t-shirts and 3 jumpers (for example)?? im struggling to stay within the weigh allowances..

i have all of my scuba gear 5mm wetsuit, aqualung i3 bcd, regs. its not exactly travel equip

also, video rig, weighs 20kg.

i have 30kg luggage allowance 15kg sports eqiup and 7kg hand luggage.

bag weighs 4kg vidcam 20kg so 6kg for clothes... im thinking wear lots of layers and pack it into my hand luggage after check in???