Hi All,

I hope all is good and enjoyed Christmas and New Year!!

I know there are lots of threads on this but I am struggling to see what to do.

I am flying over to Aukland, NZ from Sydney in mid Jan with Quantas.

I am allowed 23k checked luggage but really don't want to pay any excess!! I currently only have the bag the kite came in and no board bag.

What is the easiest / cheapest / best way to protect my equipment and get it over without being charged.

So far I've thought ..... stripping the board of fins, handle, foot straps helps (but do I need to buy a special board bag??). Put the kite into hand luggage with the stuff I've taken off the board and the bar, lines and board into checked luggage.

Any help really appreciated as I seem to be going round in circles!!

Many Thanks

Gav

check and see if they have a sports equipment policy.. when i flew to Fiji they allowed 23kg but they only charged you 5 kg for a board bag as long as it weighed under 28 kg.. I took 2 board bags weighing about 25 kg each and i was still allowed 13 kg.. most airlines do have some sort of sport bag policy but some of them limit it to golf bags.. that's why you see so many kitesurfing golf bags..

Another trick, which was shown to me when i bought a kite from interstate, was to unscrew the pump top, and place the hose and bits and pieces inside, then re-assemble the pump again.

Goodluck

KR

Did you know that QANTAS is the only word that doesn't have the letter 'U' following the 'Q' in the word?

when i went to cairns i only had a 20kg baggage allowance... got a simple cabrina board bag, took the fins off put my wettie gear in it... had two kite bags also... so those 3 items weighed in at 19kgs... took my clothes etc and harness as carry on luggage... problem solved :-)

Check the allowance on Qantas website, not sure if it's changed but last time I travelled you were allowed 23kg check-in plus 2 x 7kg bags carry on. I carried on two small kites (7 & 9) in 1 kite bag and my clothes, camera's, fins, straps etc in another bag, they weighed around 6.9 - 7 kg each .
Surfboard, TT, 12mtr, wetty, towel, harness etc in a board bag was then checked in and 23 kg is a fair amount of gear.
A good board bag is great to have but as mentioned bubblewrap is fine especially if the fins are removed. You can always wrap/pack your board with wetsuit, towel, harness etc first.

Simon. said...

I fly with my kite gear on Qantas quite regularly.

They have dropped their sports equipment allowance and allow 23kg checked luggage all up.
I have a Best golf bag and pack it with 8m and 12m, twintip, bar, harness, pump, and towel.
All up it weighs 20kgs - so I often can stuff even more crap in there.
The Golf bag is heavy duty and would weigh a few kgs on its own.

I use a duffel bag as carry on and pack it full of my clothes and bric a brac.
I also take advantage of being able to carry on a garment bag and pack that with crap to

Just be smart with your carry on, work the garment bag allowence, and only use checked in baggage allowance for your kite gear.

that's the way I go about it as well. Check in all kite gear. carry on clothes, cameras, etc ......
You would be amazed at the amount you can get into a carry on size bag. If you use a soft style bag you can pack it quite a bit bigger than the "cage tester " size.
If you get questioned and can't squash it down.... Out comes the beach towel ... Usually not a problem as you can always get another at your destination. Or at worst case start putting more clothes on.

I do a Cab board bag and a duffle bag with kites and other gear in it and it seams to work pretty well.

Having said that that I've had to stitch some tears in the cab bag up from tears put in by baggage handlers and in hold wear and tear

jordy said...

Did you know that QANTAS is the only word that doesn't have the letter 'U' following the 'Q' in the word?

Not true my learned friend- qanat, qaid and qintar all start with q and don't use u.

Sheqel, faqir and tranq all use it without u also......

Now can I have the 20 seconds it took to prove you wrong back ?

au_rick said...

CWM is the only word in the English language without a vowel

FAIL:
my, by, try, sky, why, fry, gym, hymn, lynx, lynch, myth, pygmy, flyby, rhythm.

For those who wanted to know, a Cwm is a welsh word for a hanging valley ...so it's not truly an English word.

Also Rick, spelling CWM in caps makes it an acronym meaning any number of things

EDIT: The word crwth is another which is a Welsh musical instrument similar to the violin

the gaz said...

You should get on that show with Eddie Everywhere rloemker, you could be on your way to $1,000,000.00.

But Wikipedia isn't one of the lifeline options!

rloemker said...

au_rick said...

CWM is the only word in the English language without a vowel

FAIL:
my, by, try, sky, why, fry, gym, hymn, lynx, lynch, myth, pygmy, flyby, rhythm.

For those who wanted to know, a Cwm is a welsh word for a hanging valley ...so it's not truly an English word.

Also Rick, spelling CWM in caps makes it an acronym meaning any number of things

EDIT: The word crwth is another which is a Welsh musical instrument similar to the violin

we all know and love "y" as a pseudo vowel, but I stand corrected regarding "crwth"

I don't know that using uppercase automatically makes a word an acronym (although it does infer shouting in the rules of "netiquette"), but using a full stop after each letter certainly does (eg. C.W.M.)
A day when nothing is learned is a day wasted !

jordy said...

Did you know that QANTAS is the only word that doesn't have the letter 'U' following the 'Q' in the word?

sunseeker said...
It's technically an Acronym for Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd. and not a word.

OWNED.