I’m heading to paris in a few days (for a relatively long vacation) and remembering how little I enjoy lugging luggage lately (or any previous time that alliterates less well).
Is there any reason I can’t/will have trouble shipping my luggage from Canada to France beyond the $1000 or so it might cost? I have an apartment lined up for my arrival, but I’m thinking I’ll just pick up the luggage on the way from the airport (so I can get my bags precisely when I want them).
I presume that this practice is relatively uncommon, but are any problems with the basic concept particularly apparent to anyone?
It isn’t that uncommon and there is a minor industry based around it. The term you are looking for is “luggage forwarding”. Here is one web site to give you a quote but there are others:
Luggage forwarding is wicked expensive. Just for fun, I plugged in to have a standard 50 pound suitcase sent on a San Francisco - Chicago round trip, and the cheapest rate is $214, and that’s for a speed of service equivalent to UPS Ground.
UPS Ground, for comparison, would cost about $125 for the round trip. Overall, it would be cheaper and faster to just pay the extra bag fee at the airport.
For the OP: To have two 50-pound bags forwarded from Canada to France will set you back a cool $2000 and take about 5 days each way. I dislike hauling luggage as much as the next guy, but for $2000, I’ll manage.
You’d mentioned shipping - it’s iffy. Shippers like FedEx and UPS are set up to handle boxes, not suitcases. I believe they will accept un-boxed baggage, but you have to be absolutely sure there are no tags, straps, handles, wheels or anything else to stick out and get snagged on the automated box-handling conveyors. At the airport, if your bag is floppy (eg: a half-full canvas duffle) or has things that stick out, they’ll put it in a plastic tub so it doesn’t get hung up along the way. UPS isn’t set up to do this, so there’s a good chance your bags will get really beat up.
gotpasswords, FedEx and UPS are not quite as strict on containers as you state. I have a backdrop/display designed for conventions that comes in two hard plastic rolling containers that have exposed wheels, handles and latches, but they were designed to conform to UPS/FedEx requirements and I have had successful experiences with shipping them. (And at 50 and 70 pounds, four feet high and about two feet around, you can bet that’s not cheap either).
But you’re right that the OP’s luggage may not conform to the standards.
For the OP: try calling your airline for recommendations and compare prices at various shippers. There are lots of options and variations in price.
When I had The UPS Store, I forwarded people’s luggage all the time. It is a common practice that just makes a lot of sense. Going to France, besides the issue of cost, I recommend getting guidance from someone who knows a lot about Customs. A customer once did it to Mexico and it was a royal nightmare as many daily objects are regulated.
ETA: Don’t think bags, think boxes. They might make the short trip from wherever you pick them up to the house a bit less fun if you rely on public transportation but they might cut the prices significantly. My advice, take a small carry on with what you will need the first two days and ship the rest to your destination address so you don’t have to pick them up.