I’m in the process of booking my honeymoon travel and every airline charges through the nose for checked baggage. We’re going for a week to New York in January, so we’ll need some room to packing sweaters, jeans, etc. We’ll need to check at least three items between the two of us; one suitcase each and a garment bag with his suit and my going out dress. (Although, I guess we could just iron those items when we get there and put them in a suitcase.)
We’re trying to pinch as many pennies as possible and we are wondering if anyone has ideas as to how to save money on all those little traveling fees. Does anyone know how to beat the traveling system?
I was going to suggest shipping stuff ahead, but I was beaten to it. I work at a ski resort and a lot of people ship their skis ahead, especially since the airlines started charging through the nose.
It’s easy enough, just call them to get the correct shipping address – our listed street address is slightly different from our shipping one, and then there’s the PO box on top of it. (The Post Office up here thinks it’s too good to actually deliver mail, so we’re all forced to have boxes. But that’s a separate rant.)
Yeah, but Southwest doesn’t fly in or out of any airports in my area… so I’ll still have to pay for the baggage. I looked into them, but I’d have to go to Chicago to catch a flight with them and the transport to Chicago would be just as expensive as the baggage charges!
I’ve been reading up on it and I’m thinking of leaving some of the stuff behind. We’re taking Amtrak out there and they have free baggage check, so I’m thinking of packing stuff that I would be willing to donate to Goodwill and just donate them before we leave so we don’t have to pay for three suitcases back. Also, we’d just throw out or leave behind toiletries we don’t need, if we have any left. I don’t need to fill a suitcase with a couple bottles of almost empty shampoo and conditioner and body wash… $5 worth of shampoo isn’t worth $25 of luggage.
I’m sure we’ll figure it out… but if there are any other suggestions, let me know!
Try to pack lightly? We go to NY every Xmas (Hudson Valley for 4 days, including dressing for dinner every night, then 5 nights in Manhattan), and we use one carry-on bag each. It’s really not that hard to do- you just have to be disciplined. Remember, no one will know that you wore that blouse twice, then washed and ironed it!
I know you won’t believe that it’s possible to look great in fewer clothes, but it’s true- we stay at the Ritz, so we don’t look like hobos (or tourists ).
Pack the sweaters and other bulky clothing in a Space Bag, suck all the air out, then put it in your luggage. You can probably cut out one whole suitcase.
I would agree with this. I’ve travelled on business in Canada, in winter, with two business suits (plus necessary shirts, ties, etc.), and casual wear, and toiletries etc. all in one suitcase. I’ve stayed at the classiest places in town when I do this, as well. My wife does a lot of business travel (she a professional who makes presentations and requires suits etc.), and she can manage a week to ten days in one bag. We might not manage a carry-on, but it’s certainly possible to pack one bag each for a week, and still have what you need to look good.
A good question: you may be going to New York in January, but how much of that are you going to spend outside? Maybe those sweaters, etc. will be more of a hindrance if you’re going to be going from hotel to cab to dinner to cab to theatre, and vice versa. Long walks in Central Park or window shopping on Fifth Avenue might need a sweater and coat, but unless you’re planning on being outside all day, I can’t see needing plenty of warm garments in a city with as many “warming-up” spots as New York.
I did this when I went to Europe in high school with my mother; we took all our old clothes that we didn’t wear much and left them behind to have room for souvenirs and new clothes. However, it is definitely reliant on having excess clothes and not caring about your disposition wearing them.
The above mentioned 50 lb bag limit is very strict though; when I flew home from college one time I had a bag that weighed 51lbs, and they charged me extra for it. I asked for a manager and she informed me that it was a safety thing with the handlers; there has to be some upper limit, but they charged a fairly substantial fee for even 1 pound over.
Which is a crock. Why does paying the airline an extra $50 make the handlers less subject to strain? It’s not like they provide any special handling equipment for the heavy bags. The extent of the airline’s expense is putting an orange tag saying “HEAVY”.
It discourages people from checking bags over 50lbs. While loading 5 bags over 50lbs probably won’t injure a baggage handler, loading 500 overweight bags is more likely to cause injury. The fee is not expected to eliminate overweight bags, just reduce their number.
I assumed that the baggage handlers union insisted that the airline do whatever they needed to in order to keep most bags under 50 lbs. Hitting folks in the wallet is probably the most effective way- I mean, would you REALLY keep it strictly under 50 lbs if there were no overweight charge?
Back before certain idiot southern congresscritters opened their big mouths and made the American public at large think that company airplanes were evil, we had company airplanes, which I travelled on frequently. As with commercial flight, there was a very, very strict rule on the baggage weights. Different union for our workers, I imagine, and we only used private terminals.
It’s not just about the baggage handlers - the weight of all the bags and passengers (using average weights for men and women) need to be known and calculated in order to make sure the plane is loaded correctly (not putting everyone/every thing at the back, for example) and that it is within it’s Maximum Take-Off Weight. If everyone loaded a bag a pound or two overweight, you’d start to have problems with the weight balance and MTOW and then the airline will likely leave some bags behind and fly them out on the next plane to your destination - which pisses off passengers who think the airline “lost” their luggage, when really, it was for your own safety!
Space bags do reduce the number of bags, but not the weight. My wife and I have learned to pack more loosely than we used to, because our old packing habits kept getting us to 55 or 60 pounds for our one bag. Instead of bringing one well-packed bag, we’re now either bringing two carry-on bags or two loosely packed bags (depending on whether we can check them for free or not).
Pack less. You’re going to New York City, not the wild hinterlands. Do laundry while you’re there. You’re on your honeymoon, get something you can eat together/feed one another, and sit and coo sweet nothings to one another (and make everyone around either “awwww” or “ewwww” dependng on their personal cynicism level) while the dryers spin.
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