 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all!
Doing my first season where i'll be taking my skis out with me rather than renting and wanted to canvas the community for tips. I seemingly have an irrational fear that i'll do something that will get my skis lost on the way out and end up making my 1 trip a season a hell of a lot harder haha. I'll be travelling out Gatwick North Terminal with TUI, and I'll be using a big old Dakine snow roller bag to take my boots, skis and poles, plus my shell jacket and trousers.
Wanted to ask:
- I assume all ski stuff goes to oversized luggage to be checked in? Do I have to give myself even more time to get this done at the airport?
- Tips on avoiding your stuff getting lost? Know probably a lot of this depends on the airport and the airlines.
- Tips on avoiding stuff getting damaged
Feel free to share your ski gear travel nightmare stories.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Wear your shell jacket on the plane if I were you. Saves weight, and if it gets lost, it's something else you don't need to purchase, where as you can hire skis and boots easily enough.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| swskier wrote: |
| Wear your shell jacket on the plane if I were you. Saves weight, and if it gets lost, it's something else you don't need to purchase, where as you can hire skis and boots easily enough. |
Cool, the name of the game is to hedge your bets and minimise the risk! Cheers mate.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| foreyes wrote: |
- I assume all ski stuff goes to oversized luggage to be checked in? Do I have to give myself even more time to get this done at the airport?
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You first have to get your ski bag weighed and tagged at the normal check in desk, they then tell you to take the ski bag to the oversize luggage drop off area. In most airports this is usually only about a minute's walk from the normal check in desks. On a few rare occasions I have known some queuing (5-10 mins max) at the oversize baggage, but usually there's no queueing. They check the baggage tag on the ski bag against the tag receipt that the check in desk usually affix to your boarding card or passport. Some airports ask you to wait while the skibag is X-Rayed, most just tell you you can leave once the bag is handed over. Easy Peasy. 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Your fear is not irrational. Oddsize baggage gets lost more often than standard stuff. My ski bag gets lost, misplaced, left behind, whatever, about 25% of the time. This is why most of us carry our boots onto the plane...at least we have those if they mess up. Definitely worth the trouble, even though this does kill your carryon space especially if your boots are huge like mine. Can depend on the class of seating you buy...they're less finicky about carryons in biz than in the back. At the airport it will take a couple more minutes for you to find the odd size baggage drop-off point, not a big deal. Good idea above re the coat. I carry my helmet on because I'm concerned it will get damaged in the cargo hold; fits well in the bottom of my pack. If you have expensive goggles, carry those on too. Some folks like to put an AirTag in their checked bags. It can enable them to know where their bag is when it isn't where it is supposed to be. I'm not fully conversant about these, but for sure they would have saved me from sitting at my destination airport for a half hour waiting for a ski bag that was still back in Seattle. Knowing you're screwed is better than not knowing, I guess!? Some airline apps have a similar type of baggage tracking function which may be worth a look.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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If the skis don't turnup, buy a new pair in resort.
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Once at your arrival airport if there are no skis coming out on your carousel establish where skis/outsize baggage are being delivered. Sometimes an alternative belt, often at one of the far ends of the set of belts (e.g. Turin ) or even outside the airport building (happened a couple of times at Innsbruck). One airport -can’t remember er where-had a mixed system(some came out on the luggage carousel, others on an alternative one). So I suppose main message is don’t immediately assume they are lost ..they may be hiding just out of sight!
On another note, if you have an early morning flight you can check in the evening before (hold bag, skis dropped and boarding card issued..stroll straight to security in the morning) with TUI -at least at Manchester. Can’t imagine it’s not the same for Gatwick but do nit know for sure. Manchester outsize baggage queue can be a nightmare so it’s particularly advantageous there and so much less stressful than doing it all in the morning (although post above seems to suggest Gatwick OK?) if you can get there the evening before of course.
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| Alastair Pink wrote: |
| foreyes wrote: |
- I assume all ski stuff goes to oversized luggage to be checked in? Do I have to give myself even more time to get this done at the airport?
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You first have to get your ski bag weighed and tagged at the normal check in desk, they then tell you to take the ski bag to the oversize luggage drop off area. In most airports this is usually only about a minute's walk from the normal check in desks. On a few rare occasions I have known some queuing (5-10 mins max) at the oversize baggage, but usually there's no queueing. They check the baggage tag on the ski bag against the tag receipt that the check in desk usually affix to your boarding card or passport. Some airports ask you to wait while the skibag is X-Rayed, most just tell you you can leave once the bag is handed over. Easy Peasy. |
Cheers mate, that clarifies a lot!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Scooter in Seattle wrote: |
| Your fear is not irrational. Oddsize baggage gets lost more often than standard stuff. My ski bag gets lost, misplaced, left behind, whatever, about 25% of the time. This is why most of us carry our boots onto the plane...at least we have those if they mess up. Definitely worth the trouble, even though this does kill your carryon space especially if your boots are huge like mine. Can depend on the class of seating you buy...they're less finicky about carryons in biz than in the back. At the airport it will take a couple more minutes for you to find the odd size baggage drop-off point, not a big deal. Good idea above re the coat. I carry my helmet on because I'm concerned it will get damaged in the cargo hold; fits well in the bottom of my pack. If you have expensive goggles, carry those on too. Some folks like to put an AirTag in their checked bags. It can enable them to know where their bag is when it isn't where it is supposed to be. I'm not fully conversant about these, but for sure they would have saved me from sitting at my destination airport for a half hour waiting for a ski bag that was still back in Seattle. Knowing you're screwed is better than not knowing, I guess!? Some airline apps have a similar type of baggage tracking function which may be worth a look. |
Thanks, already picked up a spare AirTag for this and will be ready for the worst.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
| If the skis don't turnup, buy a new pair in resort. |
Not gonna lie, that's a true way of considering the silver lining!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| suec wrote: |
Once at your arrival airport if there are no skis coming out on your carousel establish where skis/outsize baggage are being delivered. Sometimes an alternative belt, often at one of the far ends of the set of belts (e.g. Turin ) or even outside the airport building (happened a couple of times at Innsbruck). One airport -can’t remember er where-had a mixed system(some came out on the luggage carousel, others on an alternative one). So I suppose main message is don’t immediately assume they are lost ..they may be hiding just out of sight!
On another note, if you have an early morning flight you can check in the evening before (hold bag, skis dropped and boarding card issued..stroll straight to security in the morning) with TUI -at least at Manchester. Can’t imagine it’s not the same for Gatwick but do nit know for sure. Manchester outsize baggage queue can be a nightmare so it’s particularly advantageous there and so much less stressful than doing it all in the morning (although post above seems to suggest Gatwick OK?) if you can get there the evening before of course. |
Thanks for the heads up! Just read up on the TUI website and might look at doing the early check in.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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This is what I do:
In case they get mislaid and prevent damage:
1. Photograph skis and their identifying number
2. Photograph them in the ski bag
3. Wrap them round with old towels when in ski bag
4. Put a note with your name and phone number inside the bag - in case the outside label gets removed
5. Check what exactly your insurance will cover. Older skis may not be worth much, or too old to be worth anything
6. If you pay ski carriage, it might cover you for rental until they arrive (Crystal do this - but don't know about TUI airlines).
- Depending on airport, skis can come on the luggage carrousel...but much more often they get wheeled in on a big high-sided trolley.
- There is nothing in my ski bag other than the skis wrapped in towels....my boots are in the wheeled duffle.
- The times my skis didn't arrive, was if I had to change planes and the luggage didn't keep up....but they (Touch Wood), have always turned up.
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Ive been flying 10 times this year, and been lucky so far, nothing lost or damaged, touch wood.
I think your experience will depend with airline you are flying with and the airport, also how busy the dates are.
- I would allow 2.5h before departure to save nerve cells. At Gatwick (I think it was ryanair) the automated drop-off machines did not work for skis and redirected straight away to manual desks and they only had 2 desks available and huge queues to these desks. One time I experienced xray failure (Turin?), resulted in mauall check, its been nightmare, huge queue at Manchester last weekend for oversize drop point, more than 30 mins in the queue. One time something went wrong at Luton, and all bagage went to oversize, its been queue size of the airport, then lady at drop point manually checking flight number from a4 printed page and writing numbers with the pen:)
- check whats the weight limit for ski bag, for lowcosters its 20kg, and this is too low to fit everything comfortably without the hacking, especially if you have double roller ski bag which is 3kg its self. My skis with bindings 6.6kg, boots + helmet/googles/gloves 5.5 kg, protection/kneebrace, clothing, absolute minimum, already 20.9. To save some weight, the bindings heals, if removable, could be placed in cabin bag, or boots into cabin bag (but that will limit what you take in the cabin )
- you could have ski bag + boots bag, as 2 separate items, makes its easier to handle 2 bags rather than handling single 20kg bag, especially if you travel by public transport, trains, busses etc
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