Two pairs of ski's in one bag.............. Do you have to pay for carriage x2?

A snowHead

The title really says it all.

I'm going away with two pairs in one bag next week and it's the first time ii've flown with two pairs having taken the Eurostar earlier in the year. I've paid the TO (Crystal) £30 to transport a "Ski bag" but are they likely to charge me again if they find out there's two pairs in there? And if they do, do i argue and hold up the queue until they give in or hold my hands, and my wallet, up and pay the piper?

A snowHead

We always use one ski bag for two sets of skis, and pay for one. Never had any issues with this.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I havent seen airport staff check by looking in ski bags for 2 pairs. Hold back at checkin, watch other skiers checking in , if they dont open bags no prob. If they do checkin with one pair of skis, your mate holds on to the other skis a bit away from check in. Generally after u check in skis u bring em to a seperate part of airport where they are routed to the plane, before u bring em here, slip the other skis into the skibag.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

fastandicy, Although the airline T's & C's often refer to the charge being for 1 pair of skis, in practice provided your ski bag weight doesn't exceed their limit (usually an additional 12kg on top of the standard allowance) you should be OK - they don't know how many pairs you have in your bag, and the security X-Ray of the bag is done at the oversize bag facility away from the checkin desks.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If they catch you then you will probably have to pay... I bet the small print reads 'one pair of skis' somewhere, many people get away with it though. As long as the weight is below 12kg you may be all right.

You'll need to Register first of course.

On Easyjet we pay for one ski bag as it's 12 kg. Crystal, however, is 6 kg Shocked

. We have paid for 2 with them as we are usually in a large group and don't want to hold everyone up by having to queue up somewhere else and pay, having already held everyone up by arguing with the check in staff. And if asked directly how many skis are in a bag, I can't lie Embarassed

. (Funny, because I can lie quite happily about some other things Little Angel

.)

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

fastandicy, never been caught yet, even taken 3 pairs in a double bag a few times. I have yet to be asked how many pairs of skis, only ever how many pieces of luggage? Very Happy

After all it is free

I've done the same - and I bet that a very high percentage of other travellers do too.
However, I used to work for a couple of tour operators and can give some insight into the 'risks' involved.

I think the weight limit for a 'ski bag' with Crystal is only 6kgs, so it will probably be over-weight with 2 pairs in there, which may cause a problem to start by alerting the check-in staff (if they can be bothered). Apart from the extra revenue that ski-carriage fees earn for tour operators, the pre-book fee you pay also includes some guarantees: i.e. that when baggage space and/or loading time is tight, they will give priority to gear belonging to those passengers who have pre-booked & paid for ski carriage, and they can refuse to accept any additional gear at short notice at the airport (if they do accept it, they'll charge you at least a tenner more than the pre-book price - expect £40); and any gear that hasn't been pre-booked/paid-for may have to be left at the airport, at your expense.
If, after it's been checked in, your gear doesn't arrive at the overseas airport/resort, then the Crystal rep will refund the ski carriage fee to you in resort, and arrange for free-of-charge 'superior grade' gear hire for you until your gear does arrive (for the full week if necessary); but you'd only get 1 replacement set if you'd only pre-booked/paid for 1, even though you had 2 pairs in the bag! You might be covered on your travel insurance though for the other pair - depends what policy you get.

At the end of the day it's down to peace of mind for you, and extra bucks and get-out clauses for them.

You rarely even put the ski bag onto the scales when checking in, in my experience. As generally the person working the desk will lean over and fix the baggage tag to the handle of the ski bag.

I've never had a problem with 2 pairs in one bag. At Grenoble in January (returning to the UK) when checking in, they asked me to step behind the desk to actually open my bag and check inside with a customs officer. They were obviously doing a security check but there were clearly 2 pairs in the bag, and the lady on check in was observing but said no problem. I even got a laugh when I used my pigeon french to alert them to the week old ski socks in there!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

ONly time we've had problems was when flyiong with Jet 2 who were very accurate on the weighing. We paid for 2 sets of ski carriage there. WHen we went with Crystal I had two sets in one bag with no problems at all.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

fastandicy, never been caught as the outsized baggage folk never bother their shirts. This year I'll have six sets of skis, 4 sets of poles and 2 pairs of boots in the one massive bag - have paid for 2 sets of skis

snow reports

Going to the US on American Airlines they weighed our skis - but they don't charge overseas customers for carriage of 1 set of skis and boots. By contrast they charge a huge fee inside the US for transporting skis - so when we arrived at Jackson Hole Airport on an internal flight ours were the only skis on the flight.

snowball, I'm flying with them next month, i havent booked ski carriage as their website says its included free, but do i need to notify them anyway?

You know it makes sense.

Where are these ski equipment bag weight limits coming from? Oh... not Ryanair? Seems to be the one thing they exceed the others on. There appears to be (we'll test this on Saturday!) no weight limit (beyond the 32kg max) for ski equipment.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

when you lot take two pairs of skis like this what do you do with the other pair of boots? Puzzled

A snowHead

Has anyone ascertained if Ski Carriage with Ryanair includes a seperate boot bag as well as a Ski bag

A snowHead

nick0861, Boots go in their own bag. I have two pairs of skis, in one bag. Mrs NBT has her boots in a bag and her skis in a bag...

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

boabski, how much does all that weigh, are they kids' skis? There is an absolute weight limit of 32kgs for any one bag, that's a H&S rule, not set by the airlines and there's no way round it.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

nick0861, What "other" pair of boots?

Boots normally go in the main case (or many people have separate boot bags), they don't go in the ski bag.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

alex_heney, I think nick0861, is assuming that you are taking two pairs of skis in one bag for 2 people. You can only take one boot bag and one ski bag when you pay for ski carriage.

nick0861, boots can quite often be fit in your main hold bag.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

alex_heney, unless you're flying to the US, don't BA discount your boot bag from your weight limit? So you're allowed 25kg plus a ski bag and a boot bag.

Of course if you can keep within 25kgs anyway then it's no issue putting boots in your main bag, but if not then having the extra bag is free and increases your weight allowance.

After all it is free

Thanks everyone.

I'm gonna give it a shot and hope they don't start trying to stretch their profits.

kendub, I love that idea. Genius. I'll ditch the Salomon's with my other half cos they're heaviest than re-pack them once i've left the check-in if they look like they're weighing the bags

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

fastandicy, The 2008/09 Crystal T&Cs (well, the version that I’ve got) state

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

fastandicy, Make sure you do take them to outsize at whatever airport you are using. Some just send them down the same way as cases. You could be left clutching a bare pair of skis.

snow reports

We paid the 30 quid for additional ski/board carriage and were horrified to discover the weight limit was 6 kg. I phoned Crystal to explain that our bag weighed 4 kg alone! They told me to contact the carrier (in my case Thomson) who told me that technichally I should observe the Crystal's T&C BUT check in was run by Thomson who have a 13 kg limit. Thomson were very clear to point out that the most important issue was that there was only 1 pair of skis or 1 board per bag! We took a huge bag with 2 boards, 2 pairs of boots and misc. clothing and all was ok. This bag was not weighed or visually checked at either check in.

beanie1, 32kg on the nose by sheer luck. 4 pairs of kids skis

You know it makes sense.

flybe southampton put my ski bag in x ray machine found out 2 pairs inside then charged me for extra set will not fly with them again

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

flybe southampton put my ski bag in x ray machine found out 2 pairs inside then charged me for extra set will not fly with them again

A snowHead

I noticed last year Ryanair had an early booking discount for skiers in the Autumn. Free ski carriage for early bookers, the beauty of that is you can take your skis and clothes in one ski bag (and hand luggage), so no need to pay for a case . It would be poss to get flight and ski carraige for approx €40 all in

A snowHead

For info.. We flew with Jet2 earlier in the month, I just had 1 pair of skis in my ski bag but friends had two pairs of skis in their ski bag without any hassle (albeit lightish skis). The check-in guy said our pre-booked ski carriage included 1 boot bag each too but none of us knew or used it - all boots in normal luggage.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

fastandicy, no they won't. I do it every year.

Besides, it's a weight limit they impose.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Anyone tried 2 pairs of skis in one bag with Ryanair from Stansted recently? Would like to know as I'm off next week with a mate and we have our own skis, not sure whether to chance it or rent in resort.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

flew with jet2 earlier in the year - but carriage paid to the tour op which was esprit...
Invoice for 4 tickets but only 1 additional ski carriage...
We put 4 snowboards, 4 boots and 2 of the bindings in the one bag (other 2 in luggage) - not checked at either bristol or chambery Very Happy

After all it is free

Bikeandsnow, I flew Easyjet to GVA and back this week. My suitcase was 21kg and my board bag, which contained 1x board, 1x skis, loadsx clothing, weighed 28kg. As the combined limit was 50kg, there was no excess baggage charge. No questions were asked about how many items of equipment were in the bag.

The walk from Easyjet to the board bag check in is the length of GVA terminal, so probably worth getting a trolley.

bar shaker, we've got through Liverpool with bikes that were (when combined with hold luggage) way over 32kg. I've checked their terms and conditions and they don't mention an allowance of 50kg when paying extra for sports equipment. Maybe you were lucky.

However, on the way back, we were hit with very hefty charges. I believe one of our party paid around £100 at Geneva! He had a Santa Cruz full suspension bike, pretty heavy.

Think the only reason we got away with it at Liverpool on the outbound flight was because it was the week of the bomb scares and they just wanted to get everyone through, queues were long but when down quickly.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Help!!

Two pairs of ski's in one bag.............. Do you have to pay for carriage x2?

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste