Ive been told that you can take windsurfing equipment on flights at a fraction of the cost of excess luggage if you inform the airport that it is sporting goods…does anybody know anything or done this before? Do you have to inform the airline first or can you do it on the day? Im flying back from the UK via KL with Air Asia and Tiger Airways. I will be buying the board in the UK.
Cheers..
Hi Phil,
It really depends on the Airline. Your safest bet is to jump on the Airline's website and hunt around till you find the baggage info section which should spell out the requirements for sporting goods- ie length and weight restrictions. I've carried a 460 mast, sail and boom no problems in the past but never a board (remember to take out the vent plug thingy or you'll have issues!!)
I would definitely find out before you get to the Airport, LCC's tend to increase their revenue by charging like wounded bulls for excess baggage with little or no leniency!
Just call them and ask how much it costs to take a "surf board". Do not tell them it's a windsurf board. Most airlines still live in the 1980s when it comes to windsurf equipment and think a windsurf board is one of those old 30kg boards with wooden boom and 460 one piece mast.
don't lie about the weight of the gear though as they will check that when you arrive at the airport. It's an OH&S requirement that all luggage is below 32kg and they follow that religiously.
I think Tiger Airways has a $60 per sector flat rate for sporting equipment. They usually charge an additional handling fee for oversized sporting equipment. Since they are a low cost airline they will try and charge you for whatever they can. To be absolutely sure call them. Then when you book either pre-pay if you can or at the very least have the oversized sporting equipment attached to your booking.
At a lot of airports the check-in staff doesn't actually work for the airline but instead are employed by a check-in services company that has a contract with the airline. There is no arguing about luggage with them as they do everything by the book. The problem is that most of the time they don't really know the book... read they don't the airlines particular free structures. And unless it's in their system they might simply say can't do.
I have had this before at a small airport in the Canary Islands. Local check-in staff wouldn't let me gear on board despite that fact that I had brought it with me on the same airline. In the end I asked them to call the pilot (who actually works for the airline). The pilot told them in no uncertain terms to load the gear at no cost.
What ever you do never fly with British Airways when it comes to sporting equipment. They just categorically don't take anything that even remotely sounds like oversized luggage.
Don't mean to hijack the thread (no pun intended) but it looks like locally QANTAS (the flying bastards) are looking to change all domestic luggage rates from the 1st of December this year.
Economy will be 23kg MAXIMUM
Every kilo over is $10
We do a lot of flying for work with a lot of gear.
recently just got pinged for an extra 5kg of luggage between a crew of four... 2 of whom were gold frequent flyers... they even wanted to weigh our carry on 
Got a couple of interstate trips lined up with gear (both work and sailing kit)
Will report back in the coming weeks but from what I have seen, read and heard the days of shipping sailing kit across the country with little to no excess charges will be a thing of the past come December 1.
Qantas have also started promoting the ability to buy additional excess luggage kilos at cheaper rates PRIOR to check in
Has the Qantas cost changed much? I thought they were charging per kilo before this? It looks like they only allow you one piece, whereas before I think they allowed two.
At least it seems cheaper if you pre-purchase the extra weight allowance, at $7 a kilo versus $10 if you don't pre-purchase it.
On the other hand Virgin Blue still give you an extra 5kgs for sporting goods, so they seem to have very different luggage costings.
