It was around the time we hit Hershey that I realised we needed a serious plan. We were here for 3 nights and took the opportunity to do a bit of a tidy up and clean of the car and couldn't believe just how much stuff we now had, even with the generous baggage allowance of a BA business class flight, there was no way even half of it was going to make it home to the UK.
Time that would have been spent updating blog posts became time spent researching options on the internet, we needed a plan and until we had one, I was focused!
I am sure other people have been or will be in the same situation as us and actually what I learnt is so useful for 'normal' holidays that I thought it was worth sharing on this blog.
1st Tip - Read the airlines baggage allowance carefully, it can be more flexible than you think
I found the BA baggage allowance site and carefully pondered over what we were / were not allowed to do on our flight. It was a far more detailed breakdown of the baggage sizes and rules than the eticket and actually confirmed there was more flexibility than we realised as you'll see from below.
2nd Tip - Maximise the hand luggage
BA allows for 2 items of hand luggage:
- 1 handbag/laptop bag (23kg and up to 40 x 30 x 15cm)
- 1 cabin bag (23kg and up to 56 x 45 x 25cm)
Flying out to America, we both had a back pack as our hand luggage but going back, we realised the back packs counted as a handbag/laptop bag due to their size and weight so we converted the small checked in bag to a cabin bag as it was within the dimensions and then bought a second cabin bag from Amazon (which cost about £8 - a much cheaper option than paying for excess baggage!). We stuffed as much as we could in the hand luggage bags, 23kg is actually a really difficult weight limit to get to with those sizes. We knew we were within the limits for these items both weight and size wise but they were never checked at the airport.
3rd Tip - Buy some scales
We bought some cheap luggage scales so we could make sure that all our bags were within the exact weight of the requirements of the airline. Having a bag over weight can cost a lot of money and the airline will charge you even if your other bags are underweight. Having the ability to weigh and repack in your hotel room rather than in the middle of a business airport is less stressful and far less embarrassing.
4th Tip - Query the bag dimensions
The baggage information for BA says that your bag dimensions need to be 90 x 75 x 43cm but when I called BA to discussion potential options for our excess baggage, I was told that we could actually take larger bags as long as they didn't exceed the dimension of 190 x 75 x 65cm and were still within our weight allowance. Not wishing to take one call center's person's word for it (as getting to the airport with a bag I couldn't check in was turning into a recurring nightmare), I contacted BA via Facebook Messenger and had the same response, you can check in over sized luggage for no extra charge as long as its within your weight limit. For people who fly with BA with skis and snowboards this is exactly what they do. The only extra advice I was given was to make sure I checked in 15 minute earlier to give us time to drop the bag off at the over-sized luggage counter (which actually took about 30 seconds to do!).
We then searched on Google for a cheap bag that was 190 x 75 x 65cm (and we did find one for about £20) and used it to bring the tent, electric cooler, sleeping bags and most of our other camping equipment home with us.
5th Tip - Coolers can be checked in
We loved our huge cooler and it is something unique which we knew we wouldn't easily or cheaply find back home but the size of it meant that it couldn't be packed in a bag. When I spoke to BA, I mentioned the cooler and asked if there were options for bringing it with us. I was told that we could check a cooler in as one of our checked in bags as long as the dimensions didn't exceed 190 x 75 x 65cm (the oversized allowance rather than the standard one!) and that it could easily opened and searched. We decided to swap one of our 4 checked in bags for the cooler, stuffing it with 2 sleeping bags and then sealing it with a little tape. In the UK we would have received a few odd looks at travelling with a cooler but in the US, it seems perfectly normal.
6th Tip - Uni Baggage (now called My Baggage)
Even with our new-found knowledge around how to get the most out of our baggage allowance, we still had full suitcases that we needed to get back to the UK. I looked at so many different options including sending them via courier companies (such as UPS and FedEx), shipping crates, packing boxes, airline excess baggage, and all sort but all the options seemed to cost far more than the value of our goods, we were struggling to justify the cost.
Then I came across a company called Uni Baggage (now called My Baggage). Based on the original name, I assume this company used to specialise in helping students ship their baggage when they were studying in another country. The company does more than students baggage today, they send baggage for expats, holiday makers, the forces and even road trippers like us. My first experience of this company was via email where I found they responded quickly to my questions, talking in simple language unlike some of the other shipping companies I was dealing with. It was easy to book our pick up and drop off on their website and all we needed to do was print off the confirmation sheets, stick them to our bags and leave them at the hotel reception on the agreed date to be picked up. The bags were then dropped at our home in the UK a couple of days after we returned. Cost wise, this company was far cheaper than any of the other options I was looking at and there service was better than any other courier I have ever dealt with.
Last Tip - Donate
What we couldn't bring back with us to the UK (camp beds, camp chairs, gas for the stove, etc) we donated to someone we hope can use them in the future on their own road trip adventure.
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