Kitefish
A Force-of-Nature *  
Member #: 945 Posts 299
Registered: 31-8-2004 Location: Shrewsbury Member Is Offline Mood:
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| posted on 6-7-2006 at 18:35 |
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Extra Baggage Allowance The Bizarre Twist
We are off to Turkey later this month and have booked our flights online with Thomascook. To prepay for extra baggage allowance you
have to call the customer support to book th extra sports allowance.
This I did, first of all the young lady instantly gave me an extra 10kg each as dive equipment allowance at no extra cost. Good start,
but I'm just no good at lying about whats in my bag and also when I enquired I was not allowed to combine the 10kgs into one bag-
bizarre.
So I came clean and said that I was really happy to pay a little extra to carry kitesurfing kit. Reply from very helpfull Emily 'whats
that then, cos it's not on the list'. My reply 'it's sort of like a small surfboard and some big kites in a bag large enough to fit a
person in'. 'Oh a windsurfer then'. 'No not really, not quite as big'. This sort conversation continued for a while until we settled on
surfboards and equipment which would cost £35 extra and we would have our full allowance as normal plus an extra 10kg for diving
equipment, I was happy at that. Emily went off made a couple more enquiries and came back to say 'that will be no problem, there is
plenty room on both of your flights and I would be allowed to take upto 10 surfboards and bags'. 'What all for just £35' I
replied.'Yep funnt init' Replied Emily.
I find this bonkers when you consider the trouble you go through trying to sneak one large body bag on without prior booking and they
want to charge you now £5/kg for over weight.
So when we next fly somewhere windy and exotic only one person needs to book all the kitesurf bags in- sorted
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chris
A Force-of-Nature ** 
Member #: 79 Posts 402
Registered: 28-11-2002 Member Is Offline Mood: i thought the winter/spring wa
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| posted on 8-7-2006 at 10:29 |
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its all a bit pot luck. recently Margi and i went mountain biking in Spain. we prearranged the bikes and they cost £10 each way. it
got me thinking a bike bag is quite big and would fit enough kit for 3/4 people. so next time i may say its a bike ( i think you can
have a bike up to 20 or 30 kgs)
or take your board on the plane and Say its a fragile painting and carry one sonic 11m
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leonardo
A Force-of-Nature *** 
Member #: 634 Posts 613
Registered: 8-4-2004 Member Is Offline Mood: Chillin' ya bloodclot mahn
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| posted on 8-7-2006 at 11:06 |
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U R VERY LUCKY little fish Kitefish. I've done my fair share of travelling around the world with kiting kit and rule number 1 is: -
NEVER EVER MENTION THE WORD SURFBOARD,
and rule number 2 is: -
NEVER MENTION WINDSURFING.
Airlines r very aware of the insurance claims made against them by surfers who have their brittle surfboards broken whilst in transit.
I have learnt to say that all my gear is in one big bag with kites, no more no less. Trust me it works.
LEN10 LOOPING..
www.sskiteboarding.com
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ajdesq
A Force-of-Nature * 
F-O-N Champion 2003
Member #: 6 Posts 214
Registered: 24-7-2002 Member Is Offline Mood: Living to kitesurf :-)
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| posted on 7-11-2006 at 21:29 |
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I've just done Tarifa with SleazyJet, and paid £30 return for the kite stuff. At Malaga check-in the people in front of me were
charged for one tiny extra bag, so it looks like they're quite hot on it.
What amazed me was the weight of my bag... coffin bag, 1 board, 2 GK kites, wettie, harness, helmet, lines, pump... 25 kilos! 
There's more to life than KITESURFING!
Let me know when you find it.
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