ski package baggage allowance?

tippbhoy

Hi,

Just looking for people's views on baggage allowances for snow holiday packages.

The travel agent is saying that the max is 20Kg. There is no allowance for equipment, and they need to be informed in advance if equipment needs to be brought so they can put it on the flight manifest (not sure what that means).

Anyway, is 20Kg's taking the p!ss for a chartered snow holiday package, I mean if you want to bring your ski gear, that must be 7 or 8 kg's in itself. You would imagine the a holiday geared towards this type of activity would have an allowance for this?

robinph

Generally the ski gear (skis/ boots/ board) are not included in that 20kg. You just have to let them know who many you'll be taking with you. It might complicate things if you have a board bag that you also stuff all your other baggage in, but as long as your still under the 35kg baggage handler limit then you should be OK.

I think the additional allowance that you get for ski gear on the likes of Ryaniar/ easyjet flights is 12kg on top of the standard baggage allowance, but you have to pay for that separately of course. For a ski charter flight there shouldn't be any extra charge.

MadsL

Aer Lingus are now charging €30 each leg of the flight for ski equipment! So budget €60 to bring your skis. Stuffed my snowblades in my main bag - got told off for overweight, but as the flight was empty they seemed to let us away with it. Took my boots as handluggage which seemed to help - boots are about 5kg.

Coming back from Salzburg I checked the blades as oversized but wasn't charged - about 12 people on the flight - so I would have been outraged.

Time they gave fat people a charge...!!! I weigh 70kg, so figure that if someone weighs in excess of 100kg + 20kg of luggage - they should be paying the excess fees, not me with my 70kg and 30kg of luggage.

Heinrich

Why bother carting the stuff if you can rent it on site? The cost of the boards or skis and the maintenance is really not worth it in my experience.

I used to be a weekend skier and sometimes even midweek and I found renting was a better option. Mind you if you are a really good skier you might be into scratch stuff but I doubt that the once a year package holiday skier is really that good.

Mind you some might be impressed with your ski bag and fancy boots.

robinph

Heinrich wrote:

Why bother carting the stuff if you can rent it on site?

Because it's mine and I then don't need to queue up in the morning to get the hire stuff.

Also depending on where you go the hire stuff can tend to be a load of rubbish even if you pay extra for their supposed decent range.

sharingan

Heinrich wrote:

Why bother carting the stuff if you can rent it on site? The cost of the boards or skis and the maintenance is really not worth it in my experience.

Rental skis are fine, but snowblades are cheap, cheerful and a practical purchase. However snowboards are another thing entirely. Snowboards exhibit a lot of variability in design that affects the way you board, so your snowboard can be very personal. You can have board designs that are optimised for tricks & stunts and aerial stuff, boards designed for pure downhill descents (more rigid, carving designs) and even snowboards designed purely for learning. Rental boards are almost exclusively one-size-fits-all, hard wearing, cheap designs. Don't get me started with bindings.

Heinrich wrote:

I used to be a weekend skier and sometimes even midweek and I found renting was a better option. Mind you if you are a really good skier you might be into scratch stuff but I doubt that the once a year package holiday skier is really that good.

Mind you some might be impressed with your ski bag and fancy boots.

Boots is different. Good ski boots make a huge difference to the quality of your skiing and your comfort. If you are a regular skiier (ie 1 week a year) you should own your own boots. The boots will cost you maybe 4 holidays worth of rental, so they pay for themselves after 4 trips and there is no maintenance aspect. Its not like boots are really difficult to transport either. You also avoid the lottery of ****ty painful ski boots if you have a foot that is any way different from normal.

robinph wrote:

Also depending on where you go the hire stuff can tend to be a load of rubbish even if you pay extra for their supposed decent range.

We always get the good skis. The difference between the good and the regular as far as I can make out, is that the good ones are just newer, maybe purchased for rental at the start of the current ski season. The 'regular' have several seasons worth of rocks etched into them. The designs are the same, thats all the difference.

Still, we were in Niederau in 2006 where there was no option to rent 'superiour' skis. When we arrived, we found out that *all* skis were effectively superiour. Best skis I ever used, and I told them so. Perhaps the skis that were approaching their end of life got rotated into 'learn to ski' package rental (as you would expect), but the standard of skis available for regular hire was outstanding. In more touristy resorts there is always the option to price gouge, and this is where the difference between regular & better equipment comes from.

But if you plan on doing more than 3 weeks of skiing in your life and your feet have stopped growing, you should own your own boots. And rental boards will put a ceiling on your skill development in many cases. So there is a compelling and practical argument to owning your own gear.

robinph

sharingan wrote:

You can have board designs that are optimised for tricks & stunts and aerial stuff, boards designed for pure downhill descents (more rigid, carving designs) and even snowboards designed purely for learning. Rental boards are almost exclusively one-size-fits-all, hard wearing, cheap designs.

You can have exactly the same differences with types of skis as you can with boards but I have myself a decent pair of do anything skis plus a set of skiboards which are small enough not to make a difference in the packing, and damn good fun as well.

sharingan wrote:

Boots is different. Good ski boots make a huge difference to the quality of your skiing and your comfort. If you are a regular skiier (ie 1 week a year) you should own your own boots.

Agreed, once you are going skiing regularly each year you should buy your own ski boots even if you never then buy your own skis. Boots are a much more personal thing as well and its much nicer to know that your feet will be comfortable for the week and nobody else's smelly feet have ever been anywhere near the boot that you are about to squeeze yours into.

sharingan wrote:

We always get the good skis. The difference between the good and the regular as far as I can make out, is that the good ones are just newer, maybe purchased for rental at the start of the current ski season. The 'regular' have several seasons worth of rocks etched into them. The designs are the same, thats all the difference.

I always got the 'superior' package skis the previous few years but was able to notice a huge difference between the performance and handling of those compared to a mates own ski's and mine once I bought them. This was possibly due to the level of resort that I was going to in the last couple of years as well though in that their top of the line rental ski's were just nowhere near the same level as at another resort.

Imposter

MY take on this is that if you ski more than 7/8 days a year then buy your own skis. That's coming from a cost perspective and actually living in Austria, so for you lot in Ireland you'd have to factor in the costs of transporting the skis every year too. Allow for one service a year as well.

sharingan

robinph wrote:

You can have exactly the same differences with types of skis as you can with boards but I have myself a decent pair of do anything skis plus a set of skiboards which are small enough not to make a difference in the packing, and damn good fun as well.

Agreed, but I think boarders make a choice about their boarding style earlier in their development, either:
- I want to catch a lot of air, do tricks
- I want to do descents at speed

THis really affects the kind of snowboard you want, and in my experience, I find that regular snowboarders are more likely to own their own board, than regular skiers of the same experience.

robinph wrote:

Agreed, once you are going skiing regularly each year you should buy your own ski boots even if you never then buy your own skis. Boots are a much more personal thing as well and its much nicer to know that your feet will be comfortable for the week and nobody else's smelly feet have ever been anywhere near the boot that you are about to squeeze yours into.

Personalised boots slip on like socks too.

robinph wrote:

I always got the 'superior' package skis the previous few years but was able to notice a huge difference between the performance and handling of those compared to a mates own ski's and mine once I bought them. This was possibly due to the level of resort that I was going to in the last couple of years as well though in that their top of the line rental ski's were just nowhere near the same level as at another resort.

Yeah, i think that the bigger and more touristy the resort (i.e. more reliant on foreign holidaymakers, like pads & brits), the more likely it is that that they cut costs on ski rental (give you crappier skis, price gouge on new/superiour skis, and rent skis that are well past their shelf life).

Imposter wrote:

MY take on this is that if you ski more than 7/8 days a year then buy your own skis. That's coming from a cost perspective and actually living in Austria, so for you lot in Ireland you'd have to factor in the costs of transporting the skis every year too. Allow for one service a year as well.

Well the practical aspect of transporting skis is not to be underestimated. Not everyone lives in Dublin, and transporting the skis across the country is not to be sneezed at. Just the idea of walking half a mile carrying skis, as well as boots and a weeks luggage is enough to stop me ever buying.

As for the service aspect - one of the guys is constantly sharpening and rewaxing his snow blades. They are so sharp now that they shred his gloves - he could probably shave with them.

robinph

sharingan wrote:

They are so sharp now that they shred his gloves - he could probably shave with them.

I've drawn blood a few times on taking my ski's and blades out of their bags and have shredded a couple of gloves as well.

tippbhoy

if it's 30euro each way with the budget airlines and you want to go away for long weekends etc then it's probably as cheap just to rent. If you go on a few package hols though i think it's well worth buying the gear and better to have your own stuff e.g. good fitting boots.

Thanks for the feedback

MadsL

Ryanair (spit) charge €22.50 each leg.

I used to carryon my blades and skiboots (about 10kg total) but got stopped by security last year (bloody 'sharp edged' items) - its getting silly really as I was still allowed to carryon my boots. I'd hate to be hit by a boot!

Is it me - or does it just get worse each year as far as allowances/restrictions and charges, it's getting to the point where the US seems a better option for skiing (better baggage allowances and ski conditions)

I'd still pay to take my own gear - no substitute really....

bugs90

MadsL wrote:

Ryanair (spit) charge €22.50 each leg.

I used to carryon my blades and skiboots (about 10kg total) but got stopped by security last year (bloody 'sharp edged' items) - its getting silly really as I was still allowed to carryon my boots. I'd hate to be hit by a boot!

QUOTE]

They're just getting stupid about those things recently. I know 1 person who had a belt buckle taken off them while anothe walked through with a leatherman (accidentally) in their carry on.