Packing Luggage for Flight: How much did your bags weigh?

[Charne]

Good day Everybody,

So my partner and I are narrowing down our sights on a date for arrival in Australia. Surely booking well advance should give us great options and perhaps lower prices. I do have a question for anyone reading who has made the trip: How much did your bags weigh?

I'm struggling to know how much to take on the flight with me and if it's worth paying for extra shipping for the clothes that do not fit the kg cut off.

We are not planning on taking anything other than what we can fit in our bags. Eg. Laptops, tablets, clothes, toiletries, towels. We are not taking kitchen appliances, bedding or furniture so shipping seems unnecessary.

Is the 30kg baggage allowance that Qantas offers per person a reasonable amount? Or is that only enough for two weeks worth of clothes?

I know I should probably do an exercise and pack a bag with some stuff and see how much it weighs. I will do that today.

I might be that person who ends up wearing all her clothes on the plane because the baggage allowance wasn't enough. So if you see me on your plane say hi.

[aappolis]

Hi Charne!

We leaving in Jan and have already started the clearing out process. I travel very often and would advise stickign to the 30kg limit as the cost for extra baggage is very costly. There are so many thrift stores in Aus that you would be able to gain some bargains when replacing the ones you left behind and think of it as exploring whil shopping

We not taking anything extra other than photos that have been removed from frames, kids memorobilia and some key items (jeans are pricey there, 2 x pairs of good runners etc) Having worked for an airline, we penialised passengers for arriving with many bags, so pack by rolling, stuffing and filling every corner and 2 carry ons (small backpack) and a wheely bag will help with extras.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Althea

[Chips]

Charne that makes the 2 of us, l have heard that if you book through lOM you get 40kg baggage allowance. I emailed them and they wanted a grant letter you can try them since you have one. Will say hie when l see you

[Charne]

Hi Chips,

Got a quote from IOM at R9000 per person including taxes with 40kgs per person. That sounded good until we quoted our Qantas flights through Discovery Vitality which came to R13300 for both of us including taxes, with 30kg baggage allowance per person. It's cheaper to get the Vitalty tickets and send a package via airfreight with the rest of our things should the 30kgs not be enough.

But we're still looking. So I will keep you updated on what I find.

So far, I have contacted Quantas Freight so see what they charge, still waiting for a response.

The U Bag people have a minimum billing for 43kgs it seems so their door to door excluding customs fees is R6331.

Seaven Seas charges R5455.47 for 30kgs excluding customs, they also provide packaging like boxes and wrap to wrap your stuff.

Anybody have any idea what customs and duties charges we might incur if we send clothes?

Edited October 14, 2015 by Charne

[Stace]

My suggestion is your pack your suitcase with everything you are wanting to take with, enough to fill the suit case - then weigh it.

You then know if you can add or have to remove items, just be ruthless.

I have done it a few times and have found it quite liberating having to get rid of certain items of clothing etc, its amazing how many clothes one can hoard!

This time round I've been a bit too ruthless, so actually feel like I don't have much to pack

[RYLC]

Toiletries weigh a lot so only bring travel size and buy here. Shops like Cheap As Chips have inexpensive toiletries otherwise the usual supermarkets will have them.

[greggle]

A tip I learned was to separate all your heavy items (e.g.heavy shoes) and to put them in your hand luggage (a bag with wheels). I knocked 2kgs off of my suitcase weight by doing that! As for 30kgs, it is sufficient - we are still living out of our suitcases until our container arrives and are managing fine.

[RedPanda]

I know it's not ideal, but we managed to tour Europe for four weeks, on just our normal luggage, which I seem to remember at that time was 23kg + hand luggage. And we didn't even have regular washing facilities, so we rinsed out our clothes intermittently, and got a bit of hand washing powder for essentials. We survived it was fun. But I wouldn't want to do it for a long time (3 months+). For me the trick was to pack some clothes that could be worn more than once, and then to pack a lot of underwear. That way I got a fair amount of wear out of a smaller volume of clothes.

It's difficult to say how your clothes will work out, my husband and I run into the weight limit, but his parents run into the space limit. So it probably depends on what you are taking, like shoes or fluffy/bulky winter tops.

Generally you should be able to come out fine with 30kg. But it is a very good idea to do a test pack-and-weigh if you are not used to packing under a weight limit.

[KirstyS]

On a similar note what type and size of bags/suitcases are best? We have a 40kg allowance each and the suitcase I have (think its 62cm) I fill way before I reach 16kg never mind 20kg ( thinking 2 suitcases each)

[RedPanda]

It's difficult, you have the weigh (hehe) the weight of the bigger suitcase against the increase in space. We have two hard case and two soft case suitcases. That should balance the need for space with the need to protect packed items. We plan on taking a few kitchen and household items with us as well, so we need that, but if you are only packing clothing, and things that you can wrap/pack securely in the centre of your bags you should be fine with soft case suitcases. Just bear in mind that airplane luggage gets treated very roughly, and is often dropped some distance during handling.

[Charne]

You guys are awesome, thank you for sharing.

I weighed my winter clothes last night because they were neatly packed away in storage cases a few weekends ago so i just took it down and weighed it and it was 8.1 kgs (excluding shoes) so i'm sure with a bit of trimming all my clothes should fit the 30kg mark. Heavier items like perfumes, body cremes and butters, nail kits (I do acrylics and gel extensions and would hate to leave that behind) and other non clothing items might not fit, so my partner agreed that we could pay the extra R6000 (or there about) to send two boxes of stuff over.

As for my rose quart crystal... He said i can take it if i can do 20 push ups with it on my back. So guess who is hitting the gym hard I need my love rock...

[BIGSHARK]

Does anyone have good recommendation as to what kind/brand/size/type of large luggage suitcases to buy from the luggage stores. I am wanting to buy some luggage but I am wondering what the most practical and useful range to look into. There is so much to choose from and I don't know where to begin. There are 4 of us in the family and I would also be looking into arranging the 40 kg allowance for each and the 7kg hand luggage each.

[FairGo]

Takealot has lately had quite a few suitcases on their daily deals. This one is a bit on the small side. I would also like to know which is best. I would definitely prefer one with spinner wheels, but I am unsure of which brand to get.

http://www.takealot.com/paklite-cyborg-51-cm-spinner-hardcase-red/PLID38437414

Edited October 16, 2015 by TacticJourney

[RedPanda]

My suitcases are 10 years old and I have no clue where they came from since my dad bought them for me...sorry, no help here.

On closer inspection it appears they are Delsey. I can say their wheels are very robust though. The wheels are always the first things to go on travelers' luggage, esp if you skimp on transport fares and end up walking on sidewalks. *grins, who would do such a thing? surely not us...Hahahaha* These suitcases of mine have high Odo readings.

[greggle]

Another option is http://www.jaktogo.com/

[RedPanda]

greggle...Hahahaha!!!! Oh my soul!!! Now that is bending the rules and stretching them thin.

[JEMS]

Having just gone through this, here are my two cents...

My husband was already in Oz and it was left to me to sort out our house on my own. Having decided not to take a container but send stuff over in boxes and using Ubag service, I was left making hard decisions about a lot of things. I also could only do this at night after my kids were in bed, since I have a baby girl who would just unpack what I packed, or cry because I was not paying her attention, that sort of thing. I survived on lots of coffee during those weeks, since I averaged about 2 to 4 hours sleep per night, and mostly that was broken sleep since my baby girl is allergic to sleep.

My starting point was to pack all of the clothes and other essential stuff I would take on the plane. This was to see what was left over, so that I could see what would fit in the boxes. I did this about 6 weeks before we flew (packed and unpacked again since we needed to live off of those things for 6 weeks). It took a lot longer than I thought it would but then again I have a baby and she has a lot of crap. I bought two suitcases from Game, a few weeks apart. And I regret that. The suitcases came with wheels which is "convenient" but really, only for moving them from the house to the car. At the airport, you have trolleys, so wheels are useless then. If you have to make use of public transport in Oz, then yes, wheels would be better since it would be difficult carrying 30KG + 7KG of handheld luggage. But in our case, my husband came to pick us up in a car.

Anyway, reason I regret it was the first one weighed about 3g empty. And the second one close to 5kg empty. That is 8kg sacrificed to wheels. I tried to exchange the heavy one for a lighter one, but there was a small tear on the suitcase that I did not notice going in, so they refused. In the end, I left my brand new R900 suitcase in South Africa with my sister, and instead I used a canvas bag large enough to fit in 30Kg. The total weight of the bag empty was barely 1kg. I went over with 3 large canvas bags and one suitcase as checked luggage, and 2 sports bags, a nappy bag and backpack as carry-on, with my laptop bag extra (I emptied my handbag and stuffed it into my carry-on).

I packed and weighed, and repacked and re-weighed those bags so many times it was not even funny. Late at night, all alone, with the movie "Pride and Prejudice" playing on repeat in the background. Don't ask me why, it was calming.

I brought 8kg of toiletries. It was more than what is technically allowed by Qantas but I only saw that the night before we left and I could not care much at that point anymore. If they wanted to confiscate it, great, go ahead. But I was not going to repack again.

I got light sport bags from Game to use as hand luggage and my son took a Gotcha backpack. And we packed them FULL with all the heavy stuff that would be allowed on the plane. I used up pretty much every gram of my allotted kg allowance. In my son's backpack I put all my jewelry, tablets, chargers, his PSP, pencils and coloring book, some of his toys and some of my baby's toys. Everything was a mess in the end, since I packed for weight and not for convenience, so when it came to my daughter screaming on the plane for her milk as we embarked, it took me a while to find her bottles and formula. But we got everything here. I was not once questioned about the size or quantity of my luggage (Qantas does not care how you get to your 30KG, so you can take 3 x 10KG bags just for yourself if you want to, as long as it stays in the dimensions they give, and does not go over 30KG. Well two of my bags went a little over 30kg, they were around 31kg and no one said anything.) And my hand luggage was just scanned like normal, not weighed or measured and I think they were slightly over the dimensions. Our biggest issue was actually getting to Joburg, since Kulula only allows for 20kg checked and 7kg carry-on, so we had to buy extra space to get the extra weight over. Cost me R500.

I took some unnecessary stuff that I would have left behind if I could, knowing now. I was not sure about my son's school uniform and thought the pants they wear at his school here is pretty much the same as his old school pants. They are not, so I could have left that behind and probably saved up another 1KG. I brought his old school case, but everyone here uses backpacks so he is using his backpack. Again, could have left that.

In the end I packed all our clothes, shoes (I am not a big shoe person, so did not bring a thousand pairs), two duvets (one a king size, one double), two pillows, one set of curtains for my daughter's room, her radio, her baby monitor, her mosquito net, her bottle sterilizer, 8kg of toiletries (Shampoo, Conditioner, soap, that sort of thing. And it wasn't a lot, I mean, it was two bottles of shampoo, two conditioner, two hand soap, one baby soap, it just weighs a lot when you tally it all up together), about 2kg of medicine (mostly for the kids, like Neurofen and Pholtex and Panado Syrup, first aid stuff that sort of thing), big tin of baby formula, nappies, wet wipes, about 6 towels, linen, etc etc. I packed enough to get us through that weekend and a few weeks afterwards . My laptop bag actually weighed close to 7kg too, as I had all my thousands of paperwork in it, with our passports and my wallet and three pc hard drives. We shipped my husbands PC over with UBag but those hard drives were important and fragile so I had them bubble wrapped inside my laptop bag. If they weighed it and queried it, I would have given them the laptop as it was a spare one. The hard drives on the other hand, could not leave without them.

I swear the stress I was under for the weeks leading up to our flight, and the fact that no-one questioned or raised an eyebrow ONCE kind of pissed me off :-).

So yea, my advice would be, take the lightest case or bag you can find. Those wheels really do just eat into your allowance.

[RedPanda]

Well done, managing all that on your own. *Insert Hat-tipping-emoticon*

[TinaB]

Delsey is an excellent make. The cabin crew on SAA are given Delseys. A bit pricey for me though. Also, "weighing" up my luggage options now.

[KirstyS]

@JEMS when you say canvas bags what type? Where did you purchase them? Thanks

[EmNew]

I think the packing is so circumstantial....

We used every kg of our 40kg allowance for just 2 people. We had to pack work and casual clothes for 2, to last us a year. Our reason for this is our personal items are being shipped groupage, so there is no telling when we would receive our clothes. I refuse to buy clothes when I already have good quality items. So we packed for summer and winter, with bulky winter jackets for cold Melbourne winters, as we have no guarantee that we will have our stuff by May 2016. Also had some linen, meds and hard drives. Barely brought any toiletries on the plane. Stocked up on this side instead. The hand luggage reached its limits very quickly, with laptop, more harddrives, and all original certificates and other legal paperwork that I didn't want to risk losing in check in luggage. I know we were over 7kg each, but they never checked.

We bought some Paklite luggage at Makro, both cases and duffel bags, as they weighed little before packing. They were great to use.

[JEMS]

Hi KirstyS

Unfortunately, I don't know where they were bought. I got them from my mother. I think it may be from Cape Union Mart. My mom took hers too Everest, had to include a lot of climbing equipment etc. So it was the biggest but lightest one she could get. This was about 8 years ago though.

[KirstyS]

Thanks JEMS. Sounds like the duffel bags I was looking at ?

[Yuvi]

On 10/14/2015 at 3:04 PM, Charne said:

Hi Chips,

Got a quote from IOM at R9000 per person including taxes with 40kgs per person. That sounded good until we quoted our Qantas flights through Discovery Vitality which came to R13300 for both of us including taxes, with 30kg baggage allowance per person. It's cheaper to get the Vitalty tickets and send a package via airfreight with the rest of our things should the 30kgs not be enough.

But we're still looking. So I will keep you updated on what I find.

So far, I have contacted Quantas Freight so see what they charge, still waiting for a response.

The U Bag people have a minimum billing for 43kgs it seems so their door to door excluding customs fees is R6331.

Seaven Seas charges R5455.47 for 30kgs excluding customs, they also provide packaging like boxes and wrap to wrap your stuff.

Anybody have any idea what customs and duties charges we might incur if we send clothes?

 

Hi @Charne

 

I am in the same situation here, book via IOM of use my discovery vitality. As a flight from JHB to Melbourne will cost 12k for the both of us with vitality.

Real savings, but i am concerned about the baggage. I don't want to get caught out for excess baggage.

 

I emailed quantas but they were not much help in terms of what i was allowed to carry for a one way flight should i book via vitality.

 

What did you end up doing? Anyone else go this route?

[RedPanda]

@Yuvi don't panic about "being caught out" on weight, weigh your bags beforehand at home. Then you know what they weigh.
 

If you are panicked because you are not a regular traveller, who has built up a good 'guestimator' of baggage weight, then if you can, pack a mock-up bag now and weigh it, to see how much stuff goes into 30 kg. You would be surprised.

Otherwise, if it turns out you really do need the extra baggage kilos, then look at the other options, keeping in mind that you have a 'virtual budget' of around R6000 before you even start to break even with the IOM Qantas deal. If we were discovery members I would certainly take their deal and arrange for separate bags if it was necessary.

Good luck with your journey!