Flying with skis

ctenidae · Dec 18, 2006

My wife and I are looking at a trip to Italy in February. One of our major problems involves getting skis there. Apparently, most domestic airlines let you count one set of ski equipment (boot bag and ski bag) as 1 piece of checked baggage (some appear to let it be an additional set, on top of the normal 2 bags). European airlines (Alitalia and Lufthansa, particularly) have some odd "peice concept" rating that makes little sense. Lufthansa, for example, says that skis will be charged 33% of the normal tariff, but they don't ever actually say what the normal tariff is. Odd.

So, it boils down to this question- one ski bag or two? On domestics, it seems like 2 is the way to go. Anyone with experience getting skis to Europe? Should we get a double bag and pay one fee, or two bags and pay seperately?

My brain hurts...

SKIQUATTRO · Dec 20, 2006

pack your boots and rent once over there.....save you alot of headaches!!

ctenidae · Dec 20, 2006

SKIQUATTRO said:
pack your boots and rent once over there.....save you alot of headaches!!

Kind of where I'm starting to lean.

koreshot · Dec 20, 2006

Renting is definitely a good option, though I personally like to ski on my own boards. When I make an investment of time and money to fly somewhere and ski, I like the have as few variables as possible. I like using skis I know work well and I am familiar with. I also take my boots as a carryon with me. Losing boots on the plane is my worst nightmare.

I can't speak for Europe, but I have taken Continental, United and American as well as their various small partners on a number of trips to South America and all have been rather chill about size and weight of my ski bags. My bags are usually 200cm long and very heavy, like 70-90lbs. Your best bet is to call the airline and understand what you can can not bring.

NYDrew · Dec 26, 2006

wear your ski gear on the plane. no one can stop you from stripping it off once you take off. bring boots as carry on.

skis stay home, they are going to get abused at all stops along the way and will be nothing more then a overpriced inconvenience. lets not forget that those agressive ice cutting eastern skiis will sink like rocks in other regions anyway, so rent hi end from locals.

SkiDog · Dec 27, 2006

NYDrew said:
lets not forget that those agressive ice cutting eastern skiis will sink like rocks in other regions anyway, so rent hi end from locals.

Ha speak for yourself...my boards are FAT..... ;-)

M

koreshot · Dec 27, 2006

SkiDog said:
Ha speak for yourself...my boards are FAT..... ;-)

M

Same here.... And I never leave my boards behind so that I can rent some piece of crap used and abused Rossi B3s and pay Demo prices for them. Most mountain side shops have a pretty sucky selection of high perf skis.

ctenidae · Dec 27, 2006

I've got 75mm waists, my wife's are 72, so we should be fine there. We booked a non-stop flight to Milan, so abuse should be minimal. Now we just ahv eto figure out how the hell we're going to get skis into a Fiat Punto (preferrably without paying 52 Euros for a rack).

koreshot · Dec 27, 2006

ctenidae said:
I've got 75mm waists, my wife's are 72, so we should be fine there. We booked a non-stop flight to Milan, so abuse should be minimal. Now we just ahv eto figure out how the hell we're going to get skis into a Fiat Punto (preferrably without paying 52 Euros for a rack).

Looks like you will be doing a lot of driving with a window or two down

SkiDog · Dec 27, 2006

koreshot said:
Same here.... And I never leave my boards behind so that I can rent some piece of crap used and abused Rossi B3s and pay Demo prices for them. Most mountain side shops have a pretty sucky selection of high perf skis.

I also never leave my boards at home...I like comfort...and familiarity.

M

ctenidae · Dec 27, 2006

Since someone some day may be here looking for this information, I'll keep adding in the info as I get it- the AZBlog!

Alitalia reports that a set of ski equipment (ski bag and boot bag) counts as 1 piece of checked baggage towards the 2-piece limit, witha 23 Kg weight limit for each bag. Considering my boots in bag weigh 10 pounds and my skis weigh 10, it shouldn't be a problem.

Flying with skis

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