Suitcase Weights allowance

[Racey]

I'm wondering if I will have enough weight allowance in my cases when coming back?

my b/f plans to buy practically a whole new wardrobe out there as he can never find the stuff he likes in the uk! I'm worried he will be very restricted.

Has anyone thats brought quite a bit of disney memorobilia back found they have gone over immensly?

So, in general, would you say if my other half bought say.... 5 pairs of trainers, 5 pairs of jeans, 10 t-shirts, 4 jumpers he would be well over the limit???

Has anyone had a big spend up over there on memorobilia?? and what did you bring back roughly and did you have a massive excess baggage bill?

Opinions and past experinces I would be interested to read

 

[Boo Boo Too]

WHich airline are you flying and have you already checked the "baggage allowance" page on their website?

Yes, lots of people do go over the limit and airlines are getting more and more strict on enforcing teh weight limits. Each aircraft has a maximum weight that it can carry (the plane itself, passengers, crew, luggage and cargo). Obviously the more luggage that is carried, the less fee paying cargo that they can carry... So if you want to travel with more than your quota of luggage, you will be charged for the privilege (because it means that the aircraft will probably have to offload some cargo).

If your BF if DEFINITELY going to buy a whole new wardrobe out there, then he could pack VERY lightly (take very few things) on the way out. Do you shopping early (so he can use the things out there), then use your full allowance on the way back.

Boo

 

[Minniespal]

We're always over the limit

I tend to only take a couple of tops, trousers, shorts ~ Because I know I will be buying tons of stuff when I get there that I can wear. I only pack my make-up, the rest of the toiletries - shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, toothpaste we get there.

If you are travelling with BA, they allow you to purchase more luggage allowance. It's a bit cheaper than what you would be paying at the airport. Since you know that your BF is going to be mega shopping perhaps it would be a good idea to factor in some charges to your spending money

 

[ariel75]

I would recommend getting the airlines baggage allowence i didn't when i went in january i weighed each suitcase before i went one was 18.2 kilos i was allowed 20 but when i got it from sanford it had a heavy sticker with 22 kilos on it so i think their scales are a bit too sensative i worried about what i was buying the whole time we were there.Next time i will get the baggage allowence so i don't have to worry as much.

 

[profolly]

What about customs duty have any of you guys ever been stopped ?
Viv x

 

[Minniespal]

What about customs duty have any of you guys ever been stopped ?
Viv x

Never.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

What about customs duty have any of you guys ever been stopped ?
Viv x

Providing you don't keep the tags on new clothes or other new things in boxes etc, how would they know that the goods are new?

Yes, if you have a couple of thousand pounds worth of Disney merchandise, they might guess.... but an equal value of new clothes, they wouldn't know.

To be honest I think that customs generally have more important things to look for (like drugs etc).

Oddly enough though, I am really not a big shopper! I may be an unusual woman, but I normally find a lot better ways to spend my day that roaming malls and shops...

Boo

 

[mikki.young]

What about customs duty have any of you guys ever been stopped ?
Viv x

I always go through the red channel. If you do get stopped the onus is on you to prove that you didn't buy everything in the US. It's not worth being dishonest when it only costs a few pounds to pay the duty. They tend to just charge VAT nowdays so our last trip only wanted about £30 from us.

 

[Racey]

Sorry, I wasnt to clear in my post. I wanted to know how much extra it normally is cos i expect we will have to pay a bit!

I am allowed 20kg's. I wasnt worried but my sister is worrying me now saying that isnt alot!!

I always go through the red channel. If you do get stopped the onus is on you to prove that you didn't buy everything in the US. It's not worth being dishonest when it only costs a few pounds to pay the duty. They tend to just charge VAT nowdays so our last trip only wanted about £30 from us.

That wasnt too bad a vat bill. Hope that if they do charge me it wont be much more than that

 

[Goofyish]

For our last trip our large hard sided cases weighed around 19 to 21KG. My DDs smaller wheeled cases weighed around 15KG. This was in December so we had more 'winter' type clothes in the cases.

We flew with Virgin so at the time as a family of 4 we could have 8 cases up to 30Kg each, (This is now been reduce to 8 x 23Kg for the 4 of us). Although we only had 4 cases in total going out and 6 coming back - we packed empty holdalls in the cases on the way out.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Sorry, I wasnt to clear in my post. I wanted to know how much extra it normally is cos i expect we will have to pay a bit!

I am allowed 20kg's. I wasnt worried but my sister is worrying me now saying that isnt alot!!

That would vary from airline to airline - you would need to check your airline's website (or telephone them) for that information.

That wasnt too bad a vat bill. Hope that if they do charge me it wont be much more than that

VAT = 17.5% of purchases.... so it all depends on how much you spent. For Nikki to be charged £30, one would guess that she declared about £171 worth of purchases in addition to her allowance.

Boo

 

[tashasmum]

We have been going to WDW for the last 10 years and have never even been stopped at customs. In fact when we came back on the 2nd Jan 07 we heard the two customs people say they could not be bothered this morning to check anybodies luggage as they were too tired.

 

[mikki.young]

VAT = 17.5% of purchases.... so it all depends on how much you spent. For Nikki to be charged £30, one would guess that she declared about £171 worth of purchases in addition to her allowance.

Boo

That sounds about what I remember - I converted to Sterling and split it between clothes, DVDs and sundry stuff like pins and they kept reducing it. With the prices over there you are getting a bargain even after properly declaring stuff. If you get stopped in the green channel you get hit for VAT and customs duty - clothes I believe come in at 40% customs duty which would put the cost up significantly. The duty allowances are due to go up (they hadn't at begining of Feb when we came back) from around £145 per head to £340 per head. that would take a lot of people (including us) out of the should declare zone.

 

[snookhams]

We take very little with us and infact have been known to travel out with an empty suitcase inside a suitcase so that we can bring back goodies - mostly clothes and shoes (not just trainers) for DS at 6'5" with size 14 feet and still growing we find it easier to buy his clothes etc in US as there is much more choice and he can go into almost any shoe store and find shoes in his size.

We have never gone over our weight limit in the 14 years we have been going and have never been stopped at customs (although DH does wear his BAA pass in readiness for claiming our free parking - which might be stopping soon - so maybe that helps!!!!)

 

[dee slack]

I've heard about people using fishing type scales that you hold and hang things from to weigh their suitcases (does that make sense????), but the one I saw only goes up to 6kg which obviously isn't much use for a suitcase! So... does anyone know about the ones that you can use for heavier things, and where you get them from?

 

[Racey]

If you have a normal set of stand-on scales use this calculation:

Pounds to Kilograms you multiply by 0.4536

ie - 20lbs (1st 4lbs) = 9kgs

 

[mikki.young]

I've heard about people using fishing type scales that you hold and hang things from to weigh their suitcases (does that make sense????), but the one I saw only goes up to 6kg which obviously isn't much use for a suitcase! So... does anyone know about the ones that you can use for heavier things, and where you get them from?

Is this what you had in mind?

 

[Merylj]

When we flew with TCD for 15 quid extra we could have double luggage allowance. It was the best money spent as it gave us peace of mind for the journey home.

 

[dee slack]

thanks mikki.young that's the thing I was trying to explain, but I've just had someone point me to this better/cheaper one from QVC http://www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/app.detail/params.item.824689/walk.yah.UKHG-U078
Thanks tho'!

Worth investing in - beats trying to repack / redistribute the weight at the check-in desk like we've had to do before

 

[fuse04]

This will not be the most accurate method but what we do is for us to weigh someone on the bathroom scales and then they stand back on them carrying the suitcase. The difference between the two weight measurements will be the weight of the case.

Household scales tend not to weigh accuratley but they will still be consistent. Therefore the weight diff betwenn the two should be pretty accurate.

hope this helps

Rob