Paying for ski carriage... GRUMBLE

[kittykarate]

It really bugs me that you are supposed to pay ski carriage for each pair of skis, even if they are transported in the same bag.

They give you all this flannel about baggage handlers, plane weights and say the bag can weigh up to 15kg.

What the hell kind of diamond encrusted, gold plated skis weigh 15kg per pair? Mine are cross country skis so weigh less than 2kg. FFS.

I've half a mind to buy a ski bag and put mine in separately now, I've paid for the privilege and if the bag is big enough I can put my snow shoes in too.

I have never heard of this. its always per bag not per ski pair.

We usually have a snowboard bag, with 1 snowboard,1 pair skis, 1 pair ski blades, snowboard boots and ski boots at either end. And usually squeeze our salopettes in also. And then we pay just one lot of ski carridge. Have done for years.

Some airlines (I think BA) add them for free automatically - was cheaper for us one year than EasyJet+checked baggage

With Swiss Air I think you can substitute your checked luggage for ski+boots as long as you haven't bought the cheapest fare (been caught out with this one!)

When we've gone EasyJet we've only had skis and boots as checked luggage and everything else in hand luggage - bulky salopettes, jumpers etc go in with skis, big toiletries go in with boots. Hand luggage usually half full with helmet but have seen people hang them from the outside - so not like

Oops! Dropped phone and posted!

Not like paying for more than one piece of checked luggage

I have never heard of this. its always per bag not per ski pair.

Crystalski have it in their T&Cs

www.crystalski.co.uk/our-policies/terms-and-conditions/transport-information/

If you're planning to take two sets of skis or two snowboards in one bag, you must purchase two ski carriage extras, however the total weight must not exceed 23kg.

i have no idea if they'd check how many skis are in there..

Also Inghams on their charters charge per pair of skis

www.inghams.co.uk/ski-holidays/ski-holiday-essentials/ski-carriage

So it looks like if it's a charter flight via a tour operator they dick you.

If it's a scheduled airline (BA/Easyjet), it's just a bag that you can put as many skis and stuff in as fits in the weight limits.

We've gone with Crystal for years and they've had this rule for a while, but our bags have never been checked. We're careful to make sure they're under 15kg each. We take one ski bag with 2x skis, 2x poles and 1x board boots. Then a board bag with 2x boards and 1x board boots. Both bags packed out with thermals, fleece etc - lightweight but bulky things. Ski boots go in our "main" bags because they are bastard heavy things.

I've decided to mentally frame it as

"You've bought 2 extra bags... have at it woman" . So I'm borrowing another ski bag and it will be one pair of skis per bag, and my bag will be filled up with my boots, extra clothes etc, freeing space in my case of vital things like a box of wine.