Boot Carriage!

[nenehooo]

We snowboard every year and take our own equipment - have just checked the luggage t&cs on the Crystal app and it says boots must be within hold luggage. We’ve never put our boots in our luggage - always in our snowboard bags, along with our helmets, trousers etc.
Has anyone travelled recently and been fine doing it this way? We’re going to Finland so have to pack more than we usually would for France as it’s so much colder - don’t really want to have to take up suitcase space with boots if we don’t have to!

[TheTripThatWasnt]

Are you sure? I went with Crystal last week and took them as hand luggage. I'm sure it said on the blurb that it was fine as long as they were in a bag which met the dimensions (and under 10kg). I bought new bags (our boot bags were too wide) and we took them with no issue at all. Loads of people on the flight had bags way bigger (and definitely over the dimensions on their website) with not an eyelid batted anywhere.

Here's the page on the Crystal site where it says it was fine (we flew with TUI so I clicked on that link)

[TheTripThatWasnt]

If you do have to put your boots in your main luggage, just put the corresponding volume of stuff that you have to take out into your hand luggage! We did it that way a few years ago when flying with someone who definitely said no to boots (but I can't remember who the carrier was then).

If you're trying to get more stuff in your case, use vacuum bags to compress everything - makes a huge difference to volume. You don't need anything to get the air out other than the ability to roll/squeeze them, so it's easy to pack on return too.

[nenehooo]

@TheTripThatWasnt

Are you sure? I went with Crystal last week and took them as hand luggage. I'm sure it said on the blurb that it was fine as long as they were in a bag which met the dimensions (and under 10kg). I bought new bags (our boot bags were too wide) and we took them with no issue at all. Loads of people on the flight had bags way bigger (and definitely over the dimensions on their website) with not an eyelid batted anywhere.

Here's the page on the Crystal site where it says it was fine (we flew with TUI so I clicked on that link)

I totally didn’t see the bit about hand luggage on the app. And if you scroll further down it says that boots need to go in the hold! Hence the confusion 🤣
our board bags have pockets specifically for boots as well. Which we will stuff with clothes if we end up putting boots in our suitcase. It just seems unnecessary and I don’t ever remember seeing it being declared so prominently before. Maybe it’s just because I’ve never used the app or checked the travel info before!

[nenehooo]

@TheTripThatWasnt yes that’s the plan. I think I found the vacuum pack trick on here the first time we went to Finland - game changer!

[TheTripThatWasnt]

How odd! I didn't see the bit about boots not going in a ski bag, but we don't have skis, just boots.

I can't see why boots can't go in hand baggage as long as they're within the dimensions/weight specified. And the airline would never know what's in your bag anyway. But their 2 statements are somewhat contradictory!

[RhubarbFairy]

I flew to Oslo at New Year and had my boots in my hand luggage. I've had them in my hand luggage for Austria and Germany, too. All different airlines.

[PuttingDownRoots]

I think that means that you can't take a boot bag as extra hold luggage. So you can book a ski/snowboard in... but not an extra boot bag.

[nenehooo]

@PuttingDownRoots

I think that means that you can't take a boot bag as extra hold luggage. So you can book a ski/snowboard in... but not an extra boot bag.

Oh you could be right… I didn’t read it like that at all. Thanks for pointing it out!