YD does Galapagos - 30.09.07-13.10.07 (Yes, you did read that right!!!)

[Narked@50]

Kathy

Can you put me on the subs bench for this please.

Thanks

James

[SCUBA Chick]

Originally Posted by Narked@50

Kathy

Can you put me on the subs bench for this please.

Thanks

James

Consider it done James...

Cheers

Kathy

[aquaholic]

Originally Posted by Odin

Yes but sharks in the Pacific too!

.. but they tend to avoid Truk Lagoon .. its too busy, poor vis and was totally dynamite fished out except on teh ShinKoko Maru when I went in 1999... If you want sharks you should go to Bikini ;-))

Anke

.. now Galapagos would be great, but my mortgage won't allow a trip like that for the next 20 years...

[jph6969]

Originally Posted by John Gulliver

It would be great if you were right, Chris, but I think you'll find that there is an IATA agreement under which the maximum free luggage allowance is 20 kilos all over the world except to the USA. We only got 20 kilos to Bomaire and we're only getting 20 kilos to Indonesia next October. The two-piece rule has also recently been changed. It's now 2 x 23 kilos instead of 2 x 32 kilos, unfortunately.

Sorry to correct you John, but as someone who books flights all the time there is no IATA agreement as such. Generally most flight operators allow 20KG but there are some airlines that allow an extra 10kg for sporting equipment, Singapore and Brunei are just 2 and I believe that Ibera do also.

If you guy need to check flight prices just give me a call when I get back from my Bali & Lombok tour, (30kg baggage allowance for the hold and 7kg hand baggage ) back from the 18th Feb.

As a guide to you all, I can book flight to Quito this year in Sept for around the £550 + taxes.

Hope you all have a great trip.

Jason

[Lou]

Doesn't really matter what allowance we get to the States , the allowance to the 'Gos is only 20kg, although the excess charges are very low, according to the bumf that arrived this morning from MST

It might be somthing to look into a lock-up/baggage dump in Quito if poss, to leave the "extension trip" stuff there and just take the diving stuff to the 'GOs. However, there may be such a big overlap between the two it wouldn't be worth it.

[triplefin]

Just a thought, how about shipping a few bits over in advance say about a month or two ahead, depending on how long it takes to get there.
I was gonna do this with my last trip to Aus but didnt need to as I found I just about managed with 32Kx2 bags ( go Aus and NZ via LA to get the extra allowance. ). I did need to ship back stuff however with all the bits an pieces I buy when I'm away.
Maybe even a few people could get together or something and ship a boxful, its gotta be cheaper than excess baggage! Just an idea

[jph6969]

Originally Posted by Lou

Doesn't really matter what allowance we get to the States , the allowance to the 'Gos is only 20kg, although the excess charges are very low, according to the bumf that arrived this morning from MST

It might be somthing to look into a lock-up/baggage dump in Quito if poss, to leave the "extension trip" stuff there and just take the diving stuff to the 'GOs. However, there may be such a big overlap between the two it wouldn't be worth it.

Hi Lou,

not sure that is strickly true, on the Aggressor web site they have some info about internal flights which says that AeroGal allow 35kg baggage. Check out this page.
http://www.aggressor.com/frame_pdf.p...Galap-KBYG.pdf

Hope this helps.

Jason

[Lou]

Originally Posted by jph6969

Hi Lou,

not sure that is strickly true, on the Aggressor web site they have some info about internal flights which says that AeroGal allow 35kg baggage. Check out this page.
http://www.aggressor.com/frame_pdf.p...Galap-KBYG.pdf

Hope this helps.

Jason

Well, the info we got this morning def said 20kg of checked in luggage, but the excess is only about $2 per kg, not not a huge thing to worry over. We can ask MST later though

Cheers

LOu

[John Gulliver]

Originally Posted by triplefin

Just a thought, how about shipping a few bits over in advance say about a month or two ahead, depending on how long it takes to get there.
I was gonna do this with my last trip to Aus but didnt need to as I found I just about managed with 32Kx2 bags ( go Aus and NZ via LA to get the extra allowance. ). I did need to ship back stuff however with all the bits an pieces I buy when I'm away.
Maybe even a few people could get together or something and ship a boxful, its gotta be cheaper than excess baggage! Just an idea

Personally, I couldn't manage without any of my dive or u/w photo gear for a couple of months as I dive every week all year round.

[John Gulliver]

Originally Posted by jph6969

Sorry to correct you John, but as someone who books flights all the time there is no IATA agreement as such. Generally most flight operators allow 20KG but there are some airlines that allow an extra 10kg for sporting equipment, Singapore and Brunei are just 2 and I believe that Ibera do also.

Jason

Unfortunately, Jason, my experience is not as positive as yours. Whether or not a certain airline grants an extra concession for sporting equipment seems to depend mainly on the local station manager. For example, Singapore would not allow us (a group of 8 flying from Gothenburg, Sweden) an extra 10 kilos for sporting equipment on a trip to Indonesia a couple of years ago, so we rebooked with Garuda, who did give us the concession. It's a pity that Garuda no longer fly to Europe.
And even if the airline does grant you an extra concession in writing beforehand, you can't always rely on not having to pay for overweight, as evidenced by our experience on a trip to Bonaire last September, when 7 of our group of 25 were bumped off the return flight to Amsterdam and had to fly home via Curacao and Aruba instead of from Aruba. Although each of us had written proof of an extra 6 kilos free luggage, the KLM station manager in Aruba refused to honour it, saying that it was only valid for Amsterdam - Bonaire - Amsterdam, and charged us all KLM's standard charge for sporting equipment.
So, in my experience, it's best not to count on anything over the standard 20 kilos free luggage plus hand luggage on routes other than transatlantic.