Monarch - baggage allowance? baggage as a whole

[Steve NorthwestScuba]

Has anybody used monarch for a diving holiday?

how diving friendly are they.... looking at thier web site you only get 20Kg (just weighed my dive bag - without my clothes in and this is 25Kg) now moving the remainder to hand luggage. and will have to take less clothes.
on their site they do say you can take diving equiptment for £15 each way more for 10Kg!!!!has anybody used them and have a gauge of their reaction to a couple of kg.

now got my dive gear to 20 and hand luggage to 10...... no clothes yet.

on the subject fully - understandably there has to be a limit but what about the bloke next to me that weighs 20Kg more. im not really that bugged but it seems unfair that i will get penalised at £5 a Kg.

why dont divers get the same privalages as surfers/golfers etc

again weight equals fuel but surely there has to be a fairer way to level out the weight per person, especially as the places we travel to make alot of money from our sport and as we use life support equiptment its best to stick to our own for safety sake

[ratcliffe]

I rang their customer services guys and this is what I was told:

1 piece of hand luggage up to 10Kg (there are size restrictions on this, but its on the website)
Hold luggage up to 20Kg

After that its excess baggage at 5 / kg

However, you can purchase a diving allowance which costs £15 quid per sector of the flight (so to Tenerife is 1 sector in each direction) and thats a standard sports equipment allowance with no weight limit that I can see. This is a better option than excess baggage. You book it at check-in.

Hope that helps.

[JasonP]

Just got back with Monarch from the Maldives. On that route, they give you an extra 5 kgs if you show a dive card. But at Gatwick, they didn't ask to see it and didn't say a word about my 24.5kg hold luggage. They also didn't bother to weigh my hand luggage and after I'd gone to all the trouble of taking everything out and putting it in my jacket pockets too

Mind you, they did charge the bloke in front of me on the way back and it was $12 a kilo. Again, my 27kgs bag didn't rate a mention.

Jason

[daveb0000]

Originally Posted by Steve NorthwestScuba

Has anybody used monarch for a diving holiday?

how diving friendly are they.... looking at thier web site you only get 20Kg (just weighed my dive bag - without my clothes in and this is 25Kg) now moving the remainder to hand luggage. and will have to take less clothes.
on their site they do say you can take diving equiptment for £15 each way more for 10Kg!!!!has anybody used them and have a gauge of their reaction to a couple of kg.

now got my dive gear to 20 and hand luggage to 10...... no clothes yet.

on the subject fully - understandably there has to be a limit but what about the bloke next to me that weighs 20Kg more. im not really that bugged but it seems unfair that i will get penalised at £5 a Kg.

why dont divers get the same privalages as surfers/golfers etc

again weight equals fuel but surely there has to be a fairer way to level out the weight per person, especially as the places we travel to make alot of money from our sport and as we use life support equiptment its best to stick to our own for safety sake

we are flying out with monarch in a few weeks time to sharm and have gone through the same baggage allowance process as you are doing, now i have sent e-mails to monarch and they have said that its 15.00 each way for a dive bag and their is no weight limit as such on the bag save the 32kg limit
the advice i have been given is to send a e-mail asking the question about this and then to print out the reply and take that with you to the check-in desk.
if you look at this link it tells you about the limits and doesnt say about any weight restriction on the dive bag.Monarch Airlines > Contact Us

i'm taking all my kit with a inspo and 20kgs of lime and i must confess i still think i might have a bit of worry, but i have the paper work to cover it now, so it should all go well. i will put a post about the baggage allowance and any problems on here when i get back.

[Dive now work never]

I was in the Red Sea at Christmas with a load of YBOD divers, a couple had paid £210 in excess but one guy had come up with a belter. He'd rung the airline and found out how much it was to take a set of golf clubs (£20 I think) bought a hard golf bag case and filled it up with his other dive kit and clothes!

Might be worth a try?

[hopper]

I have previously flown to Tenerife on numerous occasions with Monarch Schedule. They used to allow diving equipement as part of their 'sporting goods' allowed free policy however they have now started charging for this faciltity.

I have never been asked to pay extra for sporting goods (well up to now). I guess I have been lucky, would I recommend trying to get away with it? Not sure, as I say since they introduced the poicy we have switched to BA who offer a free weight allowance for divers but you have to ask and ask again as not all their staff know about this.

I would have thought that Monarch may well inforce the extra charges afterall they have removed the copmlementary inflight meals & drinks in a cost cutting exercise and don't get me started on the extra legroom seat charges. Why the seat to Tenerife cost more than the seat to mainland Spain I have no Idea, I have already paid the extra fuel charge in my ticket price.

[GaryC]

Originally Posted by Steve NorthwestScuba

Has anybody used monarch for a diving holiday?

how diving friendly are they.... looking at thier web site you only get 20Kg (just weighed my dive bag - without my clothes in and this is 25Kg) now moving the remainder to hand luggage. and will have to take less clothes.
on their site they do say you can take diving equiptment for £15 each way more for 10Kg!!!!has anybody used them and have a gauge of their reaction to a couple of kg.

Our club (York) has just used Monarch for a club trip to Gibraltar.

The Rules...
20Kgs Hold Luggage Max. (£5 per Kilo over the 20kgs Limit)
10Kgs Hand Luggage. No Bottles (Glass) in the lockers above.
There is a size restriction will is shown at the airport.
£15 for Diving Equipment. Any weight but no single bag greater than 32kgs. Thats in one direction only so £30 for two directions.
The additional diving allowance is NOT, absolutly NOT garanteed. But they have never known anyone been refused but they maintain the right to do it.

My Experience...
I thought I would get away with it as I measured only 2Kgs over the limit at home. When I got to the Airport (Manchester) they measured the hold luggage at 24kgs. They then charged me £20 for the over weight. I then decided to opt for the diving allowance as I had 2 bags of Hold Luggage ie one diving and one clothes etc. Therefore 15kgs of diving kit is sent on the diving allowance. The 9kgs of cloths goes thorugh as normal hold lugguge. You can pay both directions of diving kit at the outbound airport ie £30 at Manchester or £15 at each end.
My hand lugguage weighted about 9kgs on the way out. But was much larger than they said it should be. It was never measured for size but was checked by the checkin clerk.

My advice. We were originally told that the diving allowance was garanteed. If you find someone that says it is then get their name and details to quote later. And in writing if you can.

If you decide to go for the diving allowance then use it properly. I left loads of kit at home thinking that I would scrape through the 20kgs allowance but didnt. So paid the extra and didnt have all my kit with me. I was also not the only one who did so.

No problem with knives and scissors and batteries when stored in diving kit in hold.

They winged about the weight and then announced that they were light???

Regards

Gary

[tugboat sue]

We have a little trick when we go on holiday.

We have purchased a couple of the cycle bumbags (these are the largest you can buy), put things like torch batteries, 1st stage off regs and any other small heavy items in it, strap it onto your back, cover with a carefully tied jumper or jacket over the top - hey presto an extra 5-7kgs free.
Jason the other half took 7kg out to Mauritius in it. Once passed check in straight into the hand luggage.
Never even been asked what is in them so far.

[Woz]

Went with Monarch to Menorca and paid £15 each way for a "dive bag" which is only limited by the 32kg single bag max weight allowance. I managed to take along 50kg of crap in total.

[AndyJudge]

Went Monarch to Sharm in March & they gave us an extra 10Kg FOC on production of Certs, However they didn't even really bother weighing the gear anyway. Think a lot of it depends on the check in staff