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Sherpa2020

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I joined earlier this year and have since travelled to the USA, England, Scotland and Germany. Last time I travelled with my wife and it was a mix of business and pleasure. We had two large suitcases and a work case checked as well as hand luggage. It was a pain arguing at nearly every about our luggage allowance! Not to mention lugging it around. Some of the old places we stayed in Scotland had narrow stair cases and no lift. So you wonder why I call myself a Sherpa..

I am now heading back to the US fro three weeks and taking carry on only. Some of you may laugh but I feel free already!

I welcome any tips you may have!
 
There are plenty of benefits of going Hand Luggage Only! aside from the obvious of having less to lug around, you're less likely to have your bags lost, and the chances of being shifted onto earlier/later flights vastly improves if you don't have bags that also need to be shifted about.
 
I sometimes travel to the US with hand luggage only, if I get too much extra I also sometimes post it home (US Postal Service provides free boxes and postage is cheap) which may also be more reliable than checked luggage at present.
 
BAM1748 said:
I sometimes travel to the US with hand luggage only, if I get too much extra I also sometimes post it home (US Postal Service provides free boxes and postage is cheap) which may also be more reliable than checked luggage at present.
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I take a packable duffel bag with me, that I can load up with goodies and check that in if I'm "bulging" on the way home.

Is shipping to Australia from the US reasonable? I've always thought shipping ANYTHING from there to here was quite expensive. Certainly, online retailers make it seem that way.
 
Sherpa2020 said:
We purchased a cheap suit case to bring some of the extras. The duffle is a great idea.
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Yep you can get cheap thin ones that fold down very small, or more robust ones with sturdier material that can cost a couple hundred's of dollars, but take up more room.

Something like the Caribee Hawk is good for being down the middle - note this would have to be checked in:
hawk60-gearbag_web.jpg

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Dr Ralph said:
Things have changed!

$45US to ship a 2kg package recently from US to Aus.
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Nope.
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Yep that's what I thought! I usually keep my US shopping for when I'm physically there and can bring home.
 
9kg is about 100 bucks.
SeatBackForward said:
I take a packable duffel bag with me, that I can load up with goodies and check that in if I'm "bulging" on the way home.

Is shipping to Australia from the US reasonable? I've always thought shipping ANYTHING from there to here was quite expensive. Certainly, online retailers make it seem that way.
Click to expand...

9kg is about 100 bucks, so in the scheme of overseas travel it's nothing.
 
Matt_01 said:
I normally only travel as HLO, I have off to the US and CA in a couple of weeks for a month and only planning on taking my carry on and backpack.
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Hi Matt I am new here - what is HLO? I am travelling economy and have a 9kg rolling duffle ( Osprey 40 ) and a computer back pack.
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Hand Luggage Only? I will get the swing of this soon..
 
Sherpa2020 said:
Hi Matt I am new here - what is HLO? I am travelling economy and have a 9kg rolling duffle ( Osprey 40 ) and a computer back pack.
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Hand Luggage Only? I will get the swing of this soon..
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HLO = Hand Luggage Only, many acronyms often used on AFF 😉
 
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Sherpa2020 said:
I am now heading back to the US fro three weeks and taking carry on only. Some of you may laugh but I feel free already!
Click to expand...
I know the feeling! So much easier to get around once you're there. We travelled HLO to Europe last June - I made the mistake of lazily checking my carry-on size bag just for the leg on the QLink Dash 8 to Sydney. 'What could go wrong?' I thought. Well, after a 50-minute direct flight to SYD it took me nearly two hours to get my bag back! Never again haha

If anyone wants a recommendation for a decent intercontinental carry-on bag made in Australia, I suggest having a look at the Fuego by Mont. It's working well for me.
 
The Flying Schwartz said:
I know the feeling! So much easier to get around once you're there. We travelled HLO to Europe last June - I made the mistake of lazily checking my carry-on size bag just for the leg on the QLink Dash 8 to Sydney. 'What could go wrong?' I thought. Well, after a 50-minute direct flight to SYD it took me nearly two hours to get my bag back! Never again haha

If anyone wants a recommendation for a decent intercontinental carry-on bag made in Australia, I suggest having a look at the Fuego by Mont. It's working well for me.
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With the Dash 8 you can get the a better result by taking it as hand luggage and then surrendering it as you board for "premium hand luggage". They take it directly from you on the tarmac and load into the hold, and when you arrive in Sydney, you collect it on the tarmac at the back of the plane. That way, you don't have to carry it, and you also don't have to wait for the baggage carousel. Just be sure you have your valuables, computer etc with you so they don't end up in the hold!
 
Do this often. Great service.

Seat0B said:
With the Dash 8 you can get the a better result by taking it as hand luggage and then surrendering it as you board for "premium hand luggage". They take it directly from you on the tarmac and load into the hold, and when you arrive in Sydney, you collect it on the tarmac at the back of the plane. That way, you don't have to carry it, and you also don't have to wait for the baggage carousel. Just be sure you have your valuables, computer etc with you so they don't end up in the hold!
Click to expand...
 
BAM1748 said:
I sometimes travel to the US with hand luggage only, if I get too much extra I also sometimes post it home (US Postal Service provides free boxes and postage is cheap) which may also be more reliable than checked luggage at present.
Click to expand...
BAM1748, I'd love to know how you get 'cheap postage' to Aus from the US?!?! MY sister mails me a men's shoebox-sized parcel for Christmas and it's STUPID expensive!!
Unfortunately, they've dropped the allowance for AUS/USA (I'm now a pleb). I typically find it's cheaper to take an extra bag home but last month they wanted ~$200 for a 2nd bag (used to be ~$120) but that was still WAYYY cheaper than posting it.
 
Dr4manyspecies said:
BAM1748, I'd love to know how you get 'cheap postage' to Aus from the US?!?! MY sister mails me a men's shoebox-sized parcel for Christmas and it's STUPID expensive!!
Unfortunately, they've dropped the allowance for AUS/USA (I'm now a pleb). I typically find it's cheaper to take an extra bag home but last month they wanted ~$200 for a 2nd bag (used to be ~$120) but that was still WAYYY cheaper than posting it.
Click to expand...

I guess it's all relative, I think it's cheap and gets it off my hands when I'm driving around the back blocks and visit a post office and post it home, they even help me tape it up. I even posted home a box of gilsonite (a black rock like coal but used in paint pigments) and thought is was a bargain compared to the effort of carrying it home on the plane.
 
My wife and I have travelled for leisure with HLO for the last 15+ years, in fact I can't even remember when the last time we checked anything in. We don't go during the northern hemisphere's winter, mostly Summer and Autumn, and of course Asia is pretty much all year round. It is important to check the airlines' CO limits which vary quite considerably. On our last trip in September we flew with Qantas (pretty generous in PE with 10+kgs but nobody seems to care about it), BA (no real limit in Bus, just as long as you can get it into the overhead locker), Transavia (pay a bit extra to 'book' your CO with 10kgs limit), Olympic Airlines (supposed to be 8 kgs but was never checked or enforced), Aegean Airline (very generous at 13kgs) and Easyjet (pay the extra for the larger CO). We travelled for 4.5 weeks and with only CO and a small backpack, plus a suit bag for the first half of the trip. We just love the freedom it gives us to just walk off and out, plus, amazingly there are shops in other countries to cover for anything forgotten.
 

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