Paying airline fee for checking bags might be your cheapest option. (Image: Jim Glab)
Most frequent travelers reading this rarely check bags when on the road for business– and if they do, fees are likely waived due to elite status or credit card.
But for holiday trips home, bag contents frequently expand to include winter coats, formal wear, gifts and plenty of other extraneous items– especially if kids are involved.
Shipping bags via FEDEX or UPS sounds like a great idea until you look at rates. Shipping luggage is not cheap– or fast. To get rates that come close airline fees, you must ship via ground which can take three or five days to get across the country. And distance makes a big difference when it comes to rates. Plus there’s the time cost of schlepping bags to a FEDEX or UPS facility.
To test this, I checked with FEDEX to determine how much it would cost to ship a standard carry on-sized piece of luggage (10″x 14″x 22″) weighing 25 lbs. from a FEDEX store in Atlanta to New York City, Boulder, Colo. and San Francisco.
Then I compared it to airline baggage fees.
Regional- Atlanta to New York City:
$185 each way – Standard overnight delivery
$90 each way – Two-day delivery
$30 each way — end of second day home delivery
$27 airline checked bag fee (each way)
Long distance- Atlanta to Boulder, Colo.:
$198 each way – Standard overnight delivery
$132 each way – Two-day delivery
$33 each way – Three-day (ground) home delivery
$25 airline checked bag fee (each way)
Transcon- Atlanta to San Francisco:
$200 each way – Standard overnight delivery
$145 each way – Two-day delivery
$40 each way- End of fourth day (ground) delivery
$25 airline checked bag fee (each way)
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Since major airlines charge $25 for the first checked bag (except Southwest) and $35 for the second would you pay to ship your bag, or just check it with the airline and hope for the best?
Please leave your comments below.
For me? I learned long ago how to live out of a carry on! If on the rare occasion I have to check a bag, the fee would likely be waived due to my elite status.
What about you?
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No idea whether 1st class ground shipping still exists– I use parcel post. I shipped a box within the last couple of months so it’s still around. Again, the drawback is that it takes 5-7 days to arrive; if you’re good with that give it a try.
I paid around US$400 to ship one suitcase from Singapore to Birmingham, Alabama last March via the Singapore postal service. Arranged by my two Four Seasons concierges (who got $75 more in tips), it took a good two months traveling by ship via China, Korea and Los Angeles. USPS ferried it cross country to my door. I’m still trying to decide if it was worth it: expensive and SLOW!
Check out this site, I use it all the time in the EU – https://www.sendmybag.com/
I think its a reseller of DHL/Fedex. It worked like a charm for me a number of times
If you think this is bad for domestic shipping check into overseas shipping like from China to the US. The Chinese postal is reliable and much cheaper, but slower. Anything else like UPS can be very expensive.
Potcake, I’m confused. I thought USPS ended doing ground shipping — I used to sent my clothes in advance to hotels (and sent back dirty clothes to home) — visit nearby post office and ship it from there. Over a year ago, they stopped it — told me I must use Priority Mail (2 or 3 days). I asked what happened to first class ground shipping — most of the USPS Representatives said they don’t know why.
Unless I misunderstood you — so now I can ship by ground in advance? Lately, I’ve been using FedEx Ground for shipping (could love to use UPS but their UPS Store add fee to the ground shipping cost). Thanks in advance.
Try USPS parcel post. I typically ship a box weighing about 15 pounds and roughly 2x2x2 (whatever’s handy) around the holidays for about $25 cross country. The disadvantage is that it takes about 5-7 days to arrive. Also, if travelling to spend the holidays with relatives, save a step and have your online purchases shipped directly there.