Janster

My husband and I may be moving back to the US for a job and if we do will have excess baggage. When we moved to the UK we paid extra for excess baggage on BA, but since then the cost has gone up so each bag is now 120 USD /60 GBP.

Has anyone ever shipped from the UK to US? What company did you use? I have a friend who shipped from the US (west coast) to the UK and his things took SEVEN MONTHS!!! That is a bit longer than I would like, so I am keen to find reliable, faster service. Many thanks

ira

Hi J,

Check UPS, FedEx and DHL.

I think that it will cost more than $120/bag if you want it delivered by air.

Dukey

Good advice from Ira.

His things "took seven months" because he was too cheap to pay for a faster service.

Janster

When we moved to the UK I checked the companies suggested and they were prohibitively more expensive than paying extra for excess baggage. While BA's excess charge has incresed, I know paying UPS, etc would still be more money for less volume.

What I am hoping to find is a company that ships peoples things when they are moving house, rather than just shipping some smaller packages. TO be fair, not all companies take 7 months to ship, I think his was really cheap and thus that was the reason for the long shipping time, but I am sure there are companies out there somewhere between really cheap and super slow and really expensive and super quick!

Tempusfugit

Try this website
http://compare-international-movers.com/

I've done three international moves of house hold effects and am currently waiting for one oiece of furniture to arrive. As you note fast is more expensive. The oiece of furniture I am waiting for was picked up from the its location in February and is still in transit - because I was in no hurry - so it is coming by sea and is probably waiting until a container gets full.

clevelandbrown

I think people who ship household goods overseas just accept that it will take weeks or even months for their goods to arrive. First, there is the problem of the shipping company finding a ship that will cover your route. Its not uncommon that the ship they find will make many intermediate stops. Second, household goods take a lot of work to handle, and a lot of space in the ship, space that could probably be more profitably used to haul corn, etc.

I know years ago the military would take charge of transferring members hhg, but they rarely did the shipping themselves; they knew who the best shipping companies were. I suspect the state department operates the same way. Perhaps you could contact a US consulate and explain what you need, and ask if they have any recommendations. Any expatriate organizations or groups may also be a good source of information.

Janster

Thanks for the suggestions. An expat website might be the best place to start. We don't have any furniture to ship as we had moved into a furnished flat, just about 3 large boxes, not much bigger than a large size suitcase. Most of the items in them are clothing (winter coats, sweaters, etc) The rest, such as a few dishes, etc I don't care when we get, but I need my winter stuff before it gets cold in NYC!! I will check out all suggestions

pittpurple

Hi Janster...

I suggest checking out the website www.uk-yankee.com - it's an expat website that was invaluable when we were planning our move to the UK from the US. We didn't have much stuff to ship and ended up using UPS, it took about 6 weeks I think? We brought 7 suitcases with us on the flight for $100 each extra suitcase which was cheaper than shipping the boxes we had my dad send later.

I would consider bringing your winter clothes as excess baggage and shipping the rest - when we looked into it, there was a distinct lack of options between expensive/fast or cheap/slow - as the past posters said, the cheaper options involve waiting for containers on ships to be filled which can take ages.

Good luck!

Janster

After searching and getting quotes, I am thinking the excess baggage charge is the best way to go. We don't have much extra so the cost of shipping by sea is not that much less and waiting for containers to be filled could take a while as our amount does not add much. On the flip side, we have enough excess bags that getting to the airport will be a hassle, but we did it before, we can do it again!! Thanks to all