SHIP LUGGAGE
 

Has anyone shipped luggage from the USA to France and if so could you recommend a carrier.

It´s generally very expensive but there are several companies that can handle it for you:

http://www.luggageforward.com/
http://www.luggagefree.com/
https://www.sendmybag.com/
http://www.bagagesrservices.com/
http://www.japtransports.com/

How much luggage do you have?
If only a suitcase or two, it might be best to pay extra luggage fees and take it with you when you depart on the plane.
If a whole lot of furniture is involved, I've had good results with Grospiron International - but there is a lot of red tape involved.

We need more info -- is this just luggage (and if so, for a vacation just how much luggage do you need?? ). If more like freight -- furniture, household goods, the answer would be different

I want to send our 3 suitcases to our hotel in France rather than my having to deal with them at the airports.

If you have too much luggage to get through an airport . . . you have too much luggage.

Janis you are so helpful.

The Janis speaks truth.

It will be cheaper to just check your luggage and cope with it. There isn't that much you have to do with luggage at an airport really. Check it. Collect it at the other end, stick it on a trolley out to whatever your next form of transport is.
How many of you are travelling? If only two, then take less luggage, if more than two, then use wheeled luggage and share the towing of them.

Janis was indeed helpful. She's right. Unless you're moving to Europe or visiting royalty you shouldn't need anything more than you can easily carry, store, and move about with.

Another to say, Janis has it right.
Will you also ship it home? Is this easy to do from wherever you are?
Are you only going one place--how will you get it to your car or train to move on? Really?

I looked into this recently. Belgium to Sweden was 58 euro for a suitcase - 3/4 days. More expensive express. This was with sentmybag.com. Intercontinental is much more expensive, 350/bag easily.

3 to 4 days, you'd have to allow for 4 days if you want to be sure to have it in time. It'll probably get to your hotel before you - they have to take delivery and store it.

I'd think there is more chance of you suitcase going missing or arriving late this way, compared to just checking the luggage. For the difference in cost you can book a limo from the airport...

I haven't done it, though,

When I moved to Italy, I took as much as I could on the flight, because that was the cheapest, even with the excess baggage fees. My new husband was with me, and, forewarned to travel to the wedding with carry-on only, he also took the maximum number of checked bags back to Italy.

You can get a car service to take you to the hotel; they will also help with the luggage. If you can't even get the bags to the arrivals hall without help, you can get a porter to meet you at the baggage carousel. It will all be cheaper than shipping luggage.

I do agree with the others, though. I have traveled all over the world, for as much as a month at a time, and have never needed more than one small suitcase.

I'd check all your bags, pay the excess baggage fees, and then you will be assured that they will be there where you want them.
You might get a hernia, but that probably can't be avoided, if you insist on taking so much luggage.

It could be stache has a good reason for the inquiry - a bad back, bum knee, or even a disability of some kind - which makes handling luggage much more difficult. Even so, airports offer services to handle luggage for such people.

I would expect there to be a much lower chance of late or lost luggage using the airline than any shipping service.

Your responses are all quite interesting.

All of you are telling me;
how much luggage I should bring
that I must carry it
that shipping is too expensive

But you don't know
my age
my physical condition
my financial circumstances

It seems that you are giving advice because you just want to post things... but you don't have any answers to my questions.

I'll ask elsewhere, thank you.

You HAVE received answers -- that 1) it is more expensive to ship. 2) it takes longer. 3) If you can't handle your luggage there are services to handle luggage in airports, 4) a link to a shipping company (which should have been sendmybag.com )

In our defense, Sarastro did provide the names of 5 service providers as you requested. And since this is a travel advice forum, experienced travelers are going to give their advice.

The more you tell us about yourself, your trip, and your preferences, the better we can tailor our advice to you. We only saw that you wanted to ship 3 pieces of luggage to France. That's not much to go on. If you want to keep other details private, which is understandable, then you'll get more generic and perhaps less applicable advice.

<<But you don't know
my age
my physical condition
my financial circumstances>>

Uh, if any of that is relevant, then PUT IT IN THE FIRST POST. If not, then no one knows why you would want to have that amount of stuff with you.

You cannot blame the forum for its supposedly unhelpful advice if you fail to provide the information necessary to help. On its own, your request seems daft. In context, it could be completely reasonable.

I expect if you pose the identical question elsewhere you will get very similar answers.

I can't lift or carry more than about 15 lbs at the moment and have mobility issues. My financial circumstances are such that I might want to ship luggage if the cost is in the $125 per bag range. I am in my late 60s.

This is a true description of my current circumstances and is the kind of information people on travel forums need to help someone.

The reality is shipping costs from the US to Europe are very much higher than $125 per bag, but can be easily arranged.

My advice to myself is to arrange help at the airports, which I legitmately need. I have been met by a wheelchair or buggy and have been helped with luggage and taken to the meeting point for a private car or to the taxi rank. This is not brain surgery and is easily arranged ahead if time (emphasis on that) with the airline.

In good health, I would never impose on the airline, would and do pack as lightly as possible but certainly I could get one or more 50lb bags off the carousel, on to a trolley and out the door. Shipping, imo, just means another set of logistics to deal with unless one's personal secretary does it for one, in which case one probably wouldn't be inquiring on a public forum.

So,in summary, if your situation is similar to mine, contact the airline, pay the excess baggage fee if you are over the limit and arrange for assistance. I have received excellent support from BA, Virgin, Southwest, easyJet, Delta.

<<I'll ask elsewhere, thank you.>>

Or you could look at the 5 links given in the very first reply here.

As I look at the replies, two people answered the question posed. Many of you provided "sage" but obviously irrelevant advice to the poster: travel light, rely on others at the airport, etc. And, then, several of you tried to justify your non-responsive response in later posts. Janis, in an attempt to summarize, provided 4 so-called answers to the initial question, but only one (#4) was. I can certainly understand why the OP might want to turn to another forum!

What forum do you suggest that is more helpful than Fodor's?

OP does have a point.

She asked for recommendations on a carrier. She did NOT ask if she SHOULD do it.

First respondent answered the questions, and she should have provided thanks for that.

Some advised taking it with on the aircraft as it would be cheaper - OK, can useful advice.

Those who told her she was packing too much - not useful.

I often traveled with 2-3 suitcases back in the day when I traveled Business Class and you could, and I was on business travelling to 6 different countries with different climates. Would I do it again - NEVER. Would I castigate someone else for doing it - NEVER.

I agree that the OP did not ask for most of the advice they received.

But I also think if they did not want opinions (they are not a new poster here, they know how these forum work) they could have just looked up the information themselves online.

Cathinjoetown - there are services that will pickup your luggage at the airport and forward it to your Paris address.

Along with the companies already mentioned, take a look at:

https://www.bagagesrservices.com/
http://www.lebagager.com/

Rather than shipping your luggage from the USA to your hotel, these companies simply pickup your luggage at CDG/ORY and make sure it reaches your hotel without your needing to carry it. Upon airport arrival, you can explore Paris without your luggage and at hotel checkin time, your luggage will already be there waiting for you.

The SNCF also provides such a service which can be arranged at the same time you purchase train tickets.

Thank you, Sarastro, very good to know although up to now the airport assistance arranged through the airline has been enough, but there could come a time....

Fortunately, when traveling with my husband, he can handle our luggage. He's not as big a fan of Paris as I am so when we lived near Toulouse I made the trip on my own several times.

I can't say enough good things about helpful everyone has always been, UK and US airports as well. On those short Paris trips, I just had a carry-on but was very grateful for the wheelchair assistance.