Anyone have any good/bad experiences with particular freight companies when shipping between UK and US?

Thought I'd ask on this forum as I'm assuming a good number of you have already moved or are about to! I have an interview at the US Embassy later this month (at last!!) and, seeing as I'm being positive, I need to start thinking of how I'm going to get my stuff over to the states (to Ohio to be exact).

I'll only be shipping a modest amount of stuff: clothes, a few books, general items. I have a few musical instruments which are somewhat fragile and of some value. Other than that, no special demands.

Any recommended companies or warnings? Any other useful tips?

Thanks in advance!

I pretty much shipped the same type of stuff as you (besides the instruments) and actually opted to pay the excess luggage charges on American Airlines instead of shipping it using a different carrier. I had clothes, books, DVD's and most of my books. I checked 5 large bags (paying excess baggage charges for 3 of them) and it cost me 170GBP to get them all the way from London Heathrow to St. Louis via Chicago. The only item I shipped seperately was my bike and I used UPS for that.

I weighed up the pros and cons and decided that the slightly higher charge for using American Airlines was worth it to have all of my belongings arrive in St. Louis at the same time as me. Obviously airlines fees will vary and you still have to make sure that the bags don't exceed the maximum weight allowed but even with those restrictions it might be worth looking into !!

Mark

Yeah that's a good point, I may be thinking too grand (which'll end up costing me two grand no doubt )

Did you choose American Airlines because they were the cheapest excess baggage charge by any chance? I should start checking what the total weight would come to.

(Anyone else reading) I'm still very interested in any freight suggestions by the way.

I was a frequent flier on AA so didn't really consider any other airlines because of that. American airlines customer service couldn't give me a straight answer regarding their excess baggage policies but they were able to put me through to their baggage handlers at heathrow who obviously knew all the rules, regulations and more importantly the prices !!

A lot of people mention Excessbaggage.com but when I priced up with them it was going to work out MUCH more expensive for the amount of stuff I was taking. It was also really hard to work out the size of container that I would have needed for all my stuff.

As an aside, if I'd wanted to I could have boxed up my bike and checked that in lieu of another piece of checked luggage. That might be something to bear in mind for your instruments because you might be able to check a properly cased instrument as a piece of checked luggage and then have all your clothes etc.. as excess.

Mark

Cool, I'll check out the link I'm very interested that you could check the bicycle in as luggage .. would it not exceed the maximum size requirements, or could you have got round that by partly disassembling it?

The instruments I want to take are guitars. My wife has actually transported one as hand luggage before now, so I know I can do that, but I have three of them to ship. I assumed they were too big for the hold. Maybe not?

Most airlines will accept a bike that is properly packed in a bike box. You can buy bike transporting cases from most bike shops but i just went down to my local bike shop and for free they gave me one of the boxes that they receive new bikes in from their suppliers. You just have to take off the pedals, wheels and swing the handlebars either through 90 degrees or remove them completely. Drop the frame into the box ( I wrapped mine in bubblewrap), slide in the wheels, pedals etc.. and then tape up the box. As long as you use a regular sized bike box most airlines will take it as a checked piece of luggage. I think UPS charged me about 60GBP to ship my bike and it took about 5 days door to door.

I would imagine that a guitar in a case would also be a suitable subsititute for another piece of checked luggage. I think that airlines are more concerned with weight than dimensions so as long as it doesnt exceed the 32kgs (or whatever it is) for an individual piece of luggage you should be good to go !!

Mark

Ok thanks mate. I believe there are max dimensions but I could be lucky .. time to get on to those helpful aeroplane people