Traveling on Southwest Airlines....

bleighty · Since 17 Apr 2006 86 Posts St. Petersburg, FL

Anyone travel w/ Southwest airlines lately? Heading out on a trip to Oregon soon and wanting to get some feedback on their luggage policy. Per the info I got from them you can have 3 50lb bags checked in per passanger. Thats sounds almost too good to be true.

I have an older kite bag.. pre-golf style. Its 160cm long. Plenty of room to fit all my gear (or at least 49lbs of it)..

Just wondering if the size of the bag could be an issue.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

tonyb · Thu Aug 02, 07 10:02 am

We travelled on Southwest back in May, and the 3 bags rule is true! Best bet is to keep the golf bag really light (around 40 lbs) and only put your boards in it and load up the other two. Haven't had any trouble or extra charges with SW. Different story with Continental and I wont fly them again unless I really have to.

Tony

tautologies · Since 24 Aug 2006 602 Posts Oahu Addicted

Vankiter · Since 24 Jun 2007 34 Posts Canvouver

Continential moderately enforces their baggage policy, which is not friendly to kiters. I've flown Continential to SPI and Cozumel. We didn't have any hassle when checking bags out of Portland, but had problems on the way back. We were able to sweet talk our way out of the extra charge at SPI, but had to pay in Cozumel. I wrote a letter to Continential asking why I had to pay for a kiteboard when it is smaller and lighter than my snowboard, which can fly for free...got a standard response back that they continually evaluate their baggage policies, yada, yada.

Vote with your wallet. Fly Southwest. Support airlines that have favorable baggage policies.

tonyb · Thu Aug 02, 07 11:59 am

We flew Continental to Cozumel last Feb. and had to pay extra fees because our Golf bags, that were only 45 lbs each), did not contain ONLY golf clubs. They said if they ONLY had golf clubs and nothing else then there is no extra charge but if we had anything but golf clubs like a kite or a wetsuit or even a sweatshirt in there we would get charged extra. They were a real pain. Even though our stuff was smaller and lighter than some of the true golf gear I saw being loaded they charged an extra $100 per bag to take it.

Carol and I used to travel with a golf bag each where we had our own boards and kites but now we only take one golf bag with all three or 4 boards in it plus some towels and maybe one small kite, keeping it at 45lbs or less, and put everything else into regular looking luggage so we can't be charged extra for our gear.

bleighty · Since 17 Apr 2006 86 Posts St. Petersburg, FL

as my bag is an older, longer bag do you think its size will make a difference?

Bettyboarder · Thu Aug 02, 07 12:08 pm

Phil and I have flow with our golf bags a couple times with Continental, the key is to always say ITS GOLF EQUIPMENT if you cave in and tell them its anything else they will charge you. Rico told them that the glide was skim boards which are free so they did not charge for them either.

Just make sure you read carefully the airlines luggage guidelines usually keep it under 50lbs.

With a older bag you may have issues just read their policy.

I have the naish golf bag from last year and that thing is sweet lots of room, nice rollers and totally looks like a golf bag.

boardrider · Since 05 Apr 2006 1034 Posts Ventura, CA XTreme Poster

No problem. Just flew SW last week w/ oversized " golf bag " - they didn't even weigh it or ask what was in it.