Have you ever Fed Exed your luggage?

[Cozzette2]

So, my boss does this all the time in his travels. He Fed Exes his luggage to his hotel room and it is waiting for him. He has never lost a bag or had to hassel with it on the plane. Has anyone done this? Is it any cheaper than paying for the air fee? Is the only benefit that it is probably going to make it to your destination? Also, when sending it back home, is there a Fed Ex at the airport? It sounds like a hassel to me. Anyone tried it?

Kris

[Coral]

I would not recommend doing this to Canada. I used UPS and sent some items to a hotel in Canada and it ended up being hung up in customs and I ended up "having to pay more" to get the item through customs. I probably spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get this through customs over several days.

[Colo Cruiser]

So, my boss does this all the time in his travels. He Fed Exes his luggage to his hotel room and it is waiting for him. He has never lost a bag or had to hassel with it on the plane. Has anyone done this? Is it any cheaper than paying for the air fee? Is the only benefit that it is probably going to make it to your destination? Also, when sending it back home, is there a Fed Ex at the airport? It sounds like a hassel to me. Anyone tried it?

Kris

 

 

Princess has their own exclusive program for this using DHL Worldwide.

[Coral]

Princess has their own exclusive program for this using DHL Worldwide.

 

Here is the program: http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na862

 

I wonder how that works with DHL no longer doing domestic shipments. Maybe they do?

[Colo Cruiser]

Here is the program: http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na862

 

I wonder how that works with DHL no longer doing domestic shipments. Maybe they do?

 

Personaly I have never liked DHL, used to be Airborne Express. :(

[Coral]

Personaly I have never liked DHL, used to be Airborne Express. :(

 

I used to love Airborne Express. Maybe because we used to get great rates compared to Fedex and UPS.

 

I just looked at DHL domestic and they no longer do domestic shipping. I wonder what Princess is doing now for domestic shipments.

[Colo Cruiser]

I used to love Airborne Express. Maybe because we used to get great rates compared to Fedex and UPS.

 

I just looked at DHL domestic and they no longer do domestic shipping. I wonder what Princess is doing now for domestic shipments.

 

Very interesting, I didn't know that. Anyone know?

[cruisegal101]

There is a service called carrymyluggage.com that is based in the UK but they do US, EU, and International luggage services.

[stugots]

Princess uses DHL. Depending on itinerary, the steep charges are worth the convenience. We sailed on The QM2 from Southampton to Brooklyn twice. OUr trip included some time in Italy and the Midlands. Cost from CA to Southampton and from Brooklyn to CA was enough to buy another seat on the airlines, but having the luggage show up in our stateroom and on our front porch was well worth it.

 

I recommend a large hard sided suitcase and do your paper work early. Then enjoy the trip without a bunch of heavy pieces to cart around through airports.

[Crown Prince]

I would not recommend doing this to Canada. I used UPS and sent some items to a hotel in Canada and it ended up being hung up in customs and I ended up "having to pay more" to get the item through customs. I probably spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get this through customs over several days.

 

CORAL:

If you think that is bad, don't ship anything to Oz. Some of the Princess luggage has been there for 6 months. Customs is Naughty.

Therefore, Princess no longer will ship to Oz.

 

;);):eek:;);)

[caribill]

So, my boss does this all the time in his travels. He Fed Exes his luggage to his hotel room and it is waiting for him. He has never lost a bag or had to hassel with it on the plane. Has anyone done this? Is it any cheaper than paying for the air fee? It is significantly more expensive that paying any airline baggage fees. Is the only benefit that it is probably going to make it to your destination? The benefit is that you don't have to deal with it on your plane trip. Also, when sending it back home, is there a Fed Ex at the airport? It sounds like a hassel to me. Anyone tried it?

Kris

 

See above in red.

 

I bet your boss had the company pay for his bags. Does he do this when he is on his vacation too and he would have to pay?

 

A couple of the restrictions on the Princess program are that you basically can only ship clothing (as that can more easily go through customs) and that you ship it a week in advance.

[ggprincess2004]

Fed Ex ground is not significantly more expensive than airline baggage fees, in fact, it can be less......not overnight or 48 hour service, but ground service within the US. If you can get your act together in time to get the package off, so it will be waiting at your hotel, doing so makes sense - for those that fly in early to the departure port.

 

We are planning to do this with some of the things we will want on our upcoming 62 dayer.....one way to get heavier items to our port without a hassle.

[CruzVinnieCruz]

Fed Ex ground is not significantly more expensive than airline baggage fees, in fact, it can be less......not overnight or 48 hour service, but ground service within the US. If you can get your act together in time to get the package off, so it will be waiting at your hotel, doing so makes sense - for those that fly in early to the departure port.

 

We are planning to do this with some of the things we will want on our upcoming 62 dayer.....one way to get heavier items to our port without a hassle.

 

I just checked FedEx ground on a 50 lb package using large suitcase dimensions and the price to ship from my house in Pa to the hotel in Florida we will using next Spring was almost $60.00. A 100 lb package was a little over $92.00. Since we keep everything under the 50 lb mark anyway most airlines would be cheaper even if you are paying to check all of the luggage. I did a quick check of a couple of the major airlines and for two pieces of checked luggage the total price is right around $50.00 one way.

[Coral]

See above in red.

 

I bet your boss had the company pay for his bags. Does he do this when he is on his vacation too and he would have to pay?

 

A couple of the restrictions on the Princess program are that you basically can only ship clothing (as that can more easily go through customs) and that you ship it a week in advance.

 

I think it also comes down to fedex rates. My company used to allow us to ship (personally) through them with their fedex rates and they were significantly lower (I want to say 40% lower). They no longer let us do this. It was great while it lasted.

[JPRLHR]

I just looked at DHL domestic and they no longer do domestic shipping. I wonder what Princess is doing now for domestic shipments.

 

They could well be using UPS as that's who is now handling DHL's deliveries in the US (except gateway cities like NY & LA etc) from overseas. DHL were losing $1mil per day in the US..!!

 

There are other companies who specialise in passenger baggage movements. One of them is an affiliate of the company I work for and again are based in London although they operate in the US. Their choice of carrier is Fedex. http://www.firstluggage.com/

[Colo Cruiser]

They could well be using UPS as that's who is now handling DHL's deliveries in the US (except gateway cities like NY & LA etc) from overseas. DHL were losing $1mil per day in the US..!!

 

There are other companies who specialise in passenger baggage movements. One of them is an affiliate of the company I work for and again are based in London although they operate in the US. Their choice of carrier is Fedex. http://www.firstluggage.com/

 

Wonder how much they are loosing international? Gotta be just as bad.

[JPRLHR]

Wonder how much they are loosing international? Gotta be just as bad.

 

The big drain on them was the US but they are still bleeding heavily. I've had figures thrown at me by DHL employees (supposedly in the know) but they vary considerably. However, even the most conservative of those figues was still a significant amount of money.

 

They are absolutely giving rates away right now to any companies with significant volumes in the European and Far East markets as they try and fill space on half empty aircraft.

[Cozzette2]

I just checked FedEx ground on a 50 lb package using large suitcase dimensions and the price to ship from my house in Pa to the hotel in Florida we will using next Spring was almost $60.00. A 100 lb package was a little over $92.00. Since we keep everything under the 50 lb mark anyway most airlines would be cheaper even if you are paying to check all of the luggage. I did a quick check of a couple of the major airlines and for two pieces of checked luggage the total price is right around $50.00 one way.

 

 

Thanks everyone for your ideas and imput. I don't know. I am not sure it is any cheaper to send it on and if it has to go ground I will be without half my wardrobe [:D] for a couple of weeks.

I guess I just have to decide if not hasseling with the luggage at the airport is worth it. Thanks, Kris

[SingerEsq]

Thanks everyone for your ideas and imput. I don't know. I am not sure it is any cheaper to send it on and if it has to go ground I will be without half my wardrobe [:D] for a couple of weeks.

I guess I just have to decide if not hasseling with the luggage at the airport is worth it. Thanks, Kris

 

For me, it would depend on the cruise and the itinerary. When we got off the Ruby in August after almost 2 weeks to spend our final 3 days in Venice, we just slapped our heads and wondered why we had not used Princess's valet service to send our big bags home and keep our rollaways. Then, it would have been worth it. Lugging those bigs bags around Venice was no fun, esp. when one of my wheels started disintegrating in route. Then we get to our hotel, whic was a 4 flight walk-up ... no elevator. Quaint.

 

Cross country, we probably wouldn't do it ... just pack lighter. But if we ever do a European cruise again, most definitely ... at least on the back end of it. The front end, you're a little more tolerant b/c you're so excited to be going.

[AUNTIE24]

I checked in to it for a trip to Alaska out of Seattle, Princess will not accepet the bags because they have no place to store them till the day of your cruise. The Princess luggage service is very expensive and you can only send clothes so you still have to checks a bag at the airport with your liguids (perfume, aftershave, sun tan lotion) and I am not sure if they would take shoes so you would have them also in your luggage. The only way that would work is staying at a hotel before the cruise, as someone sugested.:)

[FritzG]

We used Princess Luggage Valet to send one bag home to NE Ohio from Barcelona after our spring TA on the Ruby. It cost $385 for under 50lb., and they used DHL. I thought DHL wasn't in the US anymore, but it was a DHL truck. It also took over three weeks for the case to arrive when they promised 5-8 working days. The cost was very high, and afterward we realized that we overpaid for the items we sent home. We were doing a N. Italy and London land tour post-cruise, and we didn't want to lug a third suitcase in a rental car for over a week. We wouldn't do it again. Also the staff at the Purser's Desk on the Ruby had no clue on the program which resulted in many trips to the Purser trying to get the facts worked out until the very last night. The lack of communication, frequent conflicting information and failure to call us as promised were the only complaint we had on an otherwise wonderful cruise.

I've read other postings where people had great service with the service, but that was not our experience.

[rdsqrl]

I think it also comes down to fedex rates. My company used to allow us to ship (personally) through them with their fedex rates and they were significantly lower (I want to say 40% lower). They no longer let us do this. It was great while it lasted.

How very disobliging of them. You'd think this was a cheap employee goodwill thing -- it's not like it cost them anything (I mean, I'm presuming you just used their number but reimbursed the company). The law firm I worked for years and years ago would allow us to do something similar. Everybody had their own personal "charge" number, just as though we were clients, and we'd get a monthly bill for whatever firm resources (FedEx, local courier, personal long-distance calls, private investigator(!), etc.) we had used.

[klgallo]

Make sure you have a complete list when you use the Princess Valet andbBe careful what you pack in the bags as they are required to be UNLOCKED. We sent a bag home after our Alaska Cruise, because we were spending a week in a rental car driving around Alaska. I had packed Xmas Ornaments that we had purchased in Juneau and Skagway. When we got home all of them were gone.