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shipping luggage ahead?

poss

By poss,
in Regent Seven Seas Cruises

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poss

poss

Posted
Posted

We'll be flying Air France for our Monte Carlo embarkation in September. Of course I've been reading every kind of horror story about lost luggage, etc. Wondering if anyone's done ship ahead recently-- and with which company. I've searched the topic and there isn't much up to date.

(We'll fly in a day early and pack suitcases half his/half hers, etc.-- but still...)

 

Thanks for input on this.

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luvtojump

luvtojump

Posted
Posted

I too recommend Luggage Free. They cleaned up a huge mess that Regent's former shipping company (International Port Services-IPS) left us in. I applaud Regent for getting rid of IPS.

 

Luggage Free is extremely professional and dependable. Expensive but worth every penny.

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ChatKat in Ca.

ChatKat in Ca.

Posted
Posted

We didn't ship it - we flew NS to Paris and then a short hop to Nice. One of our four bags didn't arrive with us via Air France but the Nice airport was a very easy place to report the bag astray. It's a very small airport. It was delivered the next morning right to our hotel. We spent two nights in Nice.

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  • 4 weeks later...
basedow

basedow

Posted
Posted

Our bags are currently in the hands of Luggage Free. and so far so good. I will be happy to see them in our room, as Jeremy said they will be!:)

 

We are taking 3 planes to our destination and I am always fearful that we'll need to rerouite and if you have checked bags that is a problem. Plus, it's nice to not be lugging around suitcases!

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basedow

basedow

Posted
Posted

Luggage Free aand the others are middlemen, coordinating various delivery servers. Ours were picked up by some company that does a lot of transporting human organs! The driver said they then pass it on to other comapnies and somehow the bags reach their final destination.

 

A company comes to your home or place of business to pick up. You call a couple of weeks ahaed of time and LF will tell you how much time they need to deliver. (Internationally takes 5-7 days.) You need to provide LF a copy of your passport, flight itinary and a list of contents. There can be no food, medicines or inflammables in the luggage.

 

Packing so far ahead of time really focusses your mind on what you're taking as you need to figure out what you will be wearing on the plane and packing on your carry-on. I have liked doing this so far as my packing is essentially done and I find that is always a low lying anxiety provoker for me as I tend to otherwise wait til the last minute.

 

Now I can concentrate on prepaying bills!:(

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basedow

basedow

Posted
Posted

I'm sorry. I forgot to address that.

 

We are not shipping bags home as our flights are fewer and more direct. If the bags get mislaid and it takes a bit longer for them to get home, it's no big deal. However if you wanted to ship them home I'm sure LF will tell you precisely how to do it and I'm sure it will be easy.

 

Something I liked is that it doesn't matter how many bags you ship, the cost is figured on just a weight basis.

 

I have just gotten an email that our bags have been delivered. Now they just need to get to our room!

 

I like that LF is now Regent carrier of choice so they will be very familiar with Regent ports information.

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Paris182

Paris182

Posted
Posted

I just did a comparative quote between Luggage Forward, which I liked a lot and DHL, for my cruise next year, (granted over a year away) and DHL was half of Luggage Forward. So you might think about shipping your luggage that way, especially if you are staying at a hotel precruise.

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JaneBP

JaneBP

Posted
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I have used DHL exclusively, through Seabourn's Valet service and it's wonderful. I plan on using it to send my suitcase ahead to the for my Voyager Christmas cruise. It's also beneficial to have more insurance value than the airlines, just in case.

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KnitterCA

KnitterCA

Posted
Posted

On shipping -

 

Shipping yourself with DHL, FedEx, etc., is less expensive. If you know where you will be staying when you first arrive in Monte Carlo (hotel for a night or two?), you can almost certainly ship your luggage directly to the hotel, and then take it to the ship when you embark. We've shipped all sorts of advance items to hotels in the past.

 

Luggage Free and the like are more "all inclusive". Luggage Free sent a delivery courier to my office to get the suitcases out of the back of my car from the company parking lot. They took all the bags through customs (we had to send them copies of our passports, itinerary, and a packing list for this), and then delivered them directly to the port. We were embarking in Vancouver. They picked up the bags on Tuesday the week before, and we got an email on Friday that the bags had already been delivered. The bags were in our cabin not long after embarkation.

 

On the return side, we called the Travel Desk to find out what to do. They advised us to *not* have the bags set out with the bag we were not shipping back (we had one bag to keep because we were spending a few extra days on land). The two bags we wanted to ship back were picked up earlier in the evening, and specifically labelled "Luggage Free" by the ship's staff. We later set out of the bag that was to be handled normally. Luggage Free picked up the two bags directly at the port. We disembarked on Wednesday, and got an email Friday that the bags had been delivered. (We got home Saturday!) The bags had FedEx tags on them - clearly Luggage Free's delivery courier had taken the bags to FedEx and shipped them for us.

 

What you get for the extra money is a lot of convenience (the courier on either end of the sailing). I personally wouldn't use Luggage Free if we were staying in a hotel for a vacation and thus could easily ship things, but I definitely would consider them again for a cruise.

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wishIweretravelling "Live from...." Rare

wishIweretravelling

Posted
Posted

This article quotes FedEx and UPS as recommending against using them for international luggage shipping, due to possible customs complications: http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/30/pf/luggage_delivery/

 

DHL is not quoted. I, too, cannot find anything on their website specific to luggage.

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Paris182

Paris182

Posted
Posted

I just went on their website and navigated to it somehow. I had to register and it took some finding. I based the weight as 50lbs and 2 pieces of luggage. They may box the luggage, which protects it, and costs only a little. Hope this helps

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