Airlines Policy on Spearguns

[hyeparis]

Hi, guys! I wonder if you can share your experience in transporting spearguns. Lufthansa charged me 40 euros for checking in my spearguns in a ski bag for a flight from Lisboa to Moscow, classifying it as sports equipment. This time the Moscow office of Air France wants a whooping total of 150 euros for the same guns in the same bag taken from Moscow to Boston via Paris, insisting that it is diving equipment. Is that fair? Has anyone have any experience transporting spearguns by Air France? Plz share. Also, another option is send ia Air France Cargo, but I am not sure whether US customs would be happy to clear such a cargo. What's your advice?

 

[hyeparis]

Well, for those interested, air france's moscow office thinks I should pay 150 euros for each of spearguns and for each of snowboards regardless of whether I transport them in one bag or not.

 

[octopus]

Is that fair?

No, in my opinion.

I went with Thomsonfly to Tenerife and to Croatia.
I had monofin and 75/110 gun (two bags). As they have some rules about number of bags and I had too many, I decided to buy £30 (£15 one way) sports gear allowance and avoid any potential trouble. As expected, I did not have any problems. I had about 30kg in total, but it seems to me that I could have had few more kg in sports baggage (they were not fussy about the weight).

I do not know about Air France, but their request looks a bit dodgy.

Spearguns are more sort of a fishing rather than diving equipment - if they want to be strict about it.

 

[spaghetti]

Don't ask don't tell. Say it's fishing gear, say they're fishing poles and forget about it.
Never mention the word "diving" or the word "guns" it makes them think about something that might explode and they'll start to make all the problems of this world.
This? uh, fishing poles...
This is said in general, not related to air france.

 

[Adrian]

Any way you can check directly with Air France through their main international website? If you can get different information in writing you could show it to the Moscow office. It's stupid to consider a speargun diving equipment, analogously that means you would have to pay 150 euros for each swimsuit you have in your luggage!

 

[hyeparis]

I did check on their web site, both the main one and the one in Russia - their luggage regulation says sports equipment (including snowboards, diving, etc) is included in the weight allowance, but the office clerks are saying it is not the case for transatlantic flights. I have already spoken to six different clerks, managers/supervisors in the past two days and all of them say contradicting things. Some say yes, this is the case, while others insist I should pay 150 euros per piece. It is just mind-boggling.
But I am persistent. If anything, it would turn into a good travel nightmare column since I am a journo.

 

[mishu1984]

get it in writting. get one manager to send you an official letter and take it to the clerk. you can always hint at the fact that poor service could lead to a poor review.

 

[metelin]

i fly lufthansa from san francisco to athens every year with a bag full of guns without any problems. i have a padded snowboard bag like this one http://www.bagdepot.com/snow_ski_final/sn1/sn_59.htm with a stiff plastic insert that i cut to fit inside the bag exactly. i strap the guns on the insert (i can get 6 120cm guns in it but i usually bring 3-4) and check it along with the rest of the baggage. no one asks what it is and i have never been asked to pay anything extra.

steve