[TheDoc]

Question.

Was in the airport yesterday and SAS told me that we have NO extra baggage weight even if we have the "sporting weapons" option.

20kg check in, 8kg hand luggage. Thats confirmed by them, the lad said that if you go to 23-24kg or so you get away with it.

They were also very casual when I asked how they get checked in, just put your rifle case on the belt and its done.

Tried to confirm from airport police but they wouldnt give me the time of day.

Any info from previous travellers would be appreciated.

But it looks solid that its literally 20kg check in 8kg carry on, and they say theres no procedure to check in airsoft equipment.

[kjsaw]

Originally Posted by TheDoc

Question.

Was in the airport yesterday and SAS told me that we have NO extra baggage weight even if we have the "sporting weapons" option.

20kg check in, 8kg hand luggage. Thats confirmed by them, the lad said that if you go to 23-24kg or so you get away with it.

They were also very casual when I asked how they get checked in, just put your rifle case on the belt and its done.

Tried to confirm from airport police but they wouldnt give me the time of day.

Any info from previous travellers would be appreciated.

But it looks solid that its literally 20kg check in 8kg carry on, and they say theres no procedure to check in airsoft equipment.

I'll give my experience from traveling on SAS many times with airsoft gear (but not in or out or IE).

The procedure from check-in varies from airport to airport. Generally they check you in normally and just direct you to put the rifle case or whatever you are using to transport your airsoft gun through the special baggage area for xray. In Poland they had the airport police come and examine everything, in Estonia they made me fill in a weapons declaration. In finland they and sweden its just put through special baggage with no comment.

When it comes to the luggage allowance:

Each ticket includes the base allowance for luggage. If you are in Business or Economy Extra class, or a Gold member, you also get to pack one piece of "sports equiptment" for free. I always travel with the gold card, so I have never had to deal with anything more then stated above, however I am familiar with the rules and if I understand it correctly if you pay the €20 EUR for transporting sports gear (and the 20€ counts for a single bag containing just the sports gear), the weight of this bag is paid for by the sports equipment fee.

The best thing to do is call SAS customer service and get clarification on this question (I do not know if the staff at the airport you visited and spoke to actually work for SAS or are just contracted from another airline)

[TheDoc]

Sas informed me that its 20kg total thats it. Ive paid the sporting weapons charge but according to the bloke on the phone i dont get any added weight. Its 20kg for everything checked in. Just like a normal passenger. Ill be ringing back questioning why i paid a further 20 with no benefit. As daa emplouees have told me i could have walked up on the day and declared

[Hunter1100]

I was about 15kg over last year and it cost nothing.

[kjsaw]

Originally Posted by TheDoc

Sas informed me that its 20kg total thats it. Ive paid the sporting weapons charge but according to the bloke on the phone i dont get any added weight. Its 20kg for everything checked in. Just like a normal passenger. Ill be ringing back questioning why i paid a further 20 with no benefit. As daa emplouees have told me i could have walked up on the day and declared

That is screwed up. The wording on the website is a bit ambiguous unfortunately. I have some contacts at SAS here in Sweden, I will see if I can find out anything.

[TheDoc]

Just want to know the facts. Dont want last minute charges etc. Cause my luggage is weighing nearly 30kg.

[kjsaw]

Originally Posted by Hunter1100

I was about 15kg over last year and it cost nothing.

And if you pack carefully it should is not too hard to be around 20kg (Minus gun and mags I had all my gear (including vest, sleeping bag+bedroll, 2 man tent) in an 80L duffel weighing in at less then 15kg on ryanair a few weeks back: 1set of civvies and extra BDU went in carry-on. I wore one set of my BDU pants on the flight (with a spare in the handbaggage));

- Remember they rarely weigh the hand baggage, so as long as your bag fills the dimensions they give, stuff it full of heavy things. (max out the size of this bag, I was using my 46L Raid pack in the above example)
- Bring only the essentials, if you want to bring posing stuff, you deserve to pay excess baggage fee's
- Consider buying BB's in stockholm or onsite (assuming berget confirm there is a shop available for such stuff onsite).
- Wear cargo pants and a jacket with many pockets on the flight. Camera, Phone, Charger.... as much as possible can go in your pockets.

Don't rely on them to be too generous anymore, SAS is bleeding cash like all other airlines so they are pushing staff to pick up extra charges where they can.

If you are planning on bringing rations or something with you, unfortunately these are heavy, consider mailing them ahead of time?

[Conkey]

Doc.. Lemming would be the man to ask. I think between the M60 and his bag combined he must have been tipping the scales at arround 40kg and I don’t think he was charge for heavy baggage.

Last year we Went to the check in desk to check in two items - One bag of sports equipment (airsoft gun) - One Bag that weighted about 25 to 30kg and no extra charge. Took both bags to the abnormal (or whatever you call it!)baggage area to be x-rayed. That was the end of it. No extra charge

The weight allowance on most flight depends on if the plane is full or not. This is what I was told by others so I could be talking out of my preverbal!

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Conkey

Doc.. Lemming would be the man to ask. I think between the M60 and his bag combined he must have been tipping the scales at arround 40kg and I don’t think he was charge for heavy baggage.

My flight case with '60 alone is the better part of 20kg. On the flight back I was absolutely blessed with not getting charged about €200 there and then at checkin. The girl looked at the scales; looked at me; looked at the chart; looked back at me and then said "Ok. Don't do that next time".

It could have gone soooooo much worse. I'll be shipping BBs and picking up food seperately in Stockholm to everything else cause tbh, I I really need to push my weight limit down given what I'm carrying before my own baggage comes into it.

Kris, if you can check with your contacts about sports equipment charges (I'm sure I've seen them on the SAS site) it'd be great. As soon as I mention replica firearms/airsoft/sporting weapon I seem to get directed to this answer of getting charged for the privelege of checking in, and not any additional weight allownce considering it's a whole other piece of baggage. Which strikes me as odd. Very odd.

[kjsaw]

Originally Posted by Lemming

Kris, if you can check with your contacts about sports equipment charges (I'm sure I've seen them on the SAS site) it'd be great. As soon as I mention replica firearms/airsoft/sporting weapon I seem to get directed to this answer of getting charged for the privelege of checking in, and not any additional weight allownce considering it's a whole other piece of baggage. Which strikes me as odd. Very odd.

Working on it. This is a bit of a double edged thing, In Sweden airsoft are legally toys so the weapon thing is irrelevant, what that means when you are checking in in IE is anyones guess. The website says its 20€ to weapons/golf gear/diving gear/fishing gear/ or any sporting gear less then 15kg not exceeding 1.4m in length. Weapons has an extra * on it which says " * An extra handling charge of GBP 21, DKK/NOK/SEK 250 one way shall be charged on flights to/from Scandinavia and LHR." Which obviously does not apply to you since you will not transit LHR (i hope).

My reading of the website is you get 20kg normal luggage plus your sporting item (up to 15kg). It specifically says in the bag with the sporting item you must only have the sporting item and not normal luggage, otherwise you have to pay normal excess baggage.

It also says if the sporting item exceeds the special baggage category (i.e. over 15kg) you also have to pay excess baggage, so to me that makes it clear that the 20€ fee is covering 15kg of sporting equipment in an appropriate sporting equipment bag.

I will get back with anything firm I hear via my SAS contacts.

[OzCam]

Originally Posted by kjsaw

Working on it. This is a bit of a double edged thing, In Sweden airsoft are legally toys so the weapon thing is irrelevant, what that means when you are checking in in IE is anyones guess.

Toys in Sweden, but replica firearms under ICAO rules. The extra charge is to "compensate" the airline for the extra effort in security checking imposed on the airport. It looks like a firearm, therefore you could theoretically "threaten the safety of an aircraft" with it. Therefore it is treated like a firearm, regardless of what it's made from or powered by. These rules are set by the security authorities responsible for the airports in each country and have very little to do with the individual airlines.

The extra charge for the weight is just a way of getting more money out of the customer, in return for your cheap (ha) ticket.

[kjsaw]

Originally Posted by OzCam

Toys in Sweden, but replica firearms under IATA & ICAO rules. The extra charge is to "compensate" the airline for the extra effort in security checking imposed on the airport. It looks like a firearm, therefore you could theoretically "threaten the safety of an aircraft" with it. Therefore it is treated like a firearm, regardless of what it's made from or powered by. These rules are set by the security authorities responsible for the airports in each country and have very little to do with the individual airlines.

The extra charge for the weight is just a way of getting more money out of the customer, in return for your cheap (ha) ticket.

That is certainly true when they specifically state an extra charge for doing this at LHR, but otherwise not what the website says at all.

[jinko]

myself and 2 others broke our AEGs into components and packed them into a plastic container and had no problems when shipping them through dublin airport.
also we may have been 1 or 2 kilos over the limit but they did not charge us any extra or even remark on it.

[TheDoc]

Guys appreciate the replies.

But it seems everyone says " i got away with it last year"

You can understand I do not wish to get to Dublin Airport, and be asked to pay €100+ for my over weight bag. I also do not want to get to Sweden to find my gear held up in Dublin because I had guns. I wasnt being detailed earlier because I was iphone so I will re-iterate, also after having another conversation, this time with a female with SAS airlines.

In regarding to checking in the rifle case, I've been told by SAS airlines and Dublin Aiport Authority that I simply place my bag on the belt at check in and that is it. Not told to declare, not told anything. I made abundantly clear to both people that my items look like real guns, and may cause trouble when going through should someone not informed see them. Reply was a mere " nah its grand we have real rifles going through all the time, you just throw it up there and enjoy the flight"

In relation to the charging fee for sporting equipment. This is coming from two different employees of SAS airlines.

You have 20kg check in luggage. Should the scale tip to 23kg max, you will be let away with it. However should you hit the regions of 25kg+, you will be required to pay a luggage fee of €11 per kilo you are over.

I asked " Well I booked the option of Sporting Equipment which from my reading says I have 15kg for my equipment case, so therefore I in essence have 20kg check in, then a further 15kg for my rifle case"

My response was " No sir, there seems to be a common misconception with that, when you purchase the sporting equipment charge you are making us aware that you have delicate articles in your luggage that gets flagged for the check in attendant, this is then specially tapped and special care is taken with the item and is kept seperate from other baggage"

I proceeded with " But you just said I do not have to worry bout anything when I check them in, so I could have in essence, saved my money buying sporting equipment, put my bags in unknowns to you with a rifle, and everyone would have been fine?..are you sure your 100% because I think I'm getting bogey information from you to be fair"

The conversation then dwindled and to be honest I was sick of getting ****e filled answers.

Can someone else give them a bell and see what they say...I couldn't get the time of day of the airport police who were more busy having a chat then helping me with a question relating to ****ing imitations rifles in an airport...good to see my taxpaying money going to good use.

[MAD Ozzie]

Well, we will all see when there is 20-30 unhappy Airsofters standing there with gun cases and baggage!