flying with boats.

fuck i hate the process of flying with my boat. I go through it every year and it never gets easier. It always seems to be easier in the third world too. You show up and rickety run down dirt strip and they don't bat a fucking eye, but fly Air Canada, Lufthansa, Unitited etc and they give you the run around. I've spent the last week on the phone calling the different reservations offices, each time I call I get a different story: "we don't fly boats, call the cargo department" call the cargo department; "yeah you should be able to fly with that as regular checked bagage, with us its going to cost $650" WTF, call back to reservations; "its going to cost you $200, $400, no wait $119.99, hang on a second, its how big again?" Its BULLSHIT!

Right now the best deal i've found is $400 for my large Burn, on Lufthansa from Canada to Norway. But later in the season when I'm flying from Norway to Russia/India/Nepal Areoflot wants $75.

I'm going to fucking loose it. Anybody got any success stories?

I can't help too much with individual airlines but I would NEVER fly with a kayak. A "surfski", sure. It's like a surfboard that you sit on. Because to airlines, a kayak is 13' long.

So bring your "surfski" and say you are looking for killer breaks. I payed $100 from Minneapolis to Santiago last time I went surfskiing.

Yep, Rootskier is right, you've got to play the semantics game. I once flew with my boat and no bag from NZ. Like you said, no problem from NZ to Fiji and Fiji to LA. But once I had to connect in LA it was like I was trying to check a loaded howlitzer. The balked just at the sight of the boat (a Riot Disco), but I never said it was a kayak. I think I called it a "surfer", and just kept pointing out that I had just flown on two full flights half way around the world and they didn't even charge me. Long story short I got it on a United flight for $75, but that was in 2002 before the airlines decided that it was in their interest to bend over their customers.

I think that you are now at their mercy since the cargo holds of commercial airliners suddenly got smaller or whatever they are claiming as justification for charging for a single checked bag. My suggestion would be to bag the boat, call it something other than a kayak, keep it as light as possible, and show up to the airport early ready to be really nice to the check in person. Good luck dude, this shit isn't getting any easier.

I've flown five or six times with my creek boat. paid anywhere from nothing to $90. I'd agree just go early and be really nice to the check in agent. As long as its short enough, and I've never actually had them measure, you shouldn't have any trouble. Its a risk too but I've always had more luck just showing up with it than when I tried to make arrangements ahead of time.

yeah i know. i have just showed up a bunch of times and never had a an issue but then flying down to the Zam a couple of years back with my play boat I got shot down, no room for negotiation. Now I'm super worried I'll get burned again every time I fly.