yes, theadvice. for a while now there's been a statement in the sidebar that advocates traveling with only a small bag. it's an idea that i came across in reading, that i've since tried and that lately i believe is critical. at first, it was about feeling free to enjoy one's travels, recently it became about enjoying one's travels for as close to free as possible.
when we took our vacation to Europe at the beginning of April, we weren't sure if we would end up using the return portion of our tickets to come back to Japan, so we were going to take most of our stuff with us. this shouldn't have been a problem since we'd acquired very little in relation to the amount we'd dumped, and we were going to pack the same bags we came with. however, somewhere in all our planning i had this bright idea that we should check what our baggage allowances would be with the airlines that were offering flights to London. we had all but chosen Emirates at this point, but when we found out their baggage limit was 20Kg per person, we began to look elsewhere. the only reasonable alternative was Cathay Pacific, but their limit turned out to be the same as well. to put this in context, most airlines in America will give each passenger an allowance of two checked bags, each weighing up to 32Kg, which is about 70lbs, and this for almost any flight. in my experience they are not terribly strict, but then it's pretty hard to exceed 70lbs in a single bag (and still want to take it with you, anyway).
the travel agent had given us a link to the baggage allowance page on the Emirates website, which showed that indeed, the 20Kg limit was not applicable to travel to or from North America, but pretty much everywhere else. inasmuch as it's difficult to put more that 70lbs worth of stuff in a bag (especially twice over), let me assure you that it is infinitely more difficult to travel internationally with less than 44lbs. and had we been thinking about doing the American thing and breaking the rules, the (Emirates) penalty was ¥7000, or about $60, for every kilo your bags were overweight!
at those prices, the only thing to do was mail a bunch of stuff. and i mean a bunch of stuff. it ended up being 12 boxes at a cost almost equivalent to another plane ticket, but at least we got it all back without having to haul it ourselves. so anyway, the point is, the world of flying is changing, so be careful and check the regulations before you go. most of you reading this won't encounter such problems flying to and from North America, but with fuel prices continuing to rise we may start getting restricted too.
a classic shot of our Arabic (and French) Capri-Sun drink, which somehow turned out to be our only picture from the Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates.
at least we got to go on our vacation, details of which will be coming right up, but first a word on Dubai, our layover between Nagoya and London. we had about three hours there on the way over, just enough time to get some United Arab Emirates dirhams (1 AED=US$0.27) and spend them on ice cream and a small metal camel--our one souvenir from our time in the Middle East. it was a nice airport, and very busy, with people from literally every part of the globe, but it was a little hard to get too into it because we were halfway through about 22 hours of economy class flying. pretty rough. which leads me to my last piece of advice: when you're flying that far, regardless of how much luggage you have in the hold, make sure you have some ear plugs in your carry-on.
when we took our vacation to Europe at the beginning of April, we weren't sure if we would end up using the return portion of our tickets to come back to Japan, so we were going to take most of our stuff with us. this shouldn't have been a problem since we'd acquired very little in relation to the amount we'd dumped, and we were going to pack the same bags we came with. however, somewhere in all our planning i had this bright idea that we should check what our baggage allowances would be with the airlines that were offering flights to London. we had all but chosen Emirates at this point, but when we found out their baggage limit was 20Kg per person, we began to look elsewhere. the only reasonable alternative was Cathay Pacific, but their limit turned out to be the same as well. to put this in context, most airlines in America will give each passenger an allowance of two checked bags, each weighing up to 32Kg, which is about 70lbs, and this for almost any flight. in my experience they are not terribly strict, but then it's pretty hard to exceed 70lbs in a single bag (and still want to take it with you, anyway).
the travel agent had given us a link to the baggage allowance page on the Emirates website, which showed that indeed, the 20Kg limit was not applicable to travel to or from North America, but pretty much everywhere else. inasmuch as it's difficult to put more that 70lbs worth of stuff in a bag (especially twice over), let me assure you that it is infinitely more difficult to travel internationally with less than 44lbs. and had we been thinking about doing the American thing and breaking the rules, the (Emirates) penalty was ¥7000, or about $60, for every kilo your bags were overweight!
at those prices, the only thing to do was mail a bunch of stuff. and i mean a bunch of stuff. it ended up being 12 boxes at a cost almost equivalent to another plane ticket, but at least we got it all back without having to haul it ourselves. so anyway, the point is, the world of flying is changing, so be careful and check the regulations before you go. most of you reading this won't encounter such problems flying to and from North America, but with fuel prices continuing to rise we may start getting restricted too.
a classic shot of our Arabic (and French) Capri-Sun drink, which somehow turned out to be our only picture from the Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates.
at least we got to go on our vacation, details of which will be coming right up, but first a word on Dubai, our layover between Nagoya and London. we had about three hours there on the way over, just enough time to get some United Arab Emirates dirhams (1 AED=US$0.27) and spend them on ice cream and a small metal camel--our one souvenir from our time in the Middle East. it was a nice airport, and very busy, with people from literally every part of the globe, but it was a little hard to get too into it because we were halfway through about 22 hours of economy class flying. pretty rough. which leads me to my last piece of advice: when you're flying that far, regardless of how much luggage you have in the hold, make sure you have some ear plugs in your carry-on.
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