I have had a variety of experiences with airlines and boats. Trouble is, you don't always know what you will be charged until you get to the airport...regardless of what the airline advertise. Have found Thai airways very accommodating, but Austrian REALLY bad. Wondered what others think.

A few experiences/airlines from recent trips...

Turkish Airlines: London - Erzurum, not too bad. Happy to accommodate boats for a small fee (£15)

Qatar/Gulf Air: London - Kathmandu, very good. Both happy to take boats, even when we a groups have pitched up with 12 boats (and one mountain bike). Having said that I did pre warn on a couple of trips and they said it would be ok - but they wouldn't give any written confirmation to that effect. But as it turned out - all was well.

Iberia: Munich - Ecuador. Not too good. Despite no other gear except a boat they were having non of it. $50 supplement for a 'surf board'. Hey, ignorance can work in your favour sometimes, as I guess a kayak would have been more. BA from London - Ecuador was no trouble.

Easyjet: Zurich - Leeds, Very bad. But we did have 140kgs of luggage between 3 people (mostly snowboarding gear). Big ecxess charges (£250+) but they got so confused with us changing what bags were going where (it wasn't a direct flight) they forgot to charge us!, And we didn't bother reminding them.

Easyjet: Ireland - Alps (from another post). Very bad. Difficult to swing it with the boats by all accounts and an extra £43 each.

Royal Air Moroc: Marrackech - London, ok. Just. They do impose size limits on luggage and a boat exceeds that. But a friend recently blagged it and no problems. Though they could have easily told him 'no' or made him pay.

BA: London - Anywhere, The Best!! Had no problems with BA at all (so far!). Always just pictehd up and checked in, pointed at the boats and told them roughly how much they weighed and that is generally that. Even been sent to the first class check in a few times (but sadly no first class seat).

Hope this helps,

Ben

flying with boats...

all i say...it gets very much unpredictable what you are in for...

used to be easy...and especially the info from before with qatar airlines...

i flew them plenty of times..with boat(s) without...never any problem...until ones...out of the blue..overweight charge...30$/kg*21kg. (the boat)..620$...long time discussing and dealing.wheeling...got it down to 270$...but a very good experience...


rest i usually don't have too many problems..small fees/no fees/smiles/discussions,...they all come in...

comes down to :groundpersonal...>usually better in europe<...worse in other countries...lots of headaches and discussions...

also goes down to weight limit, actual weight on the plane, landing strip size etc., etc.,.etc.,...

use dice (recommended)...

Suprised you had trouble with Easyjet. We flew with them from Nottingham to Geneva and back at the start of this month and found them very good. The checkin girl only weighed the lightest boat and multiplied by 3 to check the total weight allowance. straight to oversized baggage and straight through. Just make sure you book sporting equipment when you buy the ticket (Kayak is not an option but we were told to book as bikes).