Travel Products - Traveling very light - mailing clothes to a and from your destination

I was who seeing if anyone did this? I was going to give it a try. Carry a change of clothes, maybe two and mail the rest. Thoughts?

I was who seeing if anyone did this? I was going to give it a try. Carry a change of clothes, maybe two and mail the rest. Thoughts?

I've done it. Be sure to send with. Tracking number. FedEx is best. Call the hotel in Advance and get a name to ship it I care of.

Also, make sure you have a plan to get the stuff home. Many hotels have a daily FedEx pickup but some resorts charge you a fee. $10 to drop off a box at the FedEx Kinkos inside the Radisson Sea World Orlando!!

UPS makes a cardboard suitcase for this purpose, your local UPS store will have it.

Make sure to let the hotel knows stuff is coming (if you are sending it to the hotel) and clearly mark it with your name and the date you are arriving. Require a signature so you can track it down if you need to.

Though mailing or shipping is not as inexpensive as it use to be.

I was who seeing if anyone did this? I was going to give it a try. Carry a change of clothes, maybe two and mail the rest. Thoughts?

Never done it, always wanted to (especially for the "easy" stuff like a couple of shirts, maybe a suit).

We have some sort of super corporate rate with DHL which works out extremely cheap (I think it's about $15-$20 for a 3 kg (6.5 lb) carton delivered next day from Europe to North America).

In addition I can take advantage of the cheaper dry-cleaning / laundry charges in NYC - I can get all my shirts laundered and folded for a fraction of the price in Europe.

I really should do it but at the moment I'm happy to check baggage.

Beloved employer is so random, it's not unknown to receive a phone call to cancel a trip just after boarding!

Beloved employer is so random, it's not unknown to receive a phone call to cancel a trip just after boarding!

Yes, I suppose that is something to consider!

Its quite nice. At least, less burden to you. As long as you can afford the fee. That is what people do for convenience.

Its quite nice. At least, less burden to you. As long as you can afford the fee. That is what people do for convenience.

Thanks, and welcome to Flyertalk.

What made me thought of it was that for this upcoming trip I was planning on sending a large document set to myself and then back to myself before returning. So I was wondering, why not throw an Eagle Creek cube in there travel lighter.

Thanks, and welcome to Flyertalk.

What made me thought of it was that for this upcoming trip I was planning on sending a large document set to myself and then back to myself before returning. So I was wondering, why not throw an Eagle Creek cube in there travel lighter.

In the best spirit of Flyertalk, try it and report back!

I have done this on trips of longer than 7 days for returning items home especially if I am shopping. I just drop clothes and items I don't need for the remainder of the trip in the mail. It makes lugging the main bag around a lot easier. I don't do it for the trip out though. I need to keep my bag light enough to hoist over my head for trains, planes and buses if necessary.

I actually do this very often. Predominantly with FedEx Express Saver [3 day] or Fedex Ground and occasionally with UPS ground.

I'd say about 80% of the time I'm using this method to send packages home or to the office because I've made some purchases and/or I'm continuing on to another destination and want to lighten the load of items I no longer need or dirty clothes.

The other 20% obviously is that I ship a package before my departure so it can meet me at my destination/hotel. As mentioned by others, be very clear on the label about your name and the date you're arriving. Some hotels also charge you for receiving and holding packages.

As far as the cost for shipping in concerned, it can get expensive, but I've been doing this for at least the past 7 years or more, so the cost must not outweigh the convenience for me [and I get a corporate rate on packages].

I often use US Post Office Flat Rate boxes to ship extra stuff home. I buy the postage before traveling and pack the boxes in that flat form in the bottom of my suitcase.

I will do it again soon when I have to start a trip with a few days in a cold climate and fly on to a warmer place. The severe weather clothes will go in the Flat Rate boxes and my travels will be easier.

Once filled and given their postage, you can drop a Flat Rate box off at any post office in the US using the bin inside the post office.

Thanks, and welcome to Flyertalk.

What made me thought of it was that for this upcoming trip I was planning on sending a large document set to myself and then back to myself before returning. So I was wondering, why not throw an Eagle Creek cube in there travel lighter.H***, yes. Especially if you're sending a pile of docs anyway. be careful to state clothes as well as docs on the ship slip though. DHL have been known to get "shirty" if they find out anything other than docs was in package and not declared...

H***, yes. Especially if you're sending a pile of docs anyway. be careful to state clothes as well as docs on the ship slip though. DHL have been known to get "shirty" if they find out anything other than docs was in package and not declared...

Thanks. This is domestic with UPS so Im not expecting an issue. Put it all in a bag (clothes in packing cube inside bag) and gave it to my assistant to add return bags and tags and mail tomorrow. I will report back.

The trip is underway. I threw in a rain jacket at the last minute taking my fully packed Tom Bihn Tristar to 9 kg (20 pounds). It was 8 kg last night before a few last minute additions. 9 kg is manageable though, at least now. ;)

Stuff is in transit to my destination.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

And both outbound upgrades cleared prior to boarding. So the thing I was concerned about, waiting to board and then not getting the upgrade didn't happen. That isn't a complaint, just some additional data. ;)

Good luck with all the details of your trip!

Thanks for the link to your packing blog.

Thanks, and welcome to Flyertalk.

What made me thought of it was that for this upcoming trip I was planning on sending a large document set to myself and then back to myself before returning. So I was wondering, why not throw an Eagle Creek cube in there travel lighter.


Why not do it. It would be the best if they are going to do it for you. It is still a great idea. Wishing you the best for this travel.

Great thread...

I am thinking of doing something similar.

I am sailing on Cunard from Southampton to New York then continuing on to Hong Kong, Bali, San Francisco and a few other cities... I don't really want to be lugging my dinner jacket, formal shirts and shoes around for 2 weeks of the trip... So, was thinking of shipping them back to the UK whilst I am away on the remainder of my trip.

I work for BA and get a discount at FedEx (what that consists of, I have no idea) and think it would be a good way of doing it!

I am glad to see I am not silly in my thinking! :D

Great thread...

I am thinking of doing something similar.

I am sailing on Cunard from Southampton to New York then continuing on to Hong Kong, Bali, San Francisco and a few other cities... I don't really want to be lugging my dinner jacket, formal shirts and shoes around for 2 weeks of the trip... So, was thinking of shipping them back to the UK whilst I am away on the remainder of my trip.

I work for BA and get a discount at FedEx (what that consists of, I have no idea) and think it would be a good way of doing it!

I am glad to see I am not silly in my thinking! :D

I did the reverse, need formal dinning attire for a Europe-Caribbean positioning cruise and did not want to lug extra clothes/shoes on the 2 weeks precruise selfdrive part of the trip.

I just sent the extra suitcase with our cruise formal attires when we landed in AMS to our precruise hotel in BCN

Package arrived on time. Now I'm considering whether I should send them back the same way or just carry everything back. I picked up a nice (free) backpack at the meeting I am at so I may just put it in the backpack and check it for the return. The return is a nonstop and my upgrade clear so it wouldn't be hard to just carry the backpack as a second bag.

I did the reverse, need formal dinning attire for a Europe-Caribbean positioning cruise and did not want to lug extra clothes/shoes on the 2 weeks precruise selfdrive part of the trip.

I just sent the extra suitcase with our cruise formal attires when we landed in AMS to our precruise hotel in BCN

Do you mind me asking, and you can approximate if so desired... How much that cost you?

Do you mind me asking, and you can approximate if so desired... How much that cost you?

In 2009 it was 17 Euro, ground service.
I had a FedEx account so I directed them to pick up at hotel.

Some hotels will charge a handling fee for sending or receiving and some will not. Some will charge a storage fee.

Great thread...

I am thinking of doing something similar.

I am sailing on Cunard from Southampton to New York then continuing on to Hong Kong, Bali, San Francisco and a few other cities... I don't really want to be lugging my dinner jacket, formal shirts and shoes around for 2 weeks of the trip... So, was thinking of shipping them back to the UK whilst I am away on the remainder of my trip.

I work for BA and get a discount at FedEx (what that consists of, I have no idea) and think it would be a good way of doing it!

I am glad to see I am not silly in my thinking! :D

Good heavens old chap, fancy seeing you here. I thought you had done the cruise already, didn't realise you were yet to go.

Anyway, if you don't need them in a hurry send them back surface/cheapest. Fold them nicely and stick them in a FedEx box and they'll cost next-to-nothing (£20?). The important thing is the tracking number.

Good heavens old chap, fancy seeing you here. I thought you had done the cruise already, didn't realise you were yet to go.

Anyway, if you don't need them in a hurry send them back surface/cheapest. Fold them nicely and stick them in a FedEx box and they'll cost next-to-nothing (£20?). The important thing is the tracking number.

Sorry... Do I know you? :D

Nope, not in any hurry at all... I will be away for over 2 weeks after I ship them back... So not going to miss them... :)

October last year I finished a conference and had to ship some stuff back so I shipped some clothes and shoes back with it. The "when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight" shipper lost the package. Took me two weeks to finally have them locate the box and they claimed the airbill was lost (it was taped shut on the box). When I finally received the shipment the box was different from the one I originally gave to them so they probably somehow destroyed the box or maybe the alarms went off with my stinky clothes and they had to investigate ;).

I *almost* shipped things back home to NJ from my recent Hawaii trip. I was going to use a flat rate Priority Mail box from the post office. There's a new size that the clerk referred to as "board game size". The cost is just under $16 no matter how much you manage to shove into it, and of course there's no fee to drop it off at the post office. There were 2 post offices within walking distance of my hotel in Hawaii.

The reason I didn't ship was that I bought a carry-on in Hawaii for $18, so I just took everything with me. If I didn't have 1 free checked bag, it would have made more sense to ship for $16 than to check a bag for $25.

I'm back. It worked out well. I got a backpack at the meeting I was at so I had extra packing room and carried everything back rather than mailing. But it was nice to mail on the way.

I note that FEDEX and UPS work best between Europe and North America. My experience over many years (pre and post-Euro) with South America is that using SuissePost, DeutschePost, DHL, and FEDEX, deliveries are not overnight and may take a week or more. Recent experience with documents sent FEDEX to Brasil resulted in FEDEX handing the documents over to the local CEDEX, taking 11 days to deliver. Return mailings and shipments have the same experience.

Using DHL, and Hermes Packet to North America can involve a 15+ pass-over day to the local USPS. Not suggested.

Overall, this is a good way to take or ship extra items, when flying.

Especially when one compares the FEDEX or UPS cost versus excess baggage fees. I believe that today, items shipped this way are safer from pilferage and damage as well.

I note that FEDEX and UPS work best between Europe and North America. My experience over many years (pre and post-Euro) with South America is that using SuissePost, DeutschePost, DHL, and FEDEX, deliveries are not overnight and may take a week or more. Recent experience with documents sent FEDEX to Brasil resulted in FEDEX handing the documents over to the local CEDEX, taking 11 days to deliver. Return mailings and shipments have the same experience.

Using DHL, and Hermes Packet to North America can involve a 15+ pass-over day to the local USPS. Not suggested.

Overall, this is a good way to take or ship extra items, when flying.

Especially when one compares the FEDEX or UPS cost versus excess baggage fees. I believe that today, items shipped this way are safer from pilferage and damage as well.


My trip was within the US, I think I would be unlikely to do it internationally.

Using DHL, and Hermes Packet to North America can involve a 15+ pass-over day to the local USPS.

I have had nothing but very swift deliveries from London to New York (of course, it might take longer to nowheresville). We have a daily consolidated delivery (inter-office letters, etc) which are delivered overnight, and I'm pretty sure we use DHL for that - we certainly use them for one-off shipments and they pretty much always get there next day.

I don't think we even book it as a "next-day guaranteed" service, but we might have an SLA in place.

I have had nothing but very swift deliveries from London to New York (of course, it might take longer to nowheresville). We have a daily consolidated delivery (inter-office letters, etc) which are delivered overnight, and I'm pretty sure we use DHL for that - we certainly use them for one-off shipments and they pretty much always get there next day.

I don't think we even book it as a "next-day guaranteed" service, but we might have an SLA in place.

There is no next day guarantee shipment aside from document only packages.
Anything but document is considered commercial and needs to clear custom upon arrival. Large cities in US and UK are relatively quick. Canadian arrival plan on an extra custom day. Germany is a day or two at the most. France and Italy is one to two weeks or more if going to a smaller town/village.

I don't think I'd do it for the following reasons:

- too much hassle because you have to deal with a new type of packing container.

- too risky if stuff doesn't arrive. I will a) have less clothing than planned, b) loss of valuable clothes, c) loss of time complaining and trying to compensate for loss of valuable clothes, d) loss of time to purchase the needed clothing in a location I'm not familiar with.

- too much hassle for sending, receiving and picking up.

- too costly.

For the above reasons I think this is one of the worst ways of transporting clothes. The conditions that would alleviate the above risks are:

- The clothes are not expensive.
- I have plenty of time and patience or an assistant.
- Someone picks up the bill to send the clothes.
- It becomes absolutely necessary to send the clothes because I cannot carry anything myself and there are no porters around.
- I am sending something anyway and can include it in the package (as was the case here).

But in that latter case it's again not very efficient because you cannot send very much as GF indicated. So what's the hassle? Might as well carry it.

Till

Till:

Yes and No.

It is a risk and hassle to send the clothes. They were cruise formal attires so they were not budget clothes and shoes.
My decision was based on issues that you have raise versus taking an extra suitcase in and out of car to hotel room and having visible luggage inside a parked vehicle while doing a driving tour of Europe and staying at local hotels, many built before elevators was invented.