Flying to England tomorrow night for work. Just found out that i have to carry a lot of stuff with me. Seems that excess baggage fees are cheaper than Fed Ex, so in addition to the 2 checked suitcases and 2 carryons i'm allowed, I'll have an additional 3 items to check.

I've looked at the website and have no problem paying the fee (work will reimburse me), but I do have a a concern. Has anyone ever had excess baggage turned away? Basically, will I have to allow myself an extra few hours to drive to Fed Ex should Continental decide that there's not enough space available? Even if the flight is relatively empty?

Thanks!

Friends of mine moved home from a year in Europe, and discovered exactly how expensive it would be to ship their accumulations. (Even after I brought 46 bottles of wine back for them in checked luggage. At JFK I was nervously looking for a red splotch on the luggage conveyor belt while the drug dog made several return visits sniffing my knapsack holding Calabrese sausage. It took customs half an hour of confusion to wish me well, "Enjoy the wine!" which of course made it fine. I am the master packer. There is no simple word for bubble wrap in Italian, try waving a piece at your Italian friends.)

They were flying business class on some airline that had folded into another, and excess bags were $75 each. I suggested this, they had double-walled boxes at exactly the dimensional limit made in a village near Lucca, Italy, and checked eleven boxes as excess luggage. I rented a U-Haul truck to meet them at JFK, and we went out for what any gourmand would want after a year along the Med: Korean BBQ.

I have checked a lot of heavy excess baggage in my day. Fly our of FLR in a small plane with 6 32kg boxes. Do not exceed the weight limit with any of them. I don't know if it is 50lbs or 32kg anymore. The price for each is about $75-100, depending. Every pound over will cost $8 to 10, or more. Exceed some other magic weight, like 50kg or 100 lbs, and they will refuse to take them as checked luggage.

Unless part of your flight is on a small plane, should be no problem. Then the stuff arrives later.