Jesperss

Soon my wife and I will be moving to Hungary from the USA.

Between the two of us, we'll have a total of 14 pieces of "baggage" - 2 carry ons, 3 suitcases, 8 18"x18"x24" boxes, and a bike box. Oh, and a cat. We'll hire a van and driver to meet us right outside of immigration.

LOT Polish allows extra baggage at $96/bag so it's only costing us $768 in baggage fees to bring the extra eight pieces. The other option was to use a freight company at three times the cost, wait a couple months for it, pick it up at some depot, and hope that all the boxes show up in decent condition.

Does anyone have tips or advice in trying to pull this off?

nachosdelux

people do this all the time. get a luggage cart. Customs may x-ray or search your bags if they desire. Cooperate and be polite. Not sure if there is anything else you can do to facilitate your journey.

erik123

You can check if LOT has unaccompanied bagage at a cheaper price.

Loren Pechtel

I would rather expect customs to take an interest but if you're complying with the rules that won't be a problem.

CDTraveler

Don't check the cat, keep it in the passenger compartment with you.

xenole

Someone recently mentioned that they checked in a person on duty travel for a particular airline and they had 18 pieces of luggage to check in.
They're allowed an unlimited allowance so they were obviously taking advantage of that in order to relocate or something.

Sometimes airlines such as Ryanair might be doing £10 for a 20kg bag and at those prices, it's definitely cheaper than shipping.

Most I've done was on 3 trains and that was bad enough.
Suitcase, bag, boxed CRT computer monitor and desktop pc after uni. Seriously not easy to get from A to B even with trolleys, most of which were nowhere near where I was.

Palal

What's your routing? If you have a stop within the US, you will need to clear customs at your first port of entry, so give yourself some extra time, and then re-check your bags/boxes.

this should be helpful for going thru customs.

Reds2011

OP is going the other way - so US customs don't apply.

LondonElite

There is no need to involve US customs when you are leaving the US for Hungary.

Palal

Ah sorry I misread as "Hungary to the USA".
You may want to look at Hungarian customs to see what kind of personal effects they allow importing and if you need to file any paperwork before you import things. I know that here in PT you can import your personal effects but you need to file some paperwork with a consulate in the US so that you won't have to pay VAT on it.

GeezerCouple

Make sure you allow any necessary advance time to get the cat ready, in terms of vaccinations, health documents (for Hungary and also possibly the airline(s)), and possibly micro-chip if required (it seems to be, unless the cat is older and has an older "version" via tatoo.

How big is the cat?
I used to travel frequently with a medium (or medium/small) cat, but the space now allowed "under the seat in front of you" is much smaller now than it used to be. The hard-sided carrier that we preferred won't fit most of the spaces nowadays, unfortunately. Double check that whatever carrier you are planning to use will indeed fit.

And is your cat an "experienced traveler"? IF you plan to use any drugs to calm the cat, I'd strongly recommend that in addition to speaking with your vet (a given, I assume), you try the med a few times at home, first, so make sure there is no paradoxical reaction or such.

GC

Yoshi212

It's a good idea to have each bag & box itemized and make a few copies handy for any customs official to review. Also it's wise to pack a roll of tape if they decide to open any boxes. Did you clarify, preferably in writing, with the airline that they'd accept that much luggage? It probably won't be a problem but when moving you want as little hassle as possible. Having it in writing can twist the arm of a resistant agent.

alaskamatt

Call the Hungarian embassy in the USA, them that you're moving household goods to Hungary as accompanied airline luggage, and ask them which documents you might need.
And/or: Call Hungarian customs at the Budapest airport and ask them the same question.

That being said, a Google search came up with a document from a moving company which has some relevant information:
http://webportal.atlasintl.com/Custo...cs/hungary.pdf

You won't need most of those documents (e.g. POA) since you're importing and clearing your goods yourself, but items on the checklist could be useful:
- work/residence permit (bring a lot of copies!)
- inventory of items
- statement that you've owned everything for at least six months

Since you're flying LOT, I'm assuming you have a connection in Poland where you'll clear immigration but you won't be collecting your bags there.
When you collect your bags in Hungary, you will probably want to take the Red Channel (items to declare) instead of the Green or Blue (EU) lines even though you'll be arriving on a Schengen flight.
It's possible that there will be no customs staff checking and you can walk right through with all your bags, but be prepared for a possible wait in case they want to do an inspection.

Another line of thought is that you could just use the Green Channel since you presumably don't have anything extraordinary for mandatory declaration like a shotgun, wine collection, or bundles of cash, but that could provoke a less positive attitude from customs if they are there and decide to stop you for checks. Most customs officers would see that much luggage as unusual and pull you aside.

Palal

LO has a JFK-BUD and an ORD-BUD non-stop