Phuket-europe Unaccompanied Baggage

[Filer]

Posting this in Phuket forum as it's Phuket-specific, not just a general query re unaccompanied baggage (personal effects) out of Thailand. Hope this is OK with mods.

I'm having problems finding an economic means of sending two bags of unaccompanied baggage (20 kilos each) by air cargo out of Phuket to a minorEuropean destination. I'm looking for anyone with any experience of this. I already have one Phuket cargo agent looking for a solution for me, but I thought it worth while to ask for members' experience (or any recommended agent in Phuket). There are probably some of solutions available in Bangkok, but I'm here in Phuket.

I checked with Thai Airways and their local air cargo agent in Phuket and it seems that they will only accepted such shipments in Phuket for carrying to Thai Air on-line destinations. They will not eccept such cargo for transfer to another airline in Europe for the final part of the journey.

There is no airline in Phuket, and not even in Bangkok, nor any airline alliance, which flies all the way to where I want to go, so my unaccompanied bags will have to go via more than one carrier. I've done this a number of times in the past in various parts of the world and it has never been a problem. Maybe this is just Thailand, or Thai Airways being uncooperative, or maybe airline cargo practices have changed for security reasopns or something.

The regular rate for unaccompanied baggage from Thailand and neighbouring parts of SE Asia to European destinations is of the order of 260 Baht per kilo (plus some small admin charges for the shipment), which is OK.

Specifically I want to send the bags from Phuket to Greece and in particular to the international airport at Corfu in Greece, where I will pick them up on their arrival. Thai Air can carry them to Athens, Greece (the nearest airport Thai flies to), but will not direct them on to one of the two local carriers which take cargo from Athens on to Corfu. "No can do."

The only alternative at present seems to be DHL in Phuket where I can fill 2 of their standard 20kg boxes (unfortunately with less volume than my 2 bags) and they will take them all the way from Phuket to destination -- BUT for the exorbitant cost of some 9,300 baht per box (= 465 baht per kilo), since unfortunately Greece falls into one of their highest cost zones for some reason, dearer than going to USA even.

Any bright ideas would be welcome. By the way, I can't and don't want to take the stuff accompanied. I'm already max'd out with business class tickets all the way and gold card extra weight allowance.

[steelepulse]

What about EMS or another int'l courier service?  Do the bags really need to be there ASAP, or could you post these bags?

Posting this in Phuket forum as it's Phuket-specific, not just a general query re unaccompanied baggage (personal effects) out of Thailand. Hope this is OK with mods.

I'm having problems finding an economic means of sending two bags of unaccompanied baggage (20 kilos each) by air cargo out of Phuket to a minorEuropean destination. I'm looking for anyone with any experience of this. I already have one Phuket cargo agent looking for a solution for me, but I thought it worth while to ask for members' experience (or any recommended agent in Phuket). There are probably some of solutions available in Bangkok, but I'm here in Phuket.

I checked with Thai Airways and their local air cargo agent in Phuket and it seems that they will only accepted such shipments in Phuket for carrying to Thai Air on-line destinations. They will not eccept such cargo for transfer to another airline in Europe for the final part of the journey.

There is no airline in Phuket, and not even in Bangkok, nor any airline alliance, which flies all the way to where I want to go, so my unaccompanied bags will have to go via more than one carrier. I've done this a number of times in the past in various parts of the world and it has never been a problem. Maybe this is just Thailand, or Thai Airways being uncooperative, or maybe airline cargo practices have changed for security reasopns or something.

The regular rate for unaccompanied baggage from Thailand and neighbouring parts of SE Asia to European destinations is of the order of 260 Baht per kilo (plus some small admin charges for the shipment), which is OK.

Specifically I want to send the bags from Phuket to Greece and in particular to the international airport at Corfu in Greece, where I will pick them up on their arrival. Thai Air can carry them to Athens, Greece (the nearest airport Thai flies to), but will not direct them on to one of the two local carriers which take cargo from Athens on to Corfu. "No can do."

The only alternative at present seems to be DHL in Phuket where I can fill 2 of their standard 20kg boxes (unfortunately with less volume than my 2 bags) and they will take them all the way from Phuket to destination -- BUT for the exorbitant cost of some 9,300 baht per box (= 465 baht per kilo), since unfortunately Greece falls into one of their highest cost zones for some reason, dearer than going to USA even.

Any bright ideas would be welcome. By the way, I can't and don't want to take the stuff accompanied. I'm already max'd out with business class tickets all the way and gold card extra weight allowance.

[Filer]

What about EMS or another int'l courier service?  Do the bags really need to be there ASAP, or could you post these bags?

Thanks. For this stuff, DHL is the cheapest of the international courier services to Europe; the other ones available here including EMS cost more. Post is not an option -- haven't checked the cost, but there would be bureaucratic customs problems.

The airlines and the freight handling community seem largely to have given up on forwarding small consignments via multiple connecting carriers and now essentially do only point-to-point on their own or alliance networks, leaving the small stuff that requires connections to the international courier companies -- which can do a good job to almost anywhere in the world, but at excessive prices. It would be nice to see some EU or USA investigations into price collusion here, as we have recently seen into some of the big airlines' freight rate practices.