Airline Baggage Allowance Vs. Shipping In

[jadams5751]

I'm moving to Chiang Mai in a few weeks from USA. We will be on non-immigrant B & O visas. Is it possible to simply bring extra baggage allowance on the flight (several extra suitcases), instead of using a shipping company and waiting ~6 weeks? I don't want to appear to be going around the law - and that's not my intention, just trying to find the simplest method for the money designated as shipping allowance. One benefit of shipping company is professional packing. Other thoughts? thanks!

[MJo]

extra baggage costs a lot. I paid 1200 USD couple of years ago carrying some equipment for my employee. I think i was 40 kg's over or something like that. If you can keep the allowance regardless how much it costs then i would just pack it myself and send via EMS of some other reasonably priced company.

[Jimjim]

I don't see how bring extra baggage would be against the law but it'd probably be much cheaper to ship it over.

[Guest mascot]

Use an unaccompnied baggage forwarding company, you or they will pack and it should arrive the same time as you although not on the same flight, I sent 50kg packed by self, from sydney to hong kong cost 300 aust, about a third of the excess baggage cost if you take it with you.

[wildoates]

When I moved here 1 1/2 years ago, I brought a extra suitcase, it cost me about $100 total.

[mrpostma]

I moved to BKK 2 years ago, checked-in 5 bags at airport without any problems with either the U.S. or Thai Customs. Each extra bag (approx. 50 lbs each) ran about $130 each) compared to one boxed (60 lbs) I shipped via USPS-air freight that ran about $400. (big mistake).The other option would have been to ship by boat, but that would have taken 2-3 months. But did run into problems with Thai Customs when I didn't itemize the contents of that one box and was fined another $125 for the added work I caused them. That box took extra week to arrive to my condo on top of the original 4-5 day delivery that I paid for hoping the items would be here when I arrived. A year ago I traveled back to the U.S. and returned with 3 checked-in bags, and still no problems with U.S. or Thai Customs.

[theoldgit]

I sent cases as unaccompanied baggage when I moved ro Thailand, it was a lot cheaper than excess baggage and whilst it actually travelled on the same aircraft as me I had to go to the customs area a couple of days later to retrieve them.

There are a lot of "facilitators" there to "help you" as soon as you arrive, I had to be fairly robust with my dealings with them, their original starting point for their fee was the same as it cost me to ship the stuff over, and whilst I substantially reduced their fee I am sure I was still ripped off, though it was still a lot cheaper overall.

[phetaroi]

I'm moving to Chiang Mai in a few weeks from USA. We will be on non-immigrant B & O visas. Is it possible to simply bring extra baggage allowance on the flight (several extra suitcases), instead of using a shipping company and waiting ~6 weeks? I don't want to appear to be going around the law - and that's not my intention, just trying to find the simplest method for the money designated as shipping allowance. One benefit of shipping company is professional packing. Other thoughts? thanks!

[jadams5751]

We have about $1000 shipping allowance, and initial estimates from the shipping companies are they could ship about 99 kg for that price. This is why I considered several extra suitcases, which is expensive but similar cost to the other shipping options.

How does unaccompanied baggage work? Is it duty free? We were told we cannot receive a shipment for about 6 weeks (until work permit is processed).