Shipping from London to the US

If you have a lot to ship home it will expensive. It might be a little cheaper if your child buys another suitcase to pack in and then brings it home with them when they come.

Thanks, Robin. My daughter has been over there for almost a year now, and has accumulated a lot of "stuff". At first I told her to have a big yardsale -- then I told her to just give stuff away and be done with it. But apparently there is a bunch of stuff she can't bear to part with. Guess I'll check to see how much Virgin Atlantic will charge for extra baggage. Yikes! This could cost a fortune!

Greetings
Actually, excess luggage on the plane is MUCH MUCH more expensive than any form of shipping. It can often be $25-$60 per extra kilo of luggage, and that adds up very quickly.

There are lots of companies which specialize in shipping items - your daughter's university, especially the international office, might have information. I've noticed a number of advertisements on online and actual bulletin boards at the uni here, and there seem to be a lot appearing at the end of the university year.

Your daughter might also want to ask around to see if there are others who will be returning at the same time and might want to combine to share a shipping container etc.

Cost is usually purely by weight unless items are very bulky - clothes in a box are probably not an issue, but heavy books can be expensive and are probably best shipped via sea.

Kate

Many thanks for your reply, Kate. My daughter apparently has a LOT of books. I told her to try to sell them in London, but she doesn't exactly know how to crack into the used book market in London. I checked with Virgin Atlantic and as I had feared, the cost would be prohibitive in my view. Next I'll try contacting carriers like DHL. I was just wondering if anyone had had any experience with these types of companies. I'm sure we'll get it over and done with somehow. Cheers!

There are tons of companies which specialize in shipping. Googling brings up options such as:

http://www.sevenseasworldwide.com/?gclid=CIvQx7S39YwCFRI7ZQodPT_eDg

http://www.studentshipping.co.uk/

Again, I would have your daughter contact the international office at her university because this is the kind of issue they deal with all the time and they may have lists of reliable companies.

Kate

Thanks Kate -- I'll have my daughter give that a try for sure. Good idea!

We were in Portsmouth England in June 2007, we were going to send souveneers home 5.5 kg was going to cost $142.00 from Portsmouth to Louisville we ended up carrying our stuff the entire trip just got another bag

Again, it's much more expensive to pay overage on a flight than to ship - we're not talking about a kilo or two here which would be worth the charge or can be stuffed in a second suitcase. A year's worth of student accumulation would cost a fortune to take on a plane - shipping is FAR cheaper.

BTW, I grabbed one of the brochures that have been set out in our department and the company is

www.excess-baggage.com

They appear to be based in London, but serve the whole UK.

Kate

Royal Mail? I'd bet their surface mail rates -- the boat -- are going to be about the lowest you find.

I'm going to have my daughter try to call DHL directly. I looked at their website and could make no sense of it whatever. Royal mail sounds like as good a bet as any. The University has been no help at all. Her last day in London is August 8, so I hope she can figure it out soon. She has apparently given away a good deal of stuff, but wants to keep many of her costly books. All her available luggage is already filled. This could cost a bundle before we're done. Many thanks for all these thoughtful and helpful tips! Cheers!