Getting to OZ

It is so fun to be a traveller in a foreign land....less fun to blog about it.  We got learn so much about baggage rules with airlines. When we booked our flight from Auckland to Perth on Jet Star using a fabulous website named Cheap-o-Air. (NEVER use Cheap-o-Air) There was much hassle in the booking process, many phone calls back and forth, with an increase in price with every call. No where in the booking processes did they ask about baggage allowance. It wasn't until we got to Auckland that we learned we needed to order an extra baggage allowance. In the states passengers are allowed one checked bag, one carry on and one personal item. The only thing that is weighed is our checked in luggage with a general allowance of 60lbs. This is not the same with Jet Star.

After learning this we decided to shift the weight of our luggage all in to one bag and have a carry on each with a personal item. We were told by friends that one of our bags wasn't carry on size though from my many flights we 'knew' it would fit in the over head compartment and if not they would check it at the gate.

When we went to check in we left one bag dangling in line so they wouldn't judge the size of it. We attempted to check one bag filled with all our heavy gear. We were then informed that our bag would be $160 and this would only cover our flight from Auckland to Sydney and not our connecting flight to Perth. Mel continued to apply pressure to have the cost cover the bag all the way to Perth but to no avail. All the time we were waiting for the airport police to surround our abandoned bag and confiscate it.

After checking in we went to go through security. Scratcher had to sneak back through the line to collect our hidden bag so we could attempt to board the plane. This of course did not go according to plan. At security check in we met 3 women that were weighing all carry on luggage to make sure that no one exceeded the 10kg limit (22lbs). For some reason laptops were removed. Maybe its because they are a magic item that doesn't weigh anything. Regardless to say the weight of our carry on was way over the limit and we had to return to check into check one more bag. We shifted our weight around and managed to put everything extra in our leopard print suit case.

Scratcher returned with the bag to the check in counter prepared to beg to not pay another $160. Luckily the man who had checked us in had left the area. Scratcher approached the women and explained the story. The women at the counter paused and then asked "where is the person that checked you in?" "I don't know but he told us it would cost us another (sobbing dramatically) $160 to get one piece of luggage to Sydney. (sob) and then to Melbourne (sob) and on all our flights (sob) I don't know how we can afford this. (Sob)" scratcher sobbingly spoke. The women paused and then in a hurried manner took our luggage and said its ok and she checked it for us. YEAH!  Drama class win!

We then flew 4 hrs to Sydney once we landed we found out we had to pay $5 Australian to take the bus from international to national airport. Of course we had no Australian so we had to hustle to get our fair. Once we got to the next terminal we prepared to beg for our luggage to get to Perth. Luckily there was a charming women who wanted to do everything she could to help us and she checked our luggage for no charge. Phew

Then we headed to the bar to drink away our stress