PNG - Baggage Concerns

[Oceanshutter]

Hello everyone,

For those that have traveled with Air Nuigini from Port Moresby to Tawali - Alotau (GUR).

They are saying 70 lbs total for weight....Including carry on. Additional baggage is $5 USD for every additional Kilo. Which is fine, but it says that if the airplane is weight restricted it won't go with you. This has me a little nervous, especially since I am planing on packing and checking 2 dslr's (in pelicans) and dive gear for myself and my wife. With all the dive gear and photo and video gear, pelicans, laptops etc...we are pushing 300 pounds total. I know crazy.

What is the likelihood that the plane with be overweight?

Recent experiences with Air Nuigini and overweight baggage would be appreciated. If you have any other words of wisdom..Please feel free to share. I have won a 7 day trip hotel stay, and the travel seems so ridiculous I am considering not even going.

Dustin

 

[ocdiver1]

Hey Dustin, I've flowed Air Niugini many times in four trips to PNG and, while they are incredibly unreliable and it would not surprise me to have almost "anything" happen, I've not personally experienced an issue with baggage weight, or bags not going due to the plane being overweight. The last time I flew them was in September, and they didn't weight my carry ons. I do have some friends, however, who had their bags offloaded because the airline apparently felt some oil palms being carried as cargo were more important that their bags. Flying POM to Alotau you'd also have the options of flying APNG instead, which I've always regarded as the "lesser of two evils" I can tell you PNG is worth all the hassles and Tawali/Milne Bay are fantastic.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'd figure out how to decrease my personal baggage weight or take the hit. A free trip to dive PNG? Are you kidding me, you lucky sob!

 

[Oceanshutter]

I'd figure out how to decrease my personal baggage weight or take the hit. A free trip to dive PNG? Are you kidding me, you lucky sob!

Keep in mind the "free trip". Is still going to cost over $8k for me and my wife. I won a 7 day at tawali, but have to pay for my wife, airfare for both of us, which is ridiculous priced hotels, baggage etc... Plus you don't goto png for just 7 days, so we are adding on an additional 4 days at tawali. Still not cheap.

---------- Post added February 11th, 2014 at 07:58 PM ----------

Hey Dustin, I've flowed Air Niugini many times in four trips to PNG and, while they are incredibly unreliable and it would not surprise me to have almost "anything" happen, I've not personally experienced an issue with baggage weight, or bags not going due to the plane being overweight. The last time I flew them was in September, and they didn't weight my carry ons. I do have some friends, however, who had their bags offloaded because the airline apparently felt some oil palms being carried as cargo were more important that their bags. Flying POM to Alotau you'd also have the options of flying APNG instead, which I've always regarded as the "lesser of two evils" I can tell you PNG is worth all the hassles and Tawali/Milne Bay are fantastic.

i wasn't planning on doing them as carry ons as the camera carry ons can be about 40 pounds. So if they say we can't carry them on, I don't want to check them in a carry on state. I have heard the Brisbane airports can be sticklers on carrion weight so I was just planning on checking....thoughts?

 

[clownfishsydney]

Brisbane Airport security is run by idiots who make their own interpretation of the rules. I have never flown through there without seeing at least 50% of divers have problems with what they have as carry-on luggage.

A big chance with an airline in a second or third world country is that your luggage (or some of it) will get left behind. It will happen more when there are more divers on the flight who also insist on bringing more than the permitted free luggage. If you have a large group on the same plane, then you will be stuffed. Personally, I would cut the amount of gear you take. Even flying to UK for 5.5 weeks and taking all our dive gear, cameras, extra regs, drysuits and undergarments we got it within the 80 kg limit for checked and carry-on luggage.

 

[Wingy]

Flying into Gurney/Alotoa is worth the cost of any extra baggage for the sheer fun of seeing the airport itself

I would not be suprised if some of your luggage did not make it with you - its PNG. Our crate of tomatoes and crate of wine bottles went missing mid air......but you wont regret a moment, its worth the diving. Im with clownfish, is everything you are planning to take absolutely necessary?.

 

[Oceanshutter]

Flying into Gurney/Alotoa is worth the cost of any extra baggage for the sheer fun of seeing the airport itself

I would not be suprised if some of your luggage did not make it with you - its PNG. Our crate of tomatoes and crate of wine bottles went missing mid air......but you wont regret a moment, its worth the diving. Im with clownfish, is everything you are planning to take absolutely necessary?.

Well...the cameras, and laptops are necessary. without that, the trip would be ruined. The diving gear would be nice....but if it didn't make it, it would be a bummer, but not the end of the world. Cloths....nice to have for the 2 weeks away....but again, could get around it.

the 2 camera setups with wide angle and macro...with pelican cases. Are 100 pounds. Plus the laptop and spare hard drive to store the vid's and pics.

 

[Gabster]

I was there last summer (although not flying to Alotau but other internal flight). I showed my dive cert card and it was fine - they give you an extra 10kgs I think. There may be information on their website.

Hope the trip goes well.

 

[mjrob]

So let me pose a question as an Ugly American. Does money smooth anything out with Air Nuingini? If we toss some Kinas at them, will our hassles decrease, our luggage actually make it and we might even make our connections? We fly out of Brisbane at 9 am and I'm hoping that having most of the day will play to our favor in arriving at Walindi as scheduled. We're on MV Fabrina and, well, once the boat sails......

 

[Peter69_56]

Nothing is certain in PNG, except the unreliability. We got there and were caught up with one guy dealing with all the flight transfers. He took nearly 2 hrs and then said we will miss our plane to Great Britain. We then explained that all the people he was holding were the total plane load so they could leave empty or wait. Surprise surprise they waited.

I think our allowance was 30 kg each and they were fine with that.

Qantas tried to stich us up as we had Qantas flights from Melb to Brisbane, then Virgin to Tonga. All was booked via an airline as a package from Melb but they used Qantas from Melbourne to Brisbane. The Bris-Tonga leg was 30 kg no prob, but Qantas would only allow 23 kg with no sporting allowance. We then asked if we could purchase additional luggage ( which we have done in the past for maybe $80 return for the additional 7 kg). Qantas refused to allow it, we could however buy it at the Qantas check in at some $30/kg if we wished but were not allowed to buy it at the cheaper rate over the phone prior (as we had done many times before). What a scam. After much arguing and involving the airline ombudsman they "did us a favour" and allowed 30 kg each. So if you book multi legs and want additional luggage make sure you get it sorted on all legs before paying or you could be in for a surprise.

PNG airlines are much better than Real Tonga Airlines, (Has anyone else had bad experience with Real Tong Airlines - Tonga Forum - TripAdvisor)