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My girlfriend and I passed both our Cabrinha Golf bags with Air Canada at no extra charge. All our gear was in the bags.

thai airways free to take 15kgs of golf equipment/kite bag + 20kgs,they dont really seem to care about weight or if its even golf stuff on the thai end too much, i've taken 32 kg suitcase before and they just put a label on saying' heavy' and my bags are always over!
UK (being a ripoff/jobs worth) was different, they wanted to charge me for a set of golf glubs for taking my kite bag..but because i was frequent flyer i get extra luggage allowance so i gear was covered by that.

if you join an airlines airmile/rewards/members clubs you get extra luggage allowances,
thai airways are part of star alliance which includes various other airlines...so you would be covered for extra luggage to heaps of places.

staralliance.com.

p.s its free to join.

TAM (Brazil) for national travelers 23kg per person. For international it is more. TAM only weights the luggage, they don't have any policy regarding number of bags, shape, size and/or content.

I made a big bag and packed 1 flydoor, 1 north select, 3 kites and bars (sizes 12, 14 and 18). Packed the bag in such way that the ends of the bag were fatter than the center. When placing this big bag on the scale, it didn't fit, so it touched another place. Bag was under 20 kgs.

Try to take your kite as a carry-on baggage and not as a checked baggage.
Most of the times it is close to the weight limit(6kg) and if it is folded properly it fits all right on the cabin upper locker.
Moreover almost everytime the carry on baggage is not weighted.

Emirates gave me a good initial allowance of 30kg down to Cape Town from the UK but the excess charges were insane - it was about $45 per kilo each way if I remember correctly.

From the UK I usually try to fly British Airways or KLM - the basic limits are pretty low but instead of charging the absurd per kg excess prices that most airlines charge you can buy a full extra bag for a pretty reasonable price.

On BA, you get 23kg as standard then it's £32 each way for the first additional 23kg bag (assuming you're on a cheap cattle class seat in the back). Strictly speaking a kite golf bag is outside the permitted dimension limits but I've never had a problem. That means you get a total allowance of 46kg plus hand luggage for just £64 return anywhere in the world which is about the best option I've been able to find for long hauls.

Thai Airways:

- Thailand to Canada and USA: sport bag 119 USD no matter the weight
- Thailand to other international destinations: up to 277cm length 5 kg excess baggage, exceeding 277cm 8 kg excess baggage. To Germany I paid 5x 1550 THB, around 7800 THB, and the bag had 40 kg, 140 cm length

Make sure they always show you a print out on any airline, if they want to charge something else than you researched in the web.
I thought 119 USD, but unfortuntely not to Europe, so checkin told me 8 kg excess charge...then a print out came and I read it...she had no clue about the up to 277 cm and more than 277 cm...so I saw it is only 5 kg !!!

United Airlines

I recently flew from lower 48 to Maui, which i hear has gotten tough to fly out of with a golf deceiver bag without paying a $150 fee. United allows a "wakeboard" as an extra bag not subject to the size limits, but they specifically say a kiteboard will have an extra $100 fee on top of the extra bag charge. The second bag charge was $35. I put my tt in a single board bag with nothing else in it and paid the $35. I had a printout of the web page describing the rules for a wakeboard, but got no questions leaving home or maui.

kitegear is FREE when You fly Virgin Atlantic :
http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/tr ... pment.html

I did West Coast to Maui a few months back. It was $100 each way & I believe under 11 feet and under 50lbs (probably so people can bring SUP's). They were pretty lax about the 50lbs after I forked over the $100. Didn't seem to care if it was 55 or 50 or whatever.

The thing is though, if you looking at paying $100 each way you could probably rent new gear for a week or 5 days for what your paying in baggage fees. Fun to see all the new gear there!!!

JD

The porters at the Maui airport look for Deceiver Bags. Delta Airline Agents will ask you to open your bag to check for golf clubs. The fee is $175 for a kiteboard one way. I had to pay it the last time I went to Maui on the way home. No fee flying to Maui. It made me so mad, that I haven't been back.

I bought a Newind Split Board. I have taken it to Cabarete, Los Angeles, St. Maartin, Texas, Costa Rica, South Padre, TX - never had a fee charged.