We booked a package snowboarding holiday online with Crystal this month and when we arrived at the airport we were informed that, as we had brought our own snowboards, we would have to pay an extra 30 pounds carriage per item! It’s really not that unexpected for people going on a ski-ing holiday to take their own stuff, so we felt this extra charge (not clearly mentioned anywhere during the online booking process) was unreasonable. Just a friendly warning to other potential Crystal customers!

As a challenge see where in the brochure it says it as well. It appears to list all the other add on charges (extra for going from a convenient airport, extra for only putting 5 people in a 6 bed apartment, extra for having a shower in your cubicle (sorry room in chalet) and even extra for having a balcony you will never use) but one which you think would be fundamental to a ski holiday is barely mentioned. I wonder if they also charge extra for taking your walking boots on a summer holiday.
 
Sharp practices like this give the ski holiday trade a bad name.
 
John

I’ve had a similar problem with Crystal too - nowhere during the online booking process did ski carriage options appear. I was looking out for it, having reluctantly paid the charges on numerous occasions, but this was a serious flaw in their website system. You could add on everything from seat choice to vegetarian meals etc…yet, the one charge that the majority of companies impose is nowhere to be seen.
 
I had to ring and sort this separately - so what was the point of using the online system?!!!
 
Sounds like you had your charges doubled too because you didn’t pre-book them? Outrageous. 
 
What is really irritating is when the cost to take your equipment is higher than the price you have paid for your flight!

Vote with your feet and ditch them. Have been doing ski holidays over the past few years without them and a) works out cheaper b) you get a better choice of room and c) you don’t need to fanny about at airports waiting for other UK flights to come in.
Unfortunately though paying for ski/board carriage is unavoidable (unless, I think, you use BA) but best to pay the £15 in advance and cram your board/ski bag full of heavy items as there is no real weight restriction on them - within reason. That way it reduces your weight on your main luggage, which, depending on airline, can be pretty strict.
Maybe one day in the future the Crystals/Ingham/Thomsons of this world will wake up and smell the coffee and realise that they are providing a below par service - but at the end of the day all they’re looking at is the bottom line, so practices like charging folk £30 a pop at the terminal builidng (ie no alternative) will still continue

I cannot recall actually paying the charge for going skiing. Largely because in recent years I have either driven, used the train or the airlines I have used do not charge extra for sports equipment.
 

 
Incidently, lots of airlines do not charge extra for sports equipment, AirFrance being the major one, see http://www.aph.com/news/ski-baggage-charges.htm. It appears that Lufthansa now charges, but when I used them to go to Canada they didn’t, probably due to them using different rules for transatlantic flights. And if anyone can figure out Brussels Airline’s rules then please let me know. I have never understood their ticket procedures.
 
Pity BA no longer do euopean flights except from London. They were cheep and good and flew at really convenient times.

Just to put a spanner in the works, can I suggest you don`t bother taking your skis/boards !!?? Having skied for 40 years, this last 3 years I havn`t bothered. By the time you have had them serviced, trailed them to the airport, waited for them in a remote location at the other end, paid for them, carted them on the bus, unpacked them, then do it all in reverse, it just isn`t worth it. For an extra £20-£30 you can hire in resort, equipment is usually good, you can try different gear every day if you want, and you never know if you wait long enough the skis you bought 10 years ago will probably be back in fashion again in a few years time and you can start using them again !!!P.S. I also take my boots in hand luggage, no hassle !

Where do you get your skis from Scully? The last time I hired skis they were over 100 euro for the week (8 days Saturday to Saturday). I have just checked and a pair of good skis for my Easter ski trip are 127 euro. And these are lower spec than my own skis.
 
Agreed there can be some hassle with carting skis, and I usually rent if just going for a weekend but it is a lot less than queing for over 30 minutes at the ski hire shop, discovering that they are closed over lunch so you cannot return them after skiing the last morning etc.
 
Then again, I usually drive out when skiing these days and just chucking the skis in the car is ratehr easy and I quite like just edging and waxing the skis at home . The smell of skiwax is adictive, but is it dangerous?
 
John

How do you manage to take ski boots as hand luggage, Scully?
 
I was asked if I had a pair in my rather large looking bag and was told it wasn’t permitted (fortunately I didn’t have them in there..but have thought about it). Maybe it’s just the budget airlines being difficult (Ryanair used to state ‘no boots’ in their rules), but then I reckon mine would put me over the 5kg allowance for other airlines…especially with camera gear…laptop…girlie stuff…extra clothing etc
 

A thoughtful article. I think you desreve the prize for finding the bit about the extra charge.
 
When I last flew to go skiing (not counting weekends) I flew with BA their website was clear. Skis and boots were included in the free baggage allowance and did not count towards the (IIRC) 23kg weight allowance. The skis just came around the baggage carousel at Lyon with the rest of the luggage.
 
I have heard from other newsgroups and forums that wearing of ski boots on an aircraft constitutes a safety issue (exiting the plane in an emergency) and is banned. Where boarding boots fit into this is not clear.
 
I also heard it rumoured that the introduction of extra charge for taking your own skiing equipment was to compensate the tour operator for the loss of income from their share of the ski hire. The person who recives £15 per pair of skis for taking them from the aircraft to the terminal must be very wealthy.

Hi Everyone, re the boots in hand luggage, I bought a bag which allows my boots to fit on top of each other like a jigsaw rather than side by side ( its meant for a laptop ) and comes within the size regulations. when closed no one can tell as it doesn`t look like a boot bag. The only other things in the bag are my travel documents and my compact camera. (Sorry Wendy but I know it must be difficult when you ladies have to carry all your girlie things as well !!).
Re John and the ski hire, I know that different resorts charge different prices but it is a case of haggling and the charm offensive approach. I honestly have always got a good deal and never had to wait more than 5 minutes to be sorted out. Just got back from Champoluc and paid 75 euro for superior carvers for the week. They were all too happy for me to change them when I liked ( got through 3 pairs ) so I was able to see which i liked the best. P.S. Just to be controvertial, I find skiing a bit like golf, it`s the person behind the tools that matter. Some of my best rounds were with a half set of old Johnny Millers. I can ski on most things and lets face it the choice out there is massive so it`s good to have a change. They`re a bit like cars now, if they didn`t do the job they wouldn`t get onto the market !!! I await with baited breath!

Um! I have never tried haggling the price of hire skis down. We all do when buying skis so why we don’t when renting I do not know. I suppose it is the much more person processing factory of hire shops that stops us haggling - and the thought that the 20 people behind you are getting annoyed. I think 20 minutes is the fastest the family have got through a hire shop. Perhaps we just don’t go to the same places as you. The last 2 hires were in Charmrouse and Les Sept Laux and both were very busy with a very limited supply of skis.
 
BTW you must also be gettig an excellent exchange rate. The rate I get converts 75 euros to £55, significantly more than the £20 to £30 you are paying. Do you get this by charm and haggling as well?
 
I do not play golf so do not understand the analogy, but skis are amazingly different and what suits one doesn’t necessarily suit another.
 
John

Hi John, you`re right at £55. After I get the skis serviced and pay for them to fly to europe that`s the £20-£30 extra I was talking about. I personally prefer the non-hassle of travelling ski free. As for haggling, why not try it? For some reason it`s done all over the world but us Brits are scared of it. This isn`t Marks & Sparks we`re dealing with, and it`s great fun and usually you end up with good deals and friendlier people that you are dealing with. Good luck if you try.

We’ve used Crystal twice, both times for chalets in Meribel-Mottaret, and won’t do it again in a hurry. They were fine the first time, in 2006, but this year they were disorganised and there was evidence of costcutting.
 
We carefully chose flights that would get us there early and leave late (Gatwick-Chambery), only to get a letter four weeks before we left, informing us that our flights had been changed to Gatwick-Lyon, and that on the day we left Meribel we’d have to get up at 4am! I wasn’t having that but it was an almighty faff to get them changed - and we had to fly from Bristol, far less convenient for us. We had to pay an even bigger surcharge, and when our flights were changed to Lyon there was no mention of refunding the £29 each we’d already paid to fly Gatwick-Chambery.
 
Our transfer was a joke. We waited an hour and a half at Chambery for other flights to come in, and then the journey itself took a whopping four hours. Traffic was no worse than normal, it was the interminable stops - in Moutiers, Brides-les-Bains and Meribel - and the fact that there was only one rep on the whole coach to sort everyone out. We worked out that door-to-door, we could just about have driven ourselves from the UK in the time it took Crystal to get us there.
 
We may use them again for accommodation - though I doubt it - but we’ll make our own travel arrangements.

A little late on the discussions i know! but in case you read this - there are a lot of tour operators that charge ski carriage and this is usually advised up front. For most it is a way of getting additional income!
 
Ski Power - have chalets in 3 Valleys - we offer flights and tranfers Gatwick to Chambery and we do not charge ski carriage. Be careful also on weight allowance - we are very clear in our literature that if carrying skis and boots - that the boots form part of the main luggage allowance. Skis/boards do not. They are in addition. Also worth mentioning that if you are a couple or a group, you can usually share your overall allowance so long as 1 bag does not exceed a certain weight (check with your tour op or flight carrier).
Regarding Ski Higher - there are a lot of on line options now - but be careful as what you see is not always what you get!. Take the advise of the Tour operator who will know the ski higher set up in resort. Ski Power for example gove a 10% discount on hire cost and offer a mobiel service whereby the ski hire co. come to the chalet fit out and deliver equiment that evening and wil collect at the end of the week.
 
Pip - Ski Power Ltd
 

Just for the record BRISTOL AIRPORT do not allow ski boots in hand luggage - there are several signs in the aiport advising this and I’ve seen people been turned back at security to check their boots in when they have ignored/been oblivious to this rule.
 
Dave

Going back to the original comments made, having used the Crystal website myself it’s not as though the ski carriage option / charge is hidden. It’s under the "ski equipment" tab - pretty easy to find if you ask me.
 
I don’t understand the complaint - you have your 20kg allowance then you pay extra for your skis. If your ski bag made up part of the 20kg allowance then you could argue it’s a harsh additional cost.