I Fed EXed 4 balls and a 4 ball bag to my hotel in Alb.  Then shipped it back to illinois for 100.00.  If your shipping to your hotel you may want to call to see if they have a service charge.  Some do some dont.  Just to be sure.


just my opinion
the kidd

I just returned from ABQ travelling on Northwest Airlines.  I checked four balls in two bags as luggage and carried my clothes onboard in a carryon bag for free.  Come May of this year Northwest will only allow one bag of 50 pounds as baggage.  The second bag will cost you 25 bucks but this is still fairly reasonable based on shipping costs with the likes of DHL/FEDEX/UPS.  I believe this to be the case with most of the carriers today since what one does the other follows….

I see the pro's and con's of taking them on your airline flight or shipping them through UPS/DHL/FEDEX. I'm sure each bases their cost on weight and size/shape of the parcel. Does anyone know off hand how the airlines handle your checked bag or equipment if it is damaged?

I bowl with a teammate that "worked" at NWA and he had some stories of how they handle the luggage when a flight gets in.  I can now understand why the handles and wheels on those type of bags don't last long when you check them. Balls are hard and durable, but I'm sure they can encounter or develop damage if/when the bag is dropped.

I've always used totes with pretty good success. This last time, the seams on both bags started to rip out so that means 2 new totes for me . This could have been normal wear and tear or mistreatment, I don't know, but I could have used the $60.00 toward something else .

I guess to get back to the topic of this post, the airlines now charge $25.00 for bags over 50 lbs. It sounds like they will start only allowing one free checked bag with a charge to the 2nd. If it's $25.00 per extra bag, that's $50.00 round trip per extra bag. When that happens, is that comparable to the cost you encountered this year with shipping 4 balls out and shipping 6 balls back?

Thanks for those who have posted. Everyone has different approaches. I'm participating in a tournament in Portland, Oregon next year with my kids and am looking at the options of getting our equipment there.