We are flying with Singapore Airlines on 2nd March with a 2 night stopover in Singapore.
I emailed the airline to confirm 40kgs but the reply said that we have to be on a permanant visa with indefinite stay
We are on a SIR 495 - 3 year temporary visa
Has anyone flown on SQ with this type of visa and had 40kgs or indeed had 40 kgs refused????

Am I going to have to unpack already :sigh:

Hi Donna

We phoned Singapore airlines at the weekend to ask about this too so we can book the flights as soon as we hear anything but they said we could not have extra allowance as not a PR visa :sign68: so I am interested too in anyone that managed to get this on SIR.

Lisa :D

My better half flew in last week on Cathay Pacific, on a special migration ticket and got the 40 kilos. He is on a Prospective Spouse Visa which is a temporary visa.

Hi

We have booked with Singapore too, yes they said the visa needs to say it is permanent, not a temporary visa.
somewhere in the visa it needs to say "holding permit indefinately, or full permit resident"
Nightmare, we have 2 kids and need loads of stuff so it looks like we will be taking hardly any clothes ourselves.
It is 25kg for main luggage each and 7kg hand luggage

Other airlines are not as strict, so i have heard.
If you go over it is £32 per kilo so be careful

Chelle

Thanks Chelle

I am so disappointed - thought I would have space for all sorts including toys for the kids and sheets and stuff
Oh well, guess I'll have to buy new when I arrive :P
The kids stuff comes first - I went a bit mad in the sales so they would have more summery clothes when they arrived and I can't possibly wait for it all to come by ship!

I rang Singapore just before Christmas and the operator said as we were booking a one way fare we could have 30kg - however she would not put that in writing. I do have an email from them stating you can take 25kg each though.

Lea

Hi Donna,

My family and I flew out of Manchester with Singapore Airlines on the 13th November last year. Prior to flying out the information we had was that we were only allowed 25Kg per person.

However when we got to the airport we were informed at the check-in desk that we were actually allowed 40Kg, but you could only have 30Kg in any one case due to the fact it would be too heavy to lift (Health and safety issues - probably). Therefore you would probably get away with 30Kg per person.

One of our cases was just over 29Kg and we didn't get charged any excess.

Hope this helps.

Dave.

Hi
We had problems with Singapore Airlines.But they turned out good in the end.We are on a PR though.We had to book our flight before they gave us the extra baggage allowance.Make sure you speak to the manager as the girls on the desk ,only seem to no how to book tickets ,and get a bit uptight if you keep on at them for extra baggage allowance.My wife had a few heated phone calls.
I think it makes a difference if you have a single ticket as well comparde to a return.Just need to speak to the right person.

Dean

We're on SIR, but had validated our visa in March, so could only have 20kg baggage when we came in Nov. Both flights with Sing.
Denise :(

We came in August with Singapore on a SIR and had 40 kg each, (which we used to the very last gram!). At the travel agents we told them that we were moving over to Australia and she phoned someone in Singapore airlines and that was it, we got the 40kgs added on there and then :yeehah: . We did have to give a copy of our visa page to the travel agent to fax to singapore.
Denise (Craig not Ross!!)

We too had issue with Singapore .. sort out explainable byt was awful when stood there for 30 mins at check in desk with major queues!

Guy on next check in was letting loads of people through with no charge with nearly double their allowance and yet our girl wanted to charge us about £600 ... we haggled a lot and got her down to £300 and handed over cash ... then asked for a receipt ... at this point the girly backed down and said actually we could have all our extra for free ... for which we were grateful but always wonder why she'd got a problem with a receipt!

We had one way by the way for permanent visa so did have double allowance but just went a bit mad with the packing ... my word of advice is - if this happens have all the cr*p in one suitcase - ours was spread over 10 and couldn't face dumping, sorting etc so made problem worse!

Happy packing!

I used to work at Manchester and had connections with teh Singapore staff. I got a few families sorted out with the 40kgs.

No point in kicking off with the check in staff, they do as they have been told and are sub contracted by the Airlines to check you in. They will have done training on Singapores rules but ultimately the Singapore supervisor on the day is the one that has the final say so.

Another time you can get had by the check in staff, is when using a regional airport to get to your main departure point. At Newcastle for example boarding a British Midland, they may try you for excess baggage saying that you are only allowed 25kgs on the Singapore from LHR. This happened to me years ago on the way to Kuwait from Leeds via LHR. I pointed out the one way ticket and the girl said it wasn't them but Emirates that I needed to be concerned with. I had 2 well heavy cases but they took them. At LHR the Emirates check in girl didn't bat an eyelid. Saved myself 200 quid.


As far as the indefinite stay is concerned on an SIR visa, you are permitted to stay indefinately, you just don't have the full visa yet. They couldn't even sell you a one way ticket unless you were able to stay here. On a tourist visa you get 3 months, in which case you would have to have a return ticket. If you get collared for something in immigration in Australia that the airline should have picked up, ie an incorrect visa, the airline will be responsible for repatriating you back to the UK. They WILL NOT want to have to do that I assure you.

On the subject of validation trips and losing the 40kgs, we did this, I had already cleared the subject with my contacts. If you have validated your visa but are flying out on a one way ticket, is that not the time that you need the 40kgs. I think that you could reasonably argue that point and win whether at Manchester or Heathrow.

The other thing to be aware of is that there are several firms close to the airports that will ship excess baggage for a lot less than you will be charged at checkin. Also the carrier you are using may have a deal with a local freight company saving you a bundle too.

At Manchester AFI is the one I have the number for 0161 4988199. You could drop stuff off the day before or I think they will pick your stuff up from departures in a dire emergency.


I have made lots of posts on this subject in the past and a search for my screen name would probably reveal some useful info.

Gavin

You have given good advice about this many times in the past Gavin, however I have never saved the thread (as I am going to with this one!) :doh: I have previously searched your screen name thinking it would help me but it only shows topics you started not ones you replied to.

I remember you mentioning the companies near Manchester but when I tried to find info through Man Airport website or Yell.com, I didn't seem to come up with much, but didn't really know how to look for it.

Thanks for all the really useful linfo - I think I may just chance it :D

I didn't have much luck searching for companies, so I rang Manchester Airport to ask which companies would deal with excess baggage and they gave me the following names and numbers -

Vanteck 0161 4364111

Evolution 08452 700670

Hi Gavin
PM,d you,

Keith... :loopy: