Traveling with skis

[Anonymous]

We have seasonal rentals or own our own skis for our family of 5. This is the first year we are flying somewhere to ski and I’m not sure if we should plan on taking our own gear or renting in CO. If we do take them what kind of bag would you recommend for flying with 5 pairs of boots and skis, all essentially adult sized?

[Anonymous]

We are a family of two so the packing logistics are much easier, but we bring our skis/boots/poles/helmets. It is cheaper and we prefer to use our own gear. I have a ski bag that fits two pairs of skis and a boot bag that I can cram two pairs of boots and two helmets into, which can be worn as a backpack and also s. The boot bag needs to be checked, but there are also carry-on size boot bags, many of which accommodate helmets and some clothing, too. If you check a ski bag, the boot bag does not count as an extra checked bag.

Five is tricky since even two sets of ski bags and boot bags will likely be insufficient. Unless you have a couple of small kids, with smaller gear?

At the very least I would bring boots and helmets -- at least for those in the family who own their own boots. They likely fit better than what you would get as rentals. We have done that when skiing in Italy.

[Anonymous]

Ski bags - you can get a soft-side bag for about $60 and a padded bag for about $160 (or more).
Each will easily hold 2 sets of skis and poles - you may be able to get 3 pair in.
We use the soft side bag and use our ski pants for padding.
You can check and additional bag that holds boots and helmets with each ski bag at no extra cost (although many people carry these on).

Speaking of cost - if your ski bag is "oversized" (over 160 cm) - you may be charged an oversized luggage fee which can be much more than a regular checked bag fee. For example, on United regular bags cost $40/ea but oversized is $200 ea.

By using a soft side bag, we were able to keep our ski bag under the 160 cm limit and didn't have to pay the extra $$.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the PP above. We are a family of 3 and travel with our gear. If I'm not mistaken it is much cheaper to travel with your gear. The last I checked it was around 40+ per day pp to rent skis and boots. FTR, yes we do look like a traveling circus when we go skiing.

We each have a boot bag that is a carryon that holds our boots, helmets, gloves, parka shell and ski pants. I think my bag is Dakine, but many companies make them.

[Anonymous]

PP here. We traveled Delta to Utah over Christmas and our ski bag was the same amount as a regular bag. I also got a really nice skycap that told me to put one of our smaller checked bags into our carseat bag to save $35. I told him that many airlines check that only a carseat is in the bag and he looked at me and said,"Nah, nobody cares." I tipped him well.

[Anonymous]

We have double ski bags and use those. I have a backpack boot bag that also fits my helmet and I can stuff a lot of my ski clothes into it as well. I use that as a carry on on the way to skiing, and check it with the skis on the return. A ski bag and boot bag count as one piece of luggage on most airlines.

We also have big duffels that fit the boots, helmet and ski and regular clothing but you have to watch the weight on those to make sure they stay under 50 lbs (or 70 if you have status). I prefer to use the boot bag and a separate rolling bag - I can get 5-6 days worth of clothes into a carry-on size bag as long as I have most of my ski clothes in my boot bag.

I almost always bring my skis but there are a few times when I have tacked a couple days of skiing onto a work trip where I will rent. Renting, even just skis, is expensive - last year I think I paid $90/day, although I am getting high performance skis.

[Anonymous]

We are also a family of 5 that travels with our skis. Between the skis, poles, boots, helmets, we travel with two large checked bags plus 3 ski bags (and each person does a carryon, with helmet hanging off).

It's a lot to lug, but in our experience makes the ski trip so much better (not having to get to the ski rental place, having crap equipment, and also saving $$ - we ski at least 2x per year). We bought most of our equipment used (lots of good quality stuff in NoVA!)

In terms of cost - best option is to fly southwest, since every passenger gets two free bags. Alternatively, I have signed up for credit cards with airlines to get free bags (totally worth it).

[Anonymous]

Tip fly Southwest. Everyone gets 2 bags. Ski bags just have to be under 50 lbs. saves so much $$ for a family of 5.
Rent a big car or bring stuff to strap skis to roof. Or rent a car with a ski carrier.
Use big duffles and put a bunch of ski boots in them with helmets and ski clothes.

[Anonymous]

Family of 3. We always bring our skis. It’s better then rentals and boots fit great, etc…

We have 2 padded ski bags that can fit the 3 skis, 3 poles, 1 helmet, 1 pair of boots, and all our ski wear and more. 2 boot bags for other 2 boots and helmet. Each boot bag can fit 1 pair of boots and 1 helmet. We wear our ski jackets and snow boots on the plane.

Then just carry on for each of us with plenty of room left. I only pack 3-4 outfits for 1 week because we always get a condo with washer/dryer and usually end up doing 2-3 loads that week including 1 load of all ski clothes midweek. We probably could just do 2 carryons.

[Anonymous]

Agree with flying Southwest because you get to check two bags for free. Otherwise I don’t see how it’s cost-effective for 70 a person every time you fly round-trip.

[Anonymous]

Where are you going? Airline policies differ, but most allow a ski bag and a boot bag as a single piece of checked luggage. Occasionally, a gate agent will be picky about the 62” policy - some airlines specify that the ski bag can’t be longer than 62”, which is very short. Do not select “oversized luggage” when you check in online - they will definitely charge you if you do that. Sports equipment is usually exempt from the oversize fees.

Consider if you want to send your skis ahead with shipskis or similar service. You have to have an address that will accept them and you have to give yourself a healthy cushion in case there are shipping delays. Sometimes the ground transport is cost prohibitive when flying- you may need two Ubers or two rentals. Or a rental with a ski rack that requires you to unpack 5 ski bags in the rental lot to load the skis. Five pairs of skis, poles and boots will take up a lot of room.

Ski vacations can be a fun time to demo different skis. I’m guessing you have narrower skis if you are coming from the east coast, you may all want to try a wider ski in CO. We are a family of 4, and we bring our boots, but usually rent when we fly.

[Anonymous]

Op - thanks all! We have free checked bags with our airline status and credit cards so I’m not worried about the cost of checked bags. More the logistics of how to pack things and transport them there (though I did reserve a car with a “ski package”). I will look into the bags and see what I can find. My kids are 10-15 and their skis are pretty much the same size as mine. Theirs are rentals but dh and I own ours and he especially would prefer to use his own boots. You’ve all made it seem more doable than I expected. If anyone has specific bag recommendations please share!

[Anonymous]

Shipskis.com

[Anonymous]

For our family of four of skiers/snowboarders, we have one ski bag, one snowboard bag and a boot bag and manage to fit everything in those, including coats/snowpants (sometimes a spare boot ends up in a suitcase). I have on one occasion had airport officials make me take extra stuff out of the ski bag so you might want to check the policy on that (only happened once).

When we get to the airport, one of the adults typically goes and gets the car while the other and the kids waits for all the gear to come out and meets the car at the curb. (We use Turo so we don't need to wait in rental car lines and can just fetch it from a parking lot). We've been able to pull this system off since kids were young tweens. Not sure about the size of your rental or what their ski package entails, but we've found it easiest to get something that's big enough to fit the ski's inside (it's often tight!) as getting skis out and on a roof rack is the last thing we want to deal with at the airport after a long flight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op - thanks all! We have free checked bags with our airline status and credit cards so I’m not worried about the cost of checked bags. More the logistics of how to pack things and transport them there (though I did reserve a car with a “ski package”). I will look into the bags and see what I can find. My kids are 10-15 and their skis are pretty much the same size as mine. Theirs are rentals but dh and I own ours and he especially would prefer to use his own boots. You’ve all made it seem more doable than I expected. If anyone has specific bag recommendations please share!

Always take your own boots. In your case I’d bring your and DHs skis and rent the kids skis when you get there since they are already rentals. Renting just skis is easy and if you are getting regular skis it’s not too expensive.