A question for all you Galapagos officianados

[Tobagoman]

The wife and I are flying down to the Ecuador on the 6th of April, leaving out of Guayaquil for the Galapagos on the 9th to dive with Deep Blue. Will we be flying with Aeregal for the hop over to the islands. The airlines bagage limits say only one check in bag at 44 lbs and one carry on at 15 lbs.
Usually for diving I have one or two check in bags, a carry on bag and a personal item (my reg bag). How strict are they on these baggage limits? Can you do two check-in bags even though they say only one? Do they allow you a personal item (purse, bag, etc... ) like US airline companies do?

If I have to stick to these limits, I don't know how I can get all my gear, camera stuff, clothes and other neccessities to my final destination. There must be some type of leeway or it would be impossible for divers to make this trip. So what is up?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Galapagos Gallagher]

Hi TobagoMan

My name is John Gallagher. I operate an agency here.

Normally AeroGal is not strict, I would take on 2 smaller pieces of carry-on. Worst case the extra baggage fee is normally low 10-20 USD.

TAME is the better of the two airlines if its not too late to change

Best Regards,

John

 

[Tobagoman]

Thanks John. All the itineraries have been set by Deep Blue. If I can get away with two small carry-on bags I may manage.

 

[tel52]

My wife's roller carry-on bag containing our regs, computers, masks, swimsuits, change of cloths and minimal toiletries (essentially everything we need for a couple of days if our checks bags are lost) weighed a lot more than 15 lbs. I don't recall it being weighed, or if it was, they didn't charge us anything.

We also had a 50 lb. limit on a domestic leg of our trip. Usually we carry one gear bag (~70 lbs), one personal bag, the roller carry-on and my camera backpack between us. To meet all the weight/number limits (except carry-on weight) we wound up getting a couple lightweight collapsible clam-shell rollerbags from Lands' End. Clothes went in the bottom section and dive gear up top. Getting everything under 50 lbs was a challenge, but we made it. The alternative, of course, is to go ahead and pay the baggage surcharge, but this trip was already so expensive I didn't want to incur any more expense than necessary.

I have a trip report a couple posts down the page http://www.kydiver.net/diving_the_galapagos_islands.htm If you haven't seen it yet, it may contain a few tips. Have a great trip, you are going to love diving the Galapagos!

Link to Lands' End bag: http://www.landsend.com/pp/WheeledDuffelBags-67259_128983_-1.html?sid=2607144168605148030&CM_MERCH=PGGT_67259

 

[Doc]

TAME absolutely nailed us to the cross on our last trip. My smiling wife was our "front man". When the baggage guy announced the additional charges in $USD per kilo, she asked me for my ID and she presented her travel industry ID and smiled after asking nicely. He dropped the charge by half. We scampered away.

TAME's limits are way higher than your airline.

Outbound from the Galloping Pogos, the charged us for extra weight full price and simply asked for payment. There was no discussion or looking at the ID's or the three entries and exits in our passports. At that point, they knew they had you.

It is South America. It is capricious. Hey- you were going anyway. All of a sudden you're worried? Take a VISA Card.

The overweight charges weren't bvad. We have done liveaboards, but find land based just as good and a lot more diverse...at 1/3 of the price. See my profile for our land-based Galapagos trip report.

This is my idea of a real wheeled duffel. Nothin could be better. http://highsierrasport.com/ItemDetail.jsp?itemNum=5536

 

[rhtgalapagos]

Hola from Galapagos,

Some answers to your questions and more at http://rhtgalapagos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=90 and an interesting article about diving from a friend of ours on our blog at http://rhtgalapagos.wordpress.com/2006/12/28/only-in-galapagos/ . Enjoy.

Saludos
rene
www.rhtgalapagos.com

 

[Galapagos Gallagher]

Tame baggage limit is 25kg or 55lbs.
AeroGal website states 40lbs limit.

 

[ChrisM]

We were checked in as a group with Aerogal (with LOTS of luggage and cameras) and didn't get any overweight charges, even though I got nailed LAX to Houston for a heavy bag (50+)

 

[ChrisM]

We have done liveaboards, but find land based just as good and a lot more diverse...at 1/3 of the price. See my profile for our land-based Galapagos trip report.

Clarifying, you've done liveaboards in the Galapagos to Wolf and Darwin? Because those sights were the most amazing diving I have ever done. There is some great diving to be had within day boat reach for sure, but there is NOTHING like Darwin's Arch and Landslide.

[edit] - just read (most of) your report, sounds like you've done a Galap. liveaboard. At any rate, it's an excellent report for land based diving.

 

[Driznik]

Hi,

What's the best way to find out about availability or make a reservation with Deep Blue? I've been to their site (http://www.deepbluegalapagos.com/) and I can't find any contact information, dates or rates.

I've spent a little quality time with Google, and I've seen a couple of other sites like http://galapagosadventures.com/DeepBlueTrips/ that looks like it has the same look and feel as the deep blue site, and other broker sites that mention it but don't have any detailed date and rate information.

Does deep blue only book through brokers? The only other liveaboards I've done have been Hughes and Aggressor boats which were direct booking.

Thanks for your help,

Drew