Excess Baggage Shipping from India
The boxes that will not fit in the airline allowance, sent door to door for a fraction of what the airline would charge at the desk.
Why airline excess is the expensive way
Airlines price excess baggage to discourage it. Paid at the check-in desk it is charged per piece at a flat rate that bears no relation to weight or distance, and on a full flight the counter can simply refuse the bags. Travellers routinely pay more for three extra suitcases than the ticket cost.
Unaccompanied baggage is a different product entirely. Your belongings travel as cargo rather than with you, priced on actual weight and volume, and arrive at your door abroad. For anything beyond one extra bag, it is usually the cheaper option — and it removes the risk of standing at a counter being told no.
Who this is for
Excess baggage sits between a suitcase and a full household move. It is the right service when you have more than you can carry and less than a container.
- Students leaving for a university abroad with books, bedding and winter clothing
- Professionals starting an overseas assignment ahead of their family
- Families sending belongings ahead of a move rather than with it
- Anyone returning home after years in India with more than they arrived with
- People who have already checked in and discovered the allowance is short
Air or sea — the honest comparison
Air baggage moves in days and is priced on chargeable weight, so it suits clothing, documents, laptops and anything you need soon after landing. Sea baggage moves in weeks and is priced on volume, so it suits books, kitchen equipment, bedding and bulk — the things that are heavy, cheap to replace individually and expensive to fly.
Most people are best served by both: a small air consignment with what they need in the first fortnight, and a sea consignment with everything else. We will quote them separately so you can see the trade-off rather than being pushed to one.
What we do
The point of using a service rather than posting boxes is that the difficult parts are handled.
- Collection from your home anywhere in India, with boxes and packing material supplied
- Professional packing and an itemised inventory, which customs will ask for
- Export documentation and clearance from India
- Air or sea carriage, consolidated to keep the rate down
- Import clearance abroad and delivery to your address
- Tracking and a named coordinator you can actually reach
Customs is where unaccompanied baggage goes wrong
Personal effects usually attract relief from import duty at the destination, but the relief is conditional and the conditions differ by country. Most require that the goods are used and owned by you, that they arrive within a window either side of your own arrival, and that you are taking up residence rather than visiting.
The paperwork that proves this — passport, visa, an itemised valued inventory, sometimes a customs declaration form filed in person — has to be right before the goods sail, not after they land. A consignment sitting at destination while the relief claim is sorted out accrues storage charges that can exceed the freight.
We prepare the destination paperwork as part of the job and tell you plainly where a country will not grant relief, rather than discovering it at the far end.
What not to send
Some things are prohibited outright and some simply are not worth the freight. Aerosols, flammables, batteries loose in a box and perishable food are restricted or banned on both air and sea. New goods still in retail packaging undermine a used-personal-effects claim and can cost you the duty relief on the whole shipment.
We check the inventory before collection and flag anything that will cause a problem, because the cheapest intervention is the one that happens before the box is sealed.
Asked often about this service
Is this cheaper than paying the airline?
Beyond one or two extra bags, almost always — airline excess is priced per piece at a punitive rate, while unaccompanied baggage is priced on real weight or volume. For a single extra bag on a short flight the airline may still win, and we will say so.
How long does it take?
Air baggage typically lands within a week of departure plus clearance; sea baggage takes several weeks door to door depending on the route. We give a realistic window for your destination when quoting, including the clearance step rather than excluding it.
Do I have to be in the country before it arrives?
Usually yes. Most duty-relief regimes require the owner to have arrived and to hold a valid residence status, and several need you present for clearance. We time the despatch around your travel so the goods do not land before you do.
Can you collect from anywhere in India?
Yes. Collection is arranged from any address in India, with the consignment consolidated at our facility before export. Remote locations add a day or two to the schedule rather than changing the service.