What's the best way to fly golf bag

Golf season is in full swing (pun intended). Use those unused vacation days and plan a golf getaway weekend with your buddies. But what if that requires you to fly? Airlines do allow you to check your golf bag.. but at a cost. So you've put together a guide that will make flying your clubs less of a hassle.

In your opinion, what's the best airline to use when flying your clubs?

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I just used ShipSticks this week to ship my bag from GA to MI. Very positive experience. I dropped the bag off Monday at UPS and they arrived at my hotel on Wednesday. $49.00.  I shipped the clubs in my soft side golf bag, but can use a box or hard bag as well.

If you have to pay bag fees anyway and don't feel like lugging the bag around the airport, this may be something to look into.

Southwest Airlines is the cheapest ($0), but they do have a total weight limit on a carrier bag. (If you're approaching the weight limit, packing golf balls in main luggage might make a go of it for  you.

My wife and I flew from St. Louis to Myrtle Beach in March. She was well under limit for her carrier bag, and I was 5 pounds under.

Another thing to consider: If it's just a round or two, and you've wanted to try out a new model of clubs, see if the OEM will ship you a test set to your vacation site for a nominal fee.

The absolute BEST way to get your clubs to where you're going is to use FedEx.  Take your clubs to a FedEx Office site.  They have golf club boxes that are 12 x 12 x 48" long.  They have bubble wrap and paper dunnage to protect your clubs.  My wife and I take 2 golf trips each year and ship them to wherever we're going.  We ship in order to plan arrival date based on FedEx Ground service delivery schedule.

Bonus of using this service:  Weight limit for FedEx Ground is 70 lbs.  EVERYTHING we can cram into the golf club box ships.  Clothes, shoes, the crap that has to be in plastic bags for TSA, (and you can take LARGE containers of anything) during security check.  My wife even put her hair dryer, straightener, curling irons and possibly a kitchen sink to ship in her golf club box.

You have to buy the box from FedEx for around $20, but ours have shipped 6 times to a delivery site and returned to our home.  I have to inspect, and repair with tape the boxes each time, but I'm thinking they might go a trip or 2 more before having to be replaced.

Other benefits of shipping your clubs:  We show up at the airport with ONE suitcase and a couple of carry-on bags.  That's it.  No schelpping 2 sets of clubs through the airport; fighting them out of airport onto a car rental shuttle bus. Loading into rental car, etc.  When we arrive at our destination, I've already received email delivery confirmation from FedEx on my phone.  I call front desk and ask to have the club boxes delivered to our room.  Open and unload everything and we're good to go.  We've traveled lightly and put 75% of what we need for a golf vacation into a FedEx box and had it delivered to our destination.

When you consider the cost of current airline charges, (except for SWA) shipping clubs to a resort and returning them home is a much better value.

dave

These prices are interesting...  I flew Delta this spring to Vegas.  $25 each way, for my clubs, for a total of $50.

Not sure where that site came up with those prices. Delta treats a golf bag like a piece of luggage unless it's overweight or exceeds 115 linear inches (length x width x height).

I haven't flown with my clubs but the websites for Us Airways and American say the same thing.

Never had a problem with Jet Blue, and you can sneak a little bit of stuff in there so your carry on is lighter. I suppose if you are flogging a web site, whatever. But I don't find pulling a softcase with wheels with my clubs to the rental car place, then throwing them in the trunk, that big a hassle.

Only a hassle if you get your bags off of carousel 1 and find the Taxi/shuttle area RIGHT THERE is under construction and you have to walk ALL THE WAY PAST CAROUSEL 10 at the other end. (TPA is renovating all over the place) Those prices on the chart must be for worst case scenario- extra bag, heavy and oversize or something.