Shipping to the UK from BA Argentina
 

Hi
can any one help i´m going to ship my bike to the UK from Buenos Aires Argentina, can anyone recomend a shipper and agent, I´ve looked at the shipping pages on HU site, and have tryed to contact Luftansa cargo as they come highly recomended, dose any one have a contact number or e.mail address for them as i´ve tryed there web site and have yet to get any replys to e.mails i´ve sent them.
Has anyone flown there bike from BA to Europe this year and if so was it expencive. Many thanks Skip

Hi
I used Lufthansa January this year.The contact is an English guy David Wright.I think he is based in their downtown office.The contact at airport is a German woman but can't remember her name.Just start by emailing david.wright@dlh.de.He will give you the lowdown on price etc.I paid lufthansa $1000.David couldn't give me much info on what i would have to pay at Heathrow.When i arrived to pick up bike there was a £50 handling fee then the biggest shock was a custom clearance agent demanding £150 to clear the bike (welcome back to UK !).Apparently on Wednesdays customs allows you to clear it yourself without an agent.Failing that, ring round other agents for a quote in advance.
Just found number for downtown office 4314 6996 in BA.
When they pallet your bike try and get them to strap it straight onto of those flat metal pallets.(These loaders are not Lufthansa staff and will try and get some money off you for packing,glad i didn't pay up)They put mine on a flimsy wooden pallet first and strapped it using those thin banding type straps.Of course centre stand went through wood on journey making straps loose and bike arrived having looked like it had been on side.Wharehouse guys at Heathrow were great.They filled out a damage in transit form and i claimed for indicators(were broke anyway from numerous falls on my trip) and couple of bits.
Overall quite impressed apart from customs agent at Heathrow and loaders at BA.How come i can airfreight it to Canada and just pay an admin fee of 70cdn dollars and that was it.The agent at Heathrow didn't even have correct form.They downloaded a vehicle import form from the internet.
Good Luck !

Simon

Hi mate
Could you please check the e.mail address for David Wright. my e.mails to him are returened address not known. Many thanks Skip

Pete, haven't got his email, but have Walters card here. He is deputy cargo manager at airport and can be found at walter.quiring -insert @- dlh.de
As mentioned Lufthansa are favs, most folk using now, cheaper than boat unless you're lucky. around $US1K for bike and all luggage on pallet. See our blog for detailed instruction of proceedure ex Alec and Dereck. Phone No (+5411) 5480 0049
Advanced Forwarding in UK picked ours up and Mike did a very good price as we shipped out with him (as did Boz and Andy & Maya). Meant it was cleared and we picked it up at their depot near east Midlands which was easier for us, only cost a bit more than doing it yourself so worth it for those ' int north'. Mike's UK No is 01332 865 656 and www is here www.advanceforwarding.co.uk for cheapest cost you have to clear yourself.....but as you'll now getting back into your own country is a seriously demoralising business !
Hope you're still having fun out there ! Cheers Fritz

PS Pete - you aren't including the ".He" in the email to David are you ? ends .de He's still there as of April.

Fritz- Would you recommend Advanced Forwarding to air freight from UK to Argentina? There's three of us shipping there in late October, two from London and me from Edinburgh.

Cheers

Mike

I couldn't recommend them highly enough. There may be cheaper (but guess not much) but Mike is an R1150GS rider and a VERY nice guy. Give him a bell, definately recommended

Thanks Fritz- we've currently narrowed it down to a couple of sea freight companies, mainly due to cost and are looking at getting all three bikes in one crate which will be sent under one of our names. Apparently we'll only have to pay clearance costs for the one container as opposed to three separate ones (theres three of us shipping) and should be cheaper this way. Anyone know of any likely problems we can expect with doing it this way?

Cheers

Mike