A Solution for Family Vacation Luggage Woes: LuggageFree

While traveling through seven airports in 21 days this summer, the words “flying is more of a nightmare than ever” went through my head on more than one occasion. Dealing with luggage exacerbates airport hassles and any opportunity to deal with less of it is welcome.

Enter LuggageFree, a worldwide luggage shipping service that gives families the option of sending luggage to or from practically any destination.

My recent trip was a packing nightmare with a vast array of climates and occasions. I’m not a light packer on a good day and I needed a way to get a bag home in the middle of our trip. I found LuggageFree and gave their service a go. Survey says: double thumbs up!

LuggageFree Service Review

Service

Unlike an airline where dealing with luggage is like visiting the dentist to get a cavity filled, setting up the luggage delivery with LuggageFree was a pleasure. Service is fast and efficient. Emails keep you appraised of exactly where your luggage is in the shipment process. And if you need to pick up the phone and call, someone is there to answer the call.

The luggage is delivered to the address of your choosing. In our case, right to our front door so that there were zero retrieval logistics required.

Pricing

For Domestic shipments, there’s a flat rate by weight that varies based on the lead time for the delivery, i.e. if you are organized and can use the 5-business day window, the price is half of the 1-business day window.

A 20-pound bag delivered in five business days costs $44 to send. It’s more than what the airline charges for the first bag (second bag charges are usually more), but this is about convenience and given our limited vacation time, true ease-of-use is priceless. Golf clubs, skis, and bikes have flat rates.

LuggageFree has an on-time guarantee that stipulates if the luggage does not arrive at the specified time, there will be no charge on the shipment and they will compensate you for incidental expenses up to $500 per bag. Fair market value insurance is also included.

International pricing varies by country. I looked up Italy, for example, and see that it’s priced at $5.57 per pound. If you have young kids and need a strategy to get bulky but relatively lightweight things to your hotel or villa, at least you have a reliable option! In the not-so-distant past, shipping would have been impossible and/or totally cost-prohibitive.

LuggageFree also offers a more hands-off service for an extra $50, where all you have to do is pack your bag and they take care of paperwork and tagging. In the self-service option, they send the paperwork and tags for you to attach. Either way, it’s easy!

Head to the LuggageFree FAQ page for more information.

Relevant Links:

Flying with kids tips

Nancy’s Book List: great book recommendations from a traveling family

Editor’s Note: LuggageFree provided a media package for our first use of their service to review it. As always, our opinions are our own on Ciao Bambino.