Dealing with the Stuff of Travel

Dealing with the Stuff of Travel

My start into packing for Armenia was bright and breezy, full of confidence and a sense of abundance. The assumptions underlying this sunny approach turned out to be incorrect. "We are allowed two bags, right?" I asked Denise. Her reply was unfortunately, "I don't know."

Oops. Upon actual investigation via the Delta website I just got confused, very confused. Someone has worked long and hard on that website creating charts about baggage allowances, depending on class of ticket, origin and destination, whether one traveler is blue-eyed or a frequent flyer. It was too much for me. I was happy to get Mary on the phone who explained it all to me in English while looking at my actual itinerary. Unfortunately the news was  not great.

No, we are not allowed more than one free checked bag on international flights when we fly in steerage (I don't want to get Mary in trouble--she didn't call it steerage.). Just one and not to exceed 50 lbs., plus one carry-on and one personal item (aka laptop case). My thoughts immediately ran to a complete re-thinking of the packing already done. Then I discovered that the pain of a second bag (at least going TO Armenia, where the Delta rules apply) is only $56 IF I check it in on line. The price goes up if I wait until I get to the airport. So now I am back to breezy and thinking two bags.

A work in progress. The rugs are not going.

Coming back is another story and information is not available as to the potential damage for having excess baggage. This is because our return trip involves a stopover in London (I hope you are still with me in this labyrinth) and the Delta rules don't take over until we leave London. Thus, leaving Armenia on Air Armavia, we are limited to one checked bag not to exceed 70 lbs. So fewer items but twice as heavy? Does this make sense? Is it going to matter if it makes sense?

DiploDaughter tells me to face it and get over it now. It will cost what it will cost to get out of Armenia with the stuff we have. This brings back nightmarish memories of traveling within China as if we were playing by international rules. Unfortunately internal flights have much smaller baggage allowances, it turns out. So all the great bargains I had found shopping in every big city and byway I came to in China were eliminated by the excess baggage charges to get the junk around China on our otherwise spectacular trip to Xian, home of the terra cotta warriors. It took away a little of the charm of finding stuff in China I could have bought in any Chinatown in the US, probably cheaper. So lesson learned. No cheap tschotkes from Armenia unless they are going to be within whatever damage will be inflicted anyway. In other words, some excess is probably necessary but there are limits.

Back to the packing and decisions such as as whether to take the hot water bottle. I don't want to buy another one. This one I had to buy in a very cold Salzberg for too much money several years ago. On the other hand, it is unlikely to be very cold while I am away and when we get to London the flat is likely to have one. It's not going.