Not a critisism, but why r u loathe to give to a charity shop if you cant take the excess out.
Heart foundation cancer research and cerebal palsy to name a few are all exellent charitys that are helped from the profits of our charity shops
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please do not use text style words taximania
Fiona ht mod

Because I live in quite a wealthy area and a lot of the clothes are brand new. The people who live in my locality can and do donate to charities by donating second hand things and therefore I think the clothes etc can be put to better use. Also my sister works for Puma who donate quite a lot, they do not allow her to pass them on to charity shops, they have their own charities they support but do not mind us taking them to CWT or other such charities so long as they are not sold off on market stalls. My friends who have their own stationery company also donate all the art/craft items for us as well. Both these companies make the donations to us on the understanding that we take them out to Goa, having read the CWT newsletters. If we cannot find a way of getting any excess luggage allowance we will have to try and limit our own luggage and buy clothes to wear in Goa and just take out what we can. We are going out again in December for 3 weeks as well so can take some then as well. In the meantime we won't accept any more donations until we find a way of getting them out to Goa.

I know Monarch allow 20 kilos per person + 5 kilos hand luggage, so if you are off for 2 weeks and are sensible with what you take, you should be up to around 15 kilos each,so that should give you some space to get most of your charity stuff in. If you then contacted Monarch again explaining what you are prepared to do, they may listen and grant you the extra - worth a try ?
Other than that, you know Goa, so leaving most clothes at home and buying out there ain't a bad option.
Good luck, and a good effort.
Spike.

We still have contact details for people at Monarch so will try our luck with them. Even if they let us pay reduced rate for excess it would be worth it otherwise as you say we will take as little as we can of personal things and buy them out there. We do like a good excuse to go shopping.

Just a little tip

With each empty suitcase weighing in around 5 kg, you can save on quite a bit of weight by not using them.
If you pack using those lightweight strong nylon woven laundry/IKEA type bags you can gain yourselves a fair bit of extra packing room ( take delicate stuff in hand luggage though)

Cheers
Rog

I know what you mean. My suitcase weighs around 7 kilos when it is empty. I will think about that one, thanks.

Hi BrenLiz as far as I knew it was CWT who arrange the extra luggage allowance on your behalf? They did for me. The only agent you need to contact directly is First Choice, and ive done that past twice with no problems whatsoever.
Good luck I hope you get everything sorted out.

There is now a message on CWT website to say Monarch will no longer allow excess luggage due to fuel prices.

Hi All,

Yes we were sad to find out that Monarch stopping giving excess lugagge for all charities, although I do still recommend contacting them directly and requesting as you might find someone who is willing to waver your luggage.

I do have to say that Monarch have been really generous to us over the past couple of years and I do thank them for all their help

For details about bring extra luggage please do have a look here

http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Charity-Luggage.htm

and here

http://www.childrenwalkingtall.com/Luggage.htm

Just had a reply from Monarch after sending 4 e-mails with no response. Wasn't good news though, they have refused us extra luggage allowance which is a shame as we have well over 40 kilos of clothes, stationery, party stuff, etc. We will just have to take out what we can over the next few holidays. We have friends going out with us in December so they may be able to help. I wasn't impressed they waited until the day before we fly out to tell us after I had been e-mailing them for so many weeks, although I think we had already come to the conclusion it was going to be a no go.

Would it be cheaper to box it up and post it surface or air to goa, i have done this several times when i have been on holiday and bought to much it works out much cheaper than paying excess baggage. Last time i did it i sent a box from Australia to home u.k only cost the price of 1kg by air and it weighed 8kg. Just a

Indian post is not reliable. Myself and friends over here have had stuff posted out to us, very rare that you receive it if it's of any value!!
GFF xx

Not a good idea then.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have to agree with GFF. We have posted things out before and they have never got to their destination. We will get everything there eventually, will just have to do it in more runs. At least its taught me how to travel lighter as far as my own belongings are concerned.

Suprisingly we do get post come through (most of the time). As long as you let us know it's coming we can look out for it. Obviously it's better if it's lighter (costs less) but we have had clothes, shoes, sweets (please don't send sweets!!) bandages etc sent by post. Sometimes there doesn't seem to be ryhme or reason for the length of time it takes, but I'd say at least 90% of what is sent gets through... It think only two or three parcels haven't in the last 3 years (that we know about).