MetEx House, 496a Great West Road, Hounslow, Middlesex, TW5 0TE  ·  Shipping since 1998
0800 096 38 39
📦 Unaccompanied Baggage Shipping • Air & Sea • 185 countries

Unaccompanied Baggage Shipping
from the UK Worldwide 🌐
Air freight, sea freight & door-to-door (subject to your destination)

Unaccompanied baggage shipping means your bags travel separately from you — as air freight or sea freight — rather than as checked airline luggage. We collect from your UK door and ship your unaccompanied baggage worldwide. You fly. Your bags follow. Cheaper for most customers than airline excess fees.

📋 Get a Free Quote 📞 Freephone 0800 096 38 39 💬 WhatsApp ★ Review us on Trustpilot
4–10days
Air freight
202
Countries by air
25yrs
Est. 1998
200K+
Consignments
What it means

Unaccompanied baggage is luggage sent separately from the passenger — as air freight or sea freight. You fly on your flight. Your bags travel as cargo. We collect from your UK door. You collect from the arrival airport or seaport — or we deliver door-to-door (subject to your destination). The sender and receiver must be the same person for personal effects. Freephone 0800 096 38 39.

What is unaccompanied baggage shipping?

When you ship unaccompanied baggage, your personal effects and luggage travel as cargo — separately from you and your flight. This is the standard method for anyone with more than their airline allows, anyone relocating, or anyone who simply wants a better alternative to paying airline excess fees at the check-in desk.

By air freight

4–10 working days from UK door collection to arrival airport worldwide. Most popular service. Price confirmed before collection. 185 countries.

By sea freight

3–12 weeks depending on destination. More economical for larger volumes. 185 countries. Receiver collects from arrival seaport after customs clearance.

🏠
Door-to-door

Collected from your UK door and delivered to your address abroad. Available to Australia, USA, UAE and Canada. Customs clearance handled for you.

📋
Price confirmed first

We build your shipment into our system and confirm the price before we collect. We’ll show you exactly what’s included. No excess-baggage fees at the gate. £75 non-refundable deposit secures your collection date.

Sender and receiver must be the same person

For a shipment to qualify as unaccompanied personal effects, the sender in the UK and the receiver at the destination must be the same person. This is a customs classification requirement — not our policy. If you ship your personal effects to yourself, they travel as personal effects. If a third party receives them, customs may reclassify the goods and apply duties.

⚠ Important:

The sender and receiver must be the same person for personal effects classification. Someone else can be present at the UK collection on your behalf, but the shipment must be in your name as both sender and receiver. If in doubt, call us before booking.

Where we ship unaccompanied baggage

🇦🇺
Australia
5–9 days air
🇺🇸
USA
5–9 days air
🇦🇪
UAE
4–8 days air
🇳🇬
Nigeria
4–10 days air
🇮🇳
India
4–9 days air
🇨🇦
Canada
4–9 days air
🇬🇭
Ghana
4–9 days air
🇵🇰
Pakistan
4–9 days air

ⓘ We ship unaccompanied baggage to 185 countries. If your destination is not listed, call us on 0800 096 38 39.

⚠ Shipper Liability & Storage Charges

You must respond promptly to any customs hold, query or inspection notice at the destination. Failure to respond, or submission of incorrect documentation, results in storage charges accumulating at your cost.

Packing list incomplete, vague or not matching physical contents
Tax ID, TIN, VAT, IOSS or local equivalent missing or incorrectly provided
Declared values inaccurate, understated or missing
Prohibited or restricted items found during inspection
No response to customs queries within the required timeframe
Required original documents not received before day of collection

If unsure about any item, value or document required — call us at Excess Luggage Co. on 0800 096 38 39 before you pack.

What your quote does not cover

⚠ Door-to-Door Services — Destination Charges Not Included

Your UK shipping quote does not include the following destination charges. These are levied by governing bodies and government agencies at the arrival country and are payable by you directly at destination:

Quarantine and biosecurity inspection fees — mandatory government charges, payable per consignment at destination, levied by the arrival country’s quarantine or biosecurity authority (e.g. AQIS in Australia, MPI in New Zealand). Payable per consignment at destination. Not included in your UK quote.
Government inspection fees — charges levied by customs authorities or other governing bodies where your shipment is selected for physical inspection. These are outside our control and not included in your UK quote.
Storage fees — if your shipment is held at the destination warehouse due to customs queries, incorrect documentation, missing tax IDs or failure to respond to inspection notices, storage charges accumulate at your cost. These are payable before your shipment is released.
Customs duties and taxes — any import duties, VAT, GST or local taxes assessed by the destination customs authority on your shipment are payable by you at destination.
Cargo dues and wharfage — mandatory port or airport handling charges levied by the destination authority (e.g. Ad Valorem Wharfage in South Africa, cargo dues in Nigeria). Payable per consignment at destination.

These charges are mandatory, set by the destination country’s governing bodies, and outside our control. We will advise you of known destination charges for your route at the time of booking so you can budget accordingly. If you have questions about what to expect at your destination, call us on 0800 096 38 39 before you book.

Unaccompanied baggage shipping — FAQs

What is unaccompanied baggage?
Unaccompanied baggage is luggage sent as cargo separately from the passenger. You travel on your flight. Your bags travel as air freight or sea freight. We collect from your UK door and ship worldwide. You collect from the arrival airport or seaport — or we deliver door-to-door where available.
Is unaccompanied baggage cheaper than airline excess fees? +
For most customers shipping two or more bags, yes — significantly so. Airlines charge from £60 per kilogram over allowance or from £60 per additional bag. Our air freight rate is confirmed before collection — and as long as your bags are what you told us, that’s the price you pay. Call us on 0800 096 38 39 for a direct comparison.
Does the sender and receiver have to be the same person? +
Yes — for personal effects classification the sender and receiver must be the same person. This is a customs requirement. You ship your belongings to yourself. If the receiver is a different person, customs at the destination may reclassify the shipment as a commercial import and apply duties.
How long does unaccompanied baggage shipping take? +
By air freight: 4–10 working days from UK door collection to the arrival airport, subject to space and flight availability with the carriers. By sea freight: 3–12 weeks depending on destination. These sea transit times are approximate — the actual time depends on when your LCL container finishes loading and consolidating, the vessel’s sailing date and route, any transhipment hub before the final destination, and customs clearance, so please allow a week or two either side. Door-to-door to Australia: 10–14 weeks. Canada sea: 10–20 days — one of our fastest sea routes.
What is the booking deposit? +
All bookings require a £75.00 non-refundable deposit to secure your collection date. Offset against your total shipping charge at invoice — not an additional fee.
👤
Lak Kharod
Director, Excess Luggage Co. • 28 years international shipping
Excess Luggage Co. was founded in 1998. We have shipped over 200,000 unaccompanied baggage consignments worldwide from MetEx House, Hounslow. Call us at Excess Luggage Co. on 0800 096 38 39 for a confirmed quote before we collect anything.

Ready to ship your unaccompanied baggage?

Tell us your UK postcode, destination, number of bags and when you need to ship. Price confirmed before we collect.

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