PNG Baggage restrictions

Are you sure you can't check baggage all the way through? I've done it after arriving at BNE on at least 4 different airlines. Just go to the transfer desk, show the bag claim number, and they do the rest. Seems weird that it would require entering Australia only to check in again, rather than going to the transfer desk while in transit. But I have not had to do this myself so can't be sure.

If you did have to go through immigration and customs with your luggage, check in upstairs, then go back through the process the other direction, 2 hours is comfortable. BNE is not large and rarely very congested, and once you're checked in you're safe.

I called Virgin Australia, and I have seen a write up on experiences traveling to png. My question to you is, did they tag you baggage, on you original departure to go to POM. Or did the transfer desk do this for you?

Do you know if virgin Australia coming in from lax, and air nuigini are in the same terminal?

Appreciate your help. This trip is stressing me out.

Dustin

In my travels through BNE the bag was always tagged from my origin all the way to POM. That is why the transfer desk could handle it. If VA says they can't tag it all the way then you have no choice but collecting your luggage, going through immigration and customs, checking in, and going back through in the other direction. But don't stress, there is only 1 small international terminal and 2 hours is plenty.

Are you sure you can't check baggage all the way through? I've done it after arriving at BNE on at least 4 different airlines. Just go to the transfer desk, show the bag claim number, and they do the rest. Seems weird that it would require entering Australia only to check in again, rather than going to the transfer desk while in transit. But I have not had to do this myself so can't be sure.

If you did have to go through immigration and customs with your luggage, check in upstairs, then go back through the process the other direction, 2 hours is comfortable. BNE is not large and rarely very congested, and once you're checked in you're safe.

I am pretty sure. Though I will update this thread after my trip. Apparently air nuigini doesn't want to play nice with virgin Australia, because VA has created competition by not screwing the consumer flying into png. So they don't want to work with them at all. The more I read about the travel issues....the costs....the worrying about safety...png is really not appealing. I am excited for the trip, but I have stressed about this more than any other trip I have had. We will see if it's all for not. We are going to be about 30 lbs over each for the interior flight. So hopefully they don't charge us $2000. Which is what I read from some blogs.

I did learn yesterday, that there is a later flight in the day from Bne to Pom. So I am not as concerned with the 2 layover anymore. I thought it was once a day kind of deal. If we miss it they said we would just get put on that later flight.

Dustin

Have a great time at Tuwali Dustin. I haven't been there myself but friends who have really enjoyed it. I like PNG diving and have been to Walindi and Tufi resorts and a couple of times to Madang. Going to Lissenung Island this October.

Now that I am back from the trip, I thought I would update the post to help others in the future.

- our flights on air new nuigini had pre arranged baggage allowances. 46kgs for the BNE to POM leg, and 32 kgs for the POM to GUR domestics flight.

- we checked in with the 46kgs each for the BNE to POM flight. So we thought we were going to have to pay overage for the domestic. Which had heard about $5 used per kilo over for domestic. So no fees for international

- when we checked in for the domestic, I told them that we were divers and they gave us an extra 15 kilos for free. So we ended up not paying anything for baggage. Both ways, we did the diving trick. And that worked. However I think the key was getting the prearranged 32 kilos for the domestic. It's normally less than that. It actually stated it on our itinerary print out.

- carry ons. We each had a think tank back back. They weighted probably 15 kilos at least and were packed full. They didn't ask us to weight them so it wasn't an issue. I didn't see them weighing other either. However most people didn't have a huge backpack and a roller bag. I suspect this would raise some alarms.

- Virgin Australia. Will not and cannot check your bags onto air nuigini. In BNE you must collect your bags and go through customs and immigration...where we were sniffed by dogs. Then had to re check in with VA. And go through security etc...our flight arrived early so this helped. But the 2 hour layover would have been tough to hit, but we would have made it, barely.

Thanks everyone for their help. Btw. Air nuigjni was surprisingly not an issues at all. All of our flights were on time. I recommend taking early morning domestic flights.

Dustin