While US airlines charge you a fee for checking a suitcase, checking a Christmas tree as checked baggage on German discount airline Air Berlin will be complimentary:
Titus Johnson, Air Berlin country manager UK and Ireland, said, “Most of the demand for this comes from our German customers – it seems they can’t bear to be parted from their trees at Christmas.” [...] “As our present to everyone, we will carry the trees without making a charge.”
Air Berlin will transport trees of up to two metres (6ft 6ins) in height free of charge in the cargo compartment until Christmas Eve (December 24).
Cut trees only, one presumes. (Tough luck for the fans of rootball-laden trees.)
No mention of trees in their baggage policy online yet, though it IS in a press release.
Even then, I’m surprised that policy permits the transport of trees across borders. Any borders according to the release. Anyone wanting to fly from Dusseldorf to Miami with a tree as checked luggage is unlikely to find a friendly reception by the Department of Agriculture on American soil…
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December 18th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Yep, they’d sick those beagles on you, at risk of great harm to your ankles.
December 18th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Bizarre story. I can’t imagine anyone traveling with a Christmas tree. Maybe a Festivus pole…
But it presumably achieved what they were looking for — free publicity.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Within Europe, it’s amazing what they let through. I constantly have to remind myself that I’m no longer in NZ where even one piece of fruit in your luggage will cop a $200 fine at the border. My partner’s parents took home seeds and cuttings to Germany last week after visiting us in Barcelona – it still never ceases to amaze me that they can do this!
December 20th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
NZM – It amazes me what we CAN’T take on board, especially since 9/11. Last year. I packed a mostly used-up 110 milliliter tube of sunscreen. Not being metric-minded, I did realize that 3 ounces = 100 ML, even tho’ it was nowhere near full. Read http://travel-babel.blogspot.com/2008/11/fyi-110-ml-3-ounces.html . Then, you won’t believe what the TSA didn’t notice a few weeks later. Read http://travel-babel.blogspot.com/2008/12/tsa-tales.html