Australia to South America
 

Has someone done something like this?
I plan getting to Australia in two or three months but I'd like to know if it's possible and easy getting to south America from OZ.
Ship? Plane?, Any suggestions?

By ship - yes its possible but will take quite a long time as the consignment will go via the usual routes - Singapore - Japan - USA - S. America, and would likely be unloaded/reloaded at a few ports along the way. Its unlikely that you would get a single container doing an Australia to S America trip - just not enough trade in that direction. You might be lucky getting one of the international house removers consolidating a container and can get a bike crate in with that.

Air Freight direct is more likely. But again freight usually follows the usual trade routes to the USA and then down to S America.

Hi, I've just flown my bike in from New Zealand to Santiago, Chile, The flight it was put on started in Sydney, so must be possible to load their.
It's a Lan Chile flight, but I bought my personal ticket through Qantas, which leads me to say that if you get to Sydney go and speak to the staff at Qantas freight at the Airport. these guys were fantastic when I wanted to ship to New Zealand, so I'm sure they will help you. If you ring them up you can't get a straight answer from the call centre, better to call in on them, the guy I spoke to was called Terry if that helps!

We've flewn 2 bikes from Brisbane to Buenos Aires and I must admit that I messed it up by believing the advise from an inexperienced freight forwarder employee. Should have done all main dealings in public and gone straight to Qantas as well. Or LAN chile or Malaysian airlines. I got fobbed off by the Qantas phone centre and keep hearing that dealing with the people on the ground works the treat. It's expensive on that route though. You can choose to either remove the volume by crating or simply just show up. Have your dangerous good certificate ready. It's easy to get and they're near the airport as well. Doing that you only have to deal with the carrier and there is no reason to get fobbed off. Shipping is a nightmare on that route. Outbound from Peru the container was meant to go via Japan only. It ended up going via Hamburg.

Thank you all!
I'll try flying, seems to be faster..

Hey mate,

I'm from Auckland and my girlfriend and I are looking to do a two up motorbike trip round South America. We've booked flights to Santiago Chile for October and trying to sort bike shipping (for a Suzuki Vstrom DL650). I saw your post and it said you've flown one over recently.

Can you give me some advice on costs, who you used, what the deal was with dealing with people in Santiago, do you have a carnet? I'm getting different answers from different people.

We're still thinking about whether to ship by sea or air, so any though on that would be appreciated.

Cheers

Reece

You don't need a Carnet for S.A

Sydney to Santiago
 

Hi there

I've done this route in 2009 and it was very simple and straightforward.

Follow the link and you'll read some of the details. Australia

If you then go to the next update on the web site you can read through what happened. I have all the original airbills and can dig them out if you want me to.

Also have all the GPS coordinates of everything as far as I can remember.

I know you do not NEED a carnet for latin America but I tell you it doesn't half simplify things at borders. I also know this is a can of worms re. not needing one but in my experience it is true.

I turned up at many borders up through the Americas and more or less breezed through because of the Carnet. Meanwhile, other people were bashing through reams of Spanish paperwork......................................

When we were trying to get home from America (eventually came back through Toronto Canada due to problems getting 'personal effects' i.e. EVERYTHING BUT THE BIKE out of the states) many of the shippers we tried ASKED if we had a Carnet as they said 'it simplifies things'.

Just a thought.................

Regards

Bernard and Cathy