From Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, United States - August, 2006

Of the five shipments I did on my trip, this was the easiest and most straightforward. After calling Qantas in advance and getting conflicting infomation from the sales people, we went direct to the cargo terminal in Sydney.

We had contacted agents and had gotten quotes of anywhere from $3,000-$5,000AUD. All of the agents also required that we crate the bike. Qantas was the only airline that would deal with us directly, the others would only deal with agents.

Roger at the Qantas Freight terminal was incredibly helpful and accomodating. Not only we were able to ship the bike uncrated, but Roger calculated the weight based on the actual weight and not the larger volumetric weight. Our bike with all the gear came in at 300 kilos, volumetric weight would have been close to 400 kilos.

The only thing we had to do on our own was get the Dangerous Goods Form. There is a company nearby called Dangerous Goods Management (DGM) which can take care of this for you. Roger will help you coordinate this.

Roger will schedule your flight according to your needs, the Sydney-LAX flight goes once a day. He got our flight scheduled the day after we dropped off the bike.

The other important thing you will need to do is schedule Australian Customs to check your bike prior to shipping and stamp out the carnet. The Customs office is right next to the International Terminal. We scheduled Customs and dropped off the bike to Qantas at the same time. Easy. Again, Roger can help you coordinate this.

The bike just needs to have the fuel at 1/4 tank and the battery disconnected.

Cost Breakdown for one 1989 Honda Transalp:
$4.60/kg x 300kg = $1380AUD
Surcharges and other charges $311AUD
Dangerous Goods Form $95.70AUD
Pickup at Qantas at LAX $30USD
Total $1827AUD

Picking up the bike in Los Angeles is easy too. You will first need to go to the Qantas Freight office and collect the paperwork. Then over to US Customs to process the carnet and your shipping paperwork. US Customs is not very familiar with the carnet, so that may take some time. We returned home with a California registered motorcycle so it was pretty simple for us. After US Customs clears your papers (no charge) you can go back to Qantas Freight to collect your bike. Qantas will charge you a $30USD fee to collect your bike.

Another traveller I met had a similar positive experience with Qantas shipping his motorcycle from Brisbane. I think Qantas is the way to go for air shipping from Australia, but you will have to deal directly with the folks at the cargo terminal.