Strategic Self Shippin': Get Around Baggage Limitations and Save Some Strain

Lugging luggage is a pain if you're not driving. Planes are notorious for only including a tiny amount of baggage with your ticket and hitting you with $20-50 charges for each added piece (super-budget carriers like Frontier and Spirit are the most scandalous about this, as we've discussed in a previous post). You get a little more space on trains and planes, but there are still restrictions and complications.

Here's a tactic I like to use to get around this - shipping to yourself using "hold at location" services. Basically, there are a bunch of different places you can ship stuff to, and list yourself as the recipient. You then show up when you get to your destination, flash your ID and pick up your own package.

Options of this nature include:

1) FedEx Office

2) Amtrak Express Shipping

3) Greyhound Package Express

4) The UPS Store

5) USPS General Delivery

You might be thinking, but Ryan, this sounds like a nice luxury service for the wealthy elite, but how practical is it for the budget-minded traveler? Well, I'm hardly the wealthy elite, and I do it fairly often. It's actually extremely useful in a variety of circumstances, and can help to save money (either by way of dodging a baggage fee, or sending yourself stuff you'd need to procure on site at greater cost).

Below I'll discuss each option in greater detail, moving from my first to least favorite.

1) FedEx Office & Partner Locations

This was already my favorite option for years since FedEx Ground small package shipping is ultra-cheap if you're going along one of their main "arteries" (like I've paid around 10 bucks to send a decent-sized box of clothes and miscellaneous up to 520 miles).

It got even better about a year back when they partnered up with the Albertsons family of grocery stores (which includes Safeway, Vons, etc.) and Walgreens to greatly expand their pick-up and drop-off locations. One of my only complaints was that smaller / more rural areas sometimes don't have a FedEx office, but just about every area I go to has either a Walgreens or one of the Albertsons-subsidiary groceries.

They hold packages for five business days upon arrival. The only downside is that you can't ship suitcases and bags as-is, you'll have to put everything in a cardboard box.

2) The UPS Store

The UPS Store's service is pretty much the same as FedEx Office, the only reason it's second for me is that there's a more limited amount of locations.

3) Greyhound Package Express

Greyhound's package shipping service has the advantage of letting you ship pretty much anything as-is: all types of bags, suitcases or boxes are fair game.

It used to be the cheapest possible option too, but prices have really snuck up in recent years. Since the packages are shipped underneath the buses, prices can also be influenced by how busy a route is. Up until recently I still used it regularly, because they offered a 40% discount to members of the Veterans Advantage program; however, they just cut that down last year to 25%.

4) USPS General Delivery

USPS (Post Office) rates are usually at least competitive with FedEx Ground, but often I find FedEx is better. General Delivery is mostly useful in smaller / more rural areas that don't have a Fedex Office or UPS Store.

Be aware that you can't send general delivery to just any post office; there's usually only one that does it in each city, maybe two in larger cities. USPS also still doesn't have any kind of centralized list or easy search feature to find offices that accept general delivery, you just have to check the individual web pages for each post office in the area you're headed to, or call them.

5) Amtrak Express Shipping

Amtrak's shipping service is more geared to moving house. It's a flat $67 for up to 100 pounds of stuff, and then there's a cheap per-pound rate for anything over that (with a maximum of 500 pounds in one shipment). $67 is a lot to ship a suitcase, but could be a good deal for a band or a technology outfit shipping equipment or something of that nature.

This isn't my least favorite because it's a bad service; far from it, it's actually one of the most reliable. It's just the narrow circumstances of the bulk shipping, combined with the fact that you can only ship to a manned Amtrak station, which are usually only found in bigger cities. You also have to pick up when the station is open, which can be an issue at certain stations like Salt Lake City, which is only open from 10 PM - 5 AM since that's the only time trains come through!

They have a newer service called Luggage Free designed specifically for smaller amounts of luggage, but it's pretty pricey as it's a door to door service.

Outside the U.S.?

This post was U.S.-centric since, y'know, that's the only place I've done it. I'd love to hear about similar "ship-to-self" opportunities from around the world, though - feel free to send in tips we can add to the page!