So, I leave Switzerland end of next week and need to move a little bit of stuff back to the US. I don't have any furniture or anything large, mainly just clothes and other small things. I think the best way to move 5 x 25-30 kg back to the US, would be via unaccompanied baggage. I am not looking for 'movers,' I would deliver the goods to the Zurich airport and have them picked up by somebody in the US.
Does anybody have any experience with this or know of any good companies for sending stuff via unaccompanied baggage? Any idea how much this might cost? I've found a few places using google that estimate about USD 1100 but don't know how reliable they are.
I have used Panalpina for boxed-freight consolidation. (100-200kg consignments, multi-part non-palletised) for my business. I don't know if they deal with consumers, but they were a good service.
Ah, scrub that. They don't do personal effects transport. The post may be useful to someone though :-)
Their website isn't very straight forward and seems to be a little more catering to companies. I can't figure out if Lufthansa would ship only 4-5 boxes. Perhaps, I should just call them for a quote.
So update, I ended up going through XS baggage http://www.xsbaggage.com/ and I was really happy with their service. Their customer service agent was really friendly, really helpful. The company picked up my stuff from my flat and I chose to pick it up at the airport but they will also deliver it to your door. How long it takes depends on how quickly they can get excess space on a flight. They picked it up on the 13th and it will arrive at it's destination on the 25th. The total cost for 7 items with a weight of 110 kg was USD $630 with an additional USD $180 for them to pick up my stuff.
There is also a charge for the handling of goods at the local airport and that varies by airport. If you clear your own customs that cost is less.
All in all, I was very happy with their service and would recommend them for anybody who needs to get stuff from one continent to another.
I just had Freight Navigator from Zurich come and pick up my stuff from Lausanne (200CHF) and they are flying 10 boxes of 125 KG total for 825 CHF from Zurich to Denver. (I am not having delivery to my door in Denver)