Oversized baggage, and getting it into a car

Not on the carousel. Anything too long or too awkward for the belt system goes to a separate point, variously signed as oversized, outsize or bulky baggage, and it is usually a hatch or a short belt at the end of the hall away from the main carousels. At a large terminal that can be a two-minute walk from where the rest of your luggage is arriving.

It also frequently appears at a different time. Oversized items are loaded and unloaded separately, so a ski bag can be waiting before your suitcases or twenty minutes after them, and there is no way to predict which. If you are travelling with both, expect to split the party or make two trips, and add fifteen minutes to your exit estimate.

• A separate hatch or belt, usually at the end of the hall
• Different timing from the main carousel, either way
• Add fifteen minutes to a normal arrival estimate
• Bicycles and instruments almost always go here

A cello or a double bass is not merely large, it is fragile and valuable, and the thing that matters is not whether it fits but how it travels. A hard case laid flat in a V-Class with the seats configured properly is fine. A cello wedged upright between suitcases is not, and no musician will accept it.

Tell us it is an instrument rather than a large item, because the answer is different. Sometimes the right solution is a seat rather than a boot: a cello belted into a seat travels better than anything else, and it is a normal request rather than an eccentric one. Guitars and violins are straightforward and fit anywhere.

Here is the arithmetic people miss. Two E-Class cars from Heathrow to central London come to appreciably more than a single V-Class, so the van wins on price whenever everything fits. But four passengers, four large cases, two golf bags and four sets of clubs do not fit a V-Class, and at that point the choice is a Sprinter — much the dearest of the three — or two E-Class cars with one boot carrying the clubs.

Two cars is often the cheaper and more comfortable answer for a sporting party, and it has a second advantage: the group can split at the far end, which on a golf trip usually happens anyway. Where it fails is when the party wants to travel together and talk, in which case the single larger vehicle is worth the difference.

The case where we will refuse is overloading. A boot that will not close is not a solution, and a ski bag across a rear seat with a passenger beside it is a genuine safety problem in a stop. If it does not fit, it does not go, and the time to discover that is at the booking rather than in the car park.

A boxed bicycle is roughly the size of a large suitcase laid flat but it is rigid, so it needs a flat floor rather than a boot. A V-Class with a row folded takes one comfortably and two at a squeeze. A soft bike bag is easier and a bike in a rigid travel case is harder, and it is worth saying which you have.

Pushchairs, golf trolleys, wheelchairs and travel cots all fall into the same category of things that are individually small and collectively decisive. Three of them is a large case worth of space. The useful habit is to describe the load rather than count the bags: "two large cases, a folded buggy, a travel cot and a set of clubs" tells us everything, and "four bags" tells us nothing.

• Describe the load, do not just count the bags
• A boxed bicycle needs floor space, not boot space
• Buggies, cots and trolleys add up faster than you expect
• Say if anything is fragile, valuable or must not lie flat