[CQ-Contest] Baggage Charges for Expeditions

[Geoff Howard]

Contesters,

Is there anyone in the contesting community who works at American 
Airlines corporate (and is willing to identify yourself)?

I'm interested in investigating the possibility of getting ham 
equipment classified as sports equipment for baggage charge purposes. 
To explore this, we need a contact inside of AA. The recent large 
increases in baggage charges are rapidly making it prohibitive for us 
to continue to operate overseas. (An oversize bag, for example, is 
now $200. A third piece is $150.) Because of these charges, we have 
had to decide this week to hold back considerable important equipment 
that was scheduled to go to PJ2T this fall.

Anybody else running into showstopper baggage charges on DXpeditions? 
Any ideas or advice for us?

     Thanks,

           - Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX, for the PJ2T crews