Overweight baggage

RaiderHammer

What's the general rule on what airlines impose.

If you have a weight limit of 20 KG will they start charging you at 20.1 KG?

Or is there a little lee way you can get away with?

Thanks.

Alan_Bowen

There is no general rule: for the low cost carriers, they will give you not an ounce unless the check in clerk is looking to resign shortly thereafter, for old style carriers, some will turn a blind eye to an odd 1kg but for many airlines, the baggage fees are an important source of revenue. Which airline are you talking about and we might be able to give you a clearer answer?

DomTom

when i flew with easyjet and thomas cook they ignored it. i saw some people with 30kg bags and they got away with it

withabix

It seems to depend on how full the plane is as well.

Two weeks ago, Thomson were charging anything over 20kg without exception at Fuerteventura for a full plane.

This is despite the fact that the scales were overweighing by at least 5% - I'm currently waiting for a reply back from Thomson about this.

(Home digital scales and Newcastle Airport scales agreed to within 0.1kg, yet Fuerteventura scales weighed 1.5kg more despite case having EXACTLY the same contents, in fact there was actually less in the case as shampoos etc were emptier)

RaiderHammer

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

There is no general rule: for the low cost carriers, they will give you not an ounce unless the check in clerk is looking to resign shortly thereafter, for old style carriers, some will turn a blind eye to an odd 1kg but for many airlines, the baggage fees are an important source of revenue. Which airline are you talking about and we might be able to give you a clearer answer?

Not sure which airline yet either Virgin, Cathy Pacfic or Qatar Airways I suspect. Thanks.

money_saving_andy

The family and I flew from edinburgh to Genva last week with Fly Globespan and we knew before hand we had bags about 5kg over but at check in desk the woman was very friendly and we chatted away and she just said seeing as you were nice we shall forget about the 4kg which would have been 32pounds so basicly my advice is be as friendly as you can and get chatting, Will do no harm.

neilbond007

flew back from the US in january. back was 21kg
had to put some stuff in my laptop bag - plane was no where near full (US airways)

Blue264

On BA and for travel to and from the U.S. and Canada, excess baggage is charged per piece.
For all other airlines, barring some of the low cost carriers, the charge is based upon 1.5% of your air fare per kilo, unless otherwise stated on your carriers website.
It's quite difficult to work out the charge for excess baggage if you have booked a package deal because you often don't know how much your actual air fare is, but if it was £400 that makes 1.5% = £6 so you would be charged £6 per kilo.
Hope that helps...

withabix

Thomsonfly charge about £11 per kilo - putting that in perspective that's upto 10% of a typical air fare per kg....

neilbond007

Blue264 wrote: »

On BA and for travel to and from the U.S. and Canada, excess baggage is charged per piece.
For all other airlines, barring some of the low cost carriers, the charge is based upon 1.5% of your air fare per kilo, unless otherwise stated on your carriers website.
It's quite difficult to work out the charge for excess baggage if you have booked a package deal because you often don't know how much your actual air fare is, but if it was £400 that makes 1.5% = £6 so you would be charged £6 per kilo.
Hope that helps...

That's a new one on me.
Flew back with delta last year and was charged a flat fee of $25 for excess baggage. (over 50lb in weight)

Blue264

neilbond007 wrote: »

That's a new one on me.
Flew back with delta last year and was charged a flat fee of $25 for excess baggage. (over 50lb in weight)

Flew back from where? The U.S.?
If so, they charge by piece so that would show as a flat charge.

I've offered a very simplified version but if you want to look at it in depth, please check here...

http://www.frequentflyer.oag.com/traveller_services/baggage.asp