Weighing luggage at check in....

Chimaera

Given the very strict guidlines laid down by the likes of Ryanair, Easyjet et al I am always really careful to weigh my luggage at home and just to be sure at the airport too (sad I know but you can't be too careful ).

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any legislation relating to the accuracy and servicing of the scales at airport check ins. I would have thought that they should have to work within set tolerances but how can the airlines prove that they are accurate? Given that it costs people severely if they are over the limit I was wondering if there might be recourse if a maintenance/servicing schedule relating to the scales hadn't been adhered to and also if anyone who was found to have overweight luggage had ever asked for a 're-weigh' on another set of scales? I know that if I weigh myself on my scales at home it is invariably different to the scales say in my doctor's surgery - I always say the lightest weight was the accurate one! :rotfl:

Just a thought - I'd be very interested if anyone can shed light on this.

kayl0rz

You would assume that they have to calibrate their scales to make sure they are accurate. and if they do you'd assume they would have proof to back it up if they get questioned about how accurate they are!

if i was weighing mine at home and they were under, and found to be over at the airport i would 100% ask for a re-weigh! Although ive not done it before.

safesound

I work in retail and once a week before opening someone goes around with a set of known weights (100g, 500g and 1kg) and checks each set of scales for accuracy. This is then logged in a record book, and if a scale is out it is marked not to be used and a technical service call is placed. About twice a year we have random checks from trading standards and our scales are checked then so I'm assuming the airports get the same.

richardw

http://www.gatwick-airport-guide.co.uk/blog/2010/10/gatwick-scales-inaccurate/

moonrakerz

Chimaera wrote: »

I know that if I weigh myself on my scales at home it is invariably different to the scales say in my doctor's surgery -

So why do you assume that the ones at the airport are "wrong" if they show a different weight to yours at home ?

Knowing what the "budget" (joke !) airlines are like I would make sure that I had several kilos in hand when I set off

babe4000

I check mine on both a luggage hand held device and my bathroom scales...ryanair are the worst..try to keep one step ahead ;o)

Superbiatch

I travelled with Ryanair today and the aisrport scales matched my own done at home, slightly overweight but they let me on believe it or not .

Anyhow i'd have thought the airport would be respsonsible for the check in desks as they don't always use the same ones, so surely its not down to the airline to check? (at least i'd hope not with easyjet or ryanair )

Chimaera

moonrakerz wrote: »

So why do you assume that the ones at the airport are "wrong" if they show a different weight to yours at home ?

Knowing what the "budget" (joke !) airlines are like I would make sure that I had several kilos in hand when I set off

I have never stated that I assumed they that they are wrong.

I have merely asked if anyone could comment on whether they were aware of calibration checks. It could well be that my scales are mildly inaccurate, hence the second check at the airport just to be sure. As other posters I too ensure that my luggage is lighter than the quoted baggage allowance in order to provide leeway just in case.

shudd1967

Interesting!! Last year flew for the first timewith Ryan air and on return we had to queue for sometime waiting for check in to open at lanzaroye airport.

The check in desk was the last but one and we saw people going up and weighing their luggage on the check in desk next to it. This went on and people started to weigh their bags on 2 or 3 or 4 different scales at the various open check in desks - every single one weighed differently.

I weighed our bag on one scale 14.5, the next one 14.8 the next one 14.2. When we finally checked in at Ryanairs desk it was 15.2.........hmmm!!!

pleasedelete

We had the opposite last week. Weighed 4 bags on an empty scale at airport. Got all to same weight by moving stuff but all 0.5 kg over.

Went to Ryanair to check in. All a different weight. All under.

SteveJW

Was only thinking about this last week whilst on holiday

I have a friend in the weighing machine business and as far as I am aware scales etc used for the sale of goods have to be calibrated annually, my interpretation would be that as these scales are used to charge for the carriage of luggage they need to be calibrated. In addition very strict tolerances apply

I would have thought a call to the local Trading Standards would provide the relevant information.

I'm sure no company would deliberately use scales that were inaccurate. Oh how naive didn't a recent Watchdog program reveal some airlines using undersized baskets to check the size of your hand luggage