Luggage weight/size concerns

[kenexx]

My husband and I had 2 checked bags each . All 4 bags were very close to 70 lbs each. We made the same flight from Cairns to Sydney on Quantas with no additional charges.

I would go back to Quantas and try and get a refund however be warned Quantas does not have a customer first policy.

 

Lucky dawn see the other thread where the OP now advises they flew Virgin Blue from Cairns to Sydney, so in this case the airline was entitled to charge their relevant excess baggage charges.

 

So in this case Qantas (no U) certainly would not have a customer first policy seeing they didn't fly Qantas on this sector :p

 

Maurice

[lisalovlee33]

A few things to think about..

We were on Qantas from Toronto - Chicago - LAX - Auckland and return by Syd - LAX - Chicago - Toronto. The US/Canada segments flying on AA.

We had no problem bringing on our "slightly" oversized carry ons for Qantas and AA. (was more concer with Qantas). Each carry on was definitely over the limit by a lot.

Qantas allows 70lbs or so for checked luggage and AA, 50lbs. On the way there, our bags was less than 50lbs, so no problem with AA staff.

On the return, since, our bags are sent all the way to Toronto, some thought it would be OK to put up to about 70lbs (not us). So, at the airport, everything was great, bags were tagged all the way to final destination, all boarding passes given so one would assume it should not be a problem. Over customs, we simply carry our bags and put in on the another caurosel to send the bags to AA. UNFORTUNATELY, our LAX - Chicago flight was canceled, so we needed to get reticketed. Of course, that means the check in bags don't get to be placed on the caurosel after customs, but at the ticketing counter. Some of our friends were hit by fines for baggages weighing over 50lbs. Just our observations, hope it helps.

[Johanna7]

Lisa, thank you for telling us about your recent experience. Yes, that chicago can be a problem. We are going through that coming and going. United going to Sydney, Qantas returning from Auckland via LA & Chicago. I will keep ours under 50 lbs each as that is what United allows. Of course I may have to stuff my jacket pockets. They have zippers anyway.

 

We did the cruise and precruise 3 years ago on the Sapphire but now going with Celebrity Mercury. Leaving Toronto on the Feb. 15th. I wonder if things had changed and apparently not with Qantas but United is different.

 

I have a large purse as well as a carry-on and put a smaller purse in there. I am always asked if I have a laptop in there. No, just a lot of stuff including my camera and anything else I can think of.

 

Johanna

[lisalovlee33]

Lisa, thank you for telling us about your recent experience. Yes, that chicago can be a problem. We are going through that coming and going. United going to Sydney, Qantas returning from Auckland via LA & Chicago. I will keep ours under 50 lbs each as that is what United allows. Of course I may have to stuff my jacket pockets. They have zippers anyway.

 

We did the cruise and precruise 3 years ago on the Sapphire but now going with Celebrity Mercury. Leaving Toronto on the Feb. 15th. I wonder if things had changed and apparently not with Qantas but United is different.

 

I have a large purse as well as a carry-on and put a smaller purse in there. I am always asked if I have a laptop in there. No, just a lot of stuff including my camera and anything else I can think of.

 

Johanna

 

Hey fellow Tntonian. If you have any questions on the ports or ship, let me know. I was on the same ship. Just wrote a review, waiting for review or something. Watch out for it, lots of info on our trip.

[mrscruisequeen]

Hi All...I am reading this thread and see alot about Quantas allowances, but not much about ANZ.

 

I'm not concerned about the checked baggage, just my carry on. ANZ website says no carry on over 15#.

Has anyone ever seen them weighing carry ons?

 

Now, I have nice, fairly new Swiss Army luggage, but my carry on weighs 11# alone!!!

You see my problem.

If I think I can get by with it, I'll just be overweigh by a few pounds, and leave room in my check in for items if they say anything.:eek:

 

Thanks in advance for any information anyone can offer.

 

Jeanne

[Globaliser]

Now, I have nice, fairly new Swiss Army luggage, but my carry on weighs 11# alone!!!

You see my problem.

Solution: Get a more sensible carry-on bag. An empty soft backpack should only weigh 1-2 pounds.

[jannandjohn]

. We flew Qantas from LAX to Sydney then connected to Cairns. We each had 2 checked bags and one carry on. No problems. After enjoying our 4 nights in Port Douglas we went to the airport for our return flight to Sydney to catch the Sapphire Princess. What a shock when we were told we could only have one checked bag and our carry on was too large. We were told our other checked bag would cost $135 and this did not include the carry on. There were 5 of us, all with the same luggage. We tried to plead our case. We finally spoke to a supervisor who agreed to allow each of us to pay $100 each for our luggage. So we had to pay $100 to get our luggage to Sydney.

 

The rule I have learned is one checked bag, 20 Kg, which is approximatley 40 lbs.

 

A very expensive lesson!

 

Sounds to me, that you caught a Virgin Blue flight from Cairns to Sydney, ...you only get the added luggage lbs if you travelled on Qantas or their cheapy Jetstar.(in addition to your USA-AUS flights on Qantas)

Virgin is strict on luggage within OZ and has no connection with Qantas.

We have been caught the same way..travelled from Brisbane to La and back via Sydney...allowed 2 bags each. .no problem..but getting home to Brisbane from Sydney on Virgin they "got" us..!!...so now we always make sure no trip to go via Sydney, if the Airline makes us go via Sydney to the USA , we get a different airline that goes Brisbane-USA-Brisbane.....AIR NZ FOR US NOW.

[whiskers9]

We actually had to give up our carry on bag while waiting to board Qantas - along without about 95% of the other passengers. Their size allowance is not the normal 22 inch size. I had seen the web site prior to traveling which gave the dimensions but didn't pay enough attention! If you have a soft type of pack or duffel you should be ok, but any normal 22 inch case is not going to pass.

[Karynanne]

Our previous carry-on weighed 9# empty, so we purchased a lite-weight "Heys" 20" size. It's just 5.4#. It doesn't take much to fill it to 15#, which is the allotted amount for Air New Zealand.

[whynotnow]

I was the original poster of this thread and want to give some feedback on the luggage/flights concerns I had. We got back a few days ago from our 28 night New Zealand/Australia land and cruise vacation with no problems and many wonderful memories.

 

Our original flight out was from Myrtle Beach, SC to Newark, NJ to Los Angeles to Auckland. We missed the NJ/LA and LA/Auckland flights due to our SC flight leaving late. When we got to LA, we were rebooked on a Quantas flight that was going to Brisbane. After a 2 1/2 hour wait there, we boarded a flight to Auckland, so we ended up on 4 different flights.

 

Our return was from Adelaide to Sydney, Sydney to LA, LA to Cincinnati, and Cincinnati to Myrtle Beach, again 4 different flights.

 

I had purchased a lightweight 16" quilted bag for my carry on and my husband used a 20" lightweight nylon dufflebag, both worked beautifully and were not weighed anywhere. I did not see any abuse of carry on luggage on any of our flights.

 

Going out, we each had 2 check ins, each weighing well under the 50 pound US allowance. Returning home, we had 8 bottles of fabulous wine to bring back. Quantas very kindly labeled each of our check ins with big "Wine" labels. In LA, Delta marked each check in also. Happy to say the bottles made it home beautifully. Our one big suitcase weighed in at 54 pounds, but we did not have to pay any extra charge. I'm only surmising that was because 2 of our checkins each weighed under 35 pounds and the other large check in was 47 pounds.

 

It was our first time flying Quantas and it was a great experience; we'd fly them again anywhere.

[Globaliser]

What is this airline called "Quantas"? Is it a new one? ;) :D

 

Seriously, thanks for reporting back. Glad everything worked out OK for you, and that the airline looked after you well - including when things went wrong.