How picky are the airlines regarding weight and size of luggage?

[rjack22]

I am wondering how picky the airlines are nowdays regarding the weight and size of your bag. I have heard more about weight than I have about size. I believe that the size of the bag is not to exceed 62 inches. That is the lenghth + width + depth is not to exceed 62 inches and 50 pounds.

 

So has anyone been charged extra for exceeding 62 inches, assuming the weight is 50 pounds or less? How picky are they nowdays?

 

And while am on the subject, how picky on weight. We are flying Delta.

[Richard Stein]

Very Picky. I measure and weigh everything. Had to move items out of my wifes suit case going and coming on last time 9/5-9/11. I take bags over to their scale and weigh them before I check in. Otherwise the want an extra $50. Good luck.

[smeyer418]

here are the rules

 

http://www.delta.com/travel/plan/baggage_info/allowances_onflight/index.jsp

 

it varies by airport and by how you check in. They are more picky about it inside than with the skycap(tips help)...if it is really a lot over the sky cap won't be happy either...I have seen them take tape measures to them. Its another way to make money and they will track back an overweight item to the person who checked it. They have gotten much pickier over the years IMO

[lougee1043]

try this--it works for me ---- if you can print your boarding pass at home just check your luggage in at curbside check-in ====your luggage gets tagged and taken right to security without stopping at the ticket counter where there is a possibility that it will get weighed and you will be charged ----you do need your boarding pass and id to do this

[lddam]

I don't know if there's a difference between domestic and international, but I can personally vouch that it matters on Continental for international. We recently flew from Newark to Rome and found my suitcase to be 6 pounds over the 70 lb. limit. At the suggestion of the ticket agent, I pulled the suitcase off the conveyor, and before the watchful eyes of approximately 60 others waiting to check in, started transferring clothing from the overweight bag to an underweight one. Not the best way to begin a vacation, but my wife thought it one of the finest predicaments I've ever gotten myself into and convulses into gales of laughter whenever she retells the story to friends.

[giraffenana]

I can't remember for sure on which flight I had a problem with the 50-lb. weight limit this past year. I think it was on a flight from Honolulu to Denver in February on United, but it may have been the flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Denver in September on U.S. Airways. Since I definitely didn't want to pay the extra charges I just unzipped my big suitcase in front of everybody and proceeded to move some of the heavier items into a smaller bag. Then it was just fine. I'm pretty cheap! :)

[suzsummit]

In the past year we have had to transfer things between bags three times. It was the PITS! Once in Vegas, once in Miami and once in San Fran.

 

I agree with the other posters that if you check in with the skycaps they are a bit more easy.

 

I now weigh new luggage before I buy it -- some bags are just too heavy on their own and always weigh the bags before we leave the house. It usually on the way back that they get us.

 

Also I travel with my dog, quite often and I have to make sure she is under 17 lbs because her carrier weighs three pounds and they weigh her, in her carrier, to make sure I can carry her on. It's always makes me nervous:(.

[JJPNYC]

We had an issue recently on Continental out of San Diego where we had gotten a bunch of gifts while out there so we were naturally flying a bit heavier on the way back home with one suitcase weighing in at about 65 pounds. The ticket agent was about to slap us with the fee until we reasoned with her that since 2 of us were flying together on the same itinerary & the total weight of luggage that we could bring on was 200 lbs (4 bags at 50 lbs each), that we shouldn't be charged if all 4 of our bags in total weigh 200 lbs or less. So she weighed them all and we came in at a total weight of something like 190 lbs. So instead of focusing on one bag that was overweight while the 3 others were all under weight, we convinced her to focus on the total weight of all 4 bags.

 

This is the way that the airlines should think about it, 2 bags total weighing no more than a combined 100 lbs. Really, what's the total weight difference between either 2 50 lb. bage one 1 bag @ 35 lbs & the other @ 65 lbs? Absolutley nothing.

[rjack22]

Well a combined weight sounds good...in theory. But the reason there is a weight limit in not so much the weight on the aircraft, but rather the weight the baggage handlers have to move around. The baggage handlers don't want to have to lift anything too heavy.

[msiowa]

try this--it works for me ---- if you can print your boarding pass at home just check your luggage in at curbside check-in ====your luggage gets tagged and taken right to security without stopping at the ticket counter where there is a possibility that it will get weighed and you will be charged ----you do need your boarding pass and id to do this

 

I've had my bags weighed at curb-side check in at several airports. (Sorry, off hand I don't remember which.)

 

Good luck!

Joanie

[jgf]

We were a little over the 70-pound limit in one suitcase leaving Paris a couple of years ago. The British Airways agent told us that we could leave it as was, but she wouldn't guarantee that their baggage handlers would put it on the plane. We then dutifully transferred some books from that suitcase to the other, and everyone was happy. Not a great way to start the day at 5 am at CDG, though.

 

[Little did we know that the overweight bag would be the least of our troubles that day - the Paris to London flight taxied out to the runway and then back to the gate, weather was nasty and pilots chose not to fly. BA took 4 hours to rebook, because their agents didn't know how to use their new computer system which kept crashing, so we missed any chance we might have had at making our connection in Gatwick. Finally got on a flight to Heathrow, after being promised by BA that our baggage would make the flight with us. Got to Washington Dulles, no bags, had about 30 seconds to file a claim since we had a short connection to Delta and had to go to their ticket counter to trade in the BA voucher. Blew out my ankle while bolting out of BA baggage claim office, so I could barely walk, let alone run. Got to Atlanta, where a serious cold front had just blown through, and had to wait 20 minutes outside in 20F weather at 11pm waiting for the airport bus without my coat, which was in one of the suitcases which was still in Paris. The BA agent in Washington got it all sorted out, God love her, and the suitcases were delivered to our house the next night but it was a horrible way to end a good vacation!]

[jcpc]

When returning from our Summit cruise in March, our skycap at the Fort Lauderdale airport would not check in "big" bags on the curb. He said that the airlines put a stop to the guys checking in big bags outside. We had four really big bags - he gave us our boarding passes and put our luggage on his cart and brought them in for us (we tipped him well). He waited while they were weighed - one was over the 50 pound limit (by 4 pounds) and we paid the fee (the other 3 were under 50 pounds but not by much - hey what can I say we pack a lot of clothes and shoes!). He then carted them over to the x-ray screener for us. So the advice that you check your bags curbside might not necessarily work at all airport.

[Host Walt]

I got whacked twice with the same overweight bag. Air France from Barcelona to DeGaulle nicked me the Euro equivalent of $170 for excess weight, then United let me check it with no charge from CDG to ORD to LAX. Thought I was OK until we went through customs in ORD and rechecked the bag to LAX. Nicked me for another $50.

 

And this was in Business Class yet.

 

To answer the OP, Absopositively they are extra picky on dimension and weight.

[kitty9]

They have become incredibly picky with the weight and size of luggage. I got caught in Ft Lauderdale on a NW flight by the curbside check in guy, so checking in outside doesn't mean you're going to get away with it. Also got caught by the Delta agent in Las Vegas.

[teedee]

In my experience it's always been more of an issue on international flights than domestic, but that might be because I have to go inside to check in for international instead of checking in curbside. At curbside it's just a crapshoot. Sometimes they don't seem to care how much the bags weigh and sometimes they are very picky. I've never learned the art of packing light so I've been hit with overweight charges (for the bags not me! ;) ) several times.

 

Terri

[NJGRANNY]

I have started to weigh our bags before we leave home. We always take a duffel bag with us that folds up really small for the trip home. That way, any souvenirs, etc. will come in under the weight.

 

I forget which airline it was, but one of the female counter people lifted the bag and said "okay, that's not too heavy." I guess her premise was that, if she could lift it, so could the baggage handlers!

[Andym]

Just back from the Med and noticed that they are now getting very keen on the hand bagage / carry ons. They have a metal basket and as long as your carry on lugage fits into that AND wieghs less than 12 kg then you are OK. We saw a woman dumping stuff from her hand bagage into the waste bin to get it down to 12kg before they would let her through. This was with Air France.

[Bisous3]

My husband is an Air France supevisor . He said the airlines are getting stricter about weights of bags because of all the baggage handlers going out on workman's comp. The airline's in their infinite wisdom think that by limiting the weight of the bags less handlers will get hurt.

I told him its not how much you lift, its how you lift it.

Suzanne

[CruisingChick]

They are all getting very picky. My son just went to London and Scotland via British Air with a High School Drama group. Some of the kids (luckily not him) bags were overweight and they made them pay.

 

A few years ago on a trip from NYC to Fort Lauderdale one of my bags was 10 pounds over weight. The porter let us slide.....he put something in the computer and let us go. I doubt they would do that now.

 

Anne Maria

[NnJ2010]

Depends on the airline and on the person checking in and the airport.

 

I've had some who don't even weigh it. I've had some quibble over a fraction of a pound. I've had one who didn't appreciate it (after I'd had a very bad day) and said I don't understand why it matters if I put 5 lbs over in that bag or if I carry 5 more pounds in my carry-on it's still going on the plane and still going to weigh the same. She didn't like my comment and had no answer for it...

 

Because you never know if you'll get lucky or not on either end of the trip ....stay within the guidelines and make your trip that much smoother! :)

[dmarch@islc.net]

Last time we flew to Lauderdale it cost as much for my wife's bag as it did my wife to fly down. Bought an extra bag down there to split up the weight for the return trip.

[rjack22]

Again, it is not the total weight of all your bags that the airlines are worried about. It is the weight that the baggage handlers have to throw around that they are concerned with.

 

Think about it. If you were a baggage handler and had to move all those extremely heavy and oversized bags around all day long. Makes my back hurt to think about it (smile).

[SaltwaterTwo]

I am wondering how picky the airlines are nowdays regarding the weight and size of your bag. I have heard more about weight than I have about size. I believe that the size of the bag is not to exceed 62 inches. That is the lenghth + width + depth is not to exceed 62 inches and 50 pounds.

 

So has anyone been charged extra for exceeding 62 inches, assuming the weight is 50 pounds or less? How picky are they nowdays?

 

And while am on the subject, how picky on weight. We are flying Delta.

I am looking at the back of my e ticket (UAL) and it says travel within the United States 50 pounds and international 70 pounds each of a maximum of two pieces of checked baggage. Since I will be flying to Vancouver (International) with a change of planes (not carrier) in San Francisco (within U.S.) do I get the 70 pound limit each or the 50 pound limit each?:confused:

[palermo22]

You're guided by your final stop - in this case Vancouver - you are allowed 70 lbs per bag

[SaltwaterTwo]

Thanks Jerry. You just made my wife very happy.