Weighing Carry-Ons

Hi, guys - I'm seeking shared knowledge here!

Jamie and I leave Tuesday for California and today I'm sorting out our luggage. I've got a really cool carry-on bag that holds a ton, has wheels, etc. but it weighs an absolute ton (though it's the "legal" dimensions otherwise). Coming here once they actually weighed it at the Virgin counter and made me check it (to the tune of $100 for excess baggage no less) because it was too heavy. I haven't traveled with it since.

But I'd like to. We're flying BA on Tuesday and I'm just wondering if anyone else had had their carry-ons weighed? I'm sure there's a weight allowance for them and I'm sure this stupid bag will go over it, but that one time on Virgin is the first time anyone's ever actually made me stick a carry-on on the scale....

Any ideas?

The last time my neices traveled here, they definately weighed the carry-ons.  Because one of the girls had to move all her  school books to checked baggage. 
I tend to check-in everything I can.  I hate lugging all that garbage around. 

OK, so it sounds like this is something that's becoming routine and I should be careful. I'm definitely with you, Mindy - I hate lugging stuff around, but we're bringing champagne left over from the wedding and one of my brothers is a total news hound and gets a kick out of me bringing copies of all the papers from that day (and I won't have time to buy them before the packing is done). And I tend not to check any of my bathroom stuff that could leak - like shampoo and whatnot. I may have to just use a lot of plastic baggies and give that up this time around....

OK, I guess I'm off to find our sensible little backpacks! 

Some airlines are fussier that others - EasyJet says that you can take as heavy a carry on as you like provided it fits the dimensions and you're stong enough to stow it yourself - sensible for them as it means fewer passengers have to check baggage which is expensive for them to handle. Ryanair is even talking about charging everyone who checks in baggage a handling fee. However, I digress. Being longhaul everyone checks bags anyway with Virgin.  

I've been stopped with a too-heavy carry on bag.  If the flight is full, they tend to check.  If you can balance them on one finger when they ask what carry ons you have, they tend not to check. There were two of us travelling and the suggestion was to transfer some of the stuff to the lighter carry-on of the second person, which we did.  Does you bag exceed the 6kgs on its own?  If not, can you "cram" Jamie's bag and then revert? Just a thought.

By the way - be aware that the checked baggage allowance is said to be two pieces of unlimited weight each, but in practise there's a 32 Kg limit per piece.  I've been cuaght by that one too and had to move things around at checking into a box kindly supplied by Virgin.   Interesting, the box was second hand and labelled "British Airways".

Hope these ramblings help you see your way to an answer!

I've been stopped with a too-heavy carry on bag.  If the flight is full, they tend to check.  If you can balance them on one finger when they ask what carry ons you have, they tend not to check. There were two of us travelling and the suggestion was to transfer some of the stuff to the lighter carry-on of the second person, which we did.  Does you bag exceed the 6kgs on its own?  If not, can you "cram" Jamie's bag and then revert? Just a thought.

Thank you, Graham! I just stuck the dreaded bag on the bathroom scale and it appears to be 2.9 kgs empty. I'm developing quite a love-hate relationship with this little item of luggage! So perhaps putting the bubbly in Jamie's backpack and leaving this one as empty as possible is the solution. Then we can shuffle around later.

By the way - be aware that the checked baggage allowance is said to be two pieces of unlimited weight each, but in practise there's a 32 Kg limit per piece.

I too have had trouble with "too heavy" checked bags. I think Virgin's allowance is slightly less than the others - I flew KLM over the summer and from what I remember I had an allowance about 10 pounds heavier - which is quite useful since I'm still trying to move a good deal of my "stuff" over here from my mom's house. I always end up balancing my monster suitcases on my mom's crummy little bathroom scale and then holding my breath as they're checked in!!

BA will check your hand luggage to make sure it is the right weight.  They're a stickler for it.  If you are flying economy, the limit is 6 kgs for hand luggage.

A couple of years back, during check-in at Heathrow, they made me reshuffle all of my things in my hand luggage and put it into my checked luggage because I was 2 kgs over.  When I was done, my hand luggage was 5 kgs and had barely anything in it.  Luckily, I was just at the limit for my checked luggage and was not charged extra.

This year when I was flying to London (business class at my company's expense), they didn't even care to see how much carry-on luggage I had and how much it weighed.  So, it does seem that they only look at weight based on the class you fly in.


bvamin




bvamin

It's a bit of a lottery in my experience.

I flew on BA yesterday and they did NOT weigh my carry-on.  It was heavy too as I had books for school in it.  I've never had my carry-on weighed by BA or Virgin. 

I flew out of London and didn't get weighed...flew in from Philadelphia last night and it did get weighed - both on BA...pain in the tush!  Had to move a bunch of stuff to my handbag that I didn't want in there.  Oh, well!

I flew out of London and didn't get weighed...flew in from Philadelphia last night and it did get weighed - both on BA...pain in the tush!  Had to move a bunch of stuff to my handbag that I didn't want in there.  Oh, well!

o net iger
Like I said it is a lot tery

I fly Delta and have never had my hand luggage weighed, domestic or international.  Delta is very strict on the checked baggage weight and the fee is high if it over the limit.

Hi, guys. Well, I'm back and I can happily report that the hand luggage was NOT weighed in either direction. But neither flight was full either, so maybe that helped. As for the checked luggage, I usually come VERY close to the limit since I'm still in the process of transfering my accumulated "stuff" from there to here and so tend to stuff my biggest suitcases to bursting. But the lady at the counter in SF said that BA has raised it's limits recently and that mine were "no where near" too heavy - though I noticed that two of them merited a "heavy" sticker! LOL.

My big suitcase was 32.5 kgs on my way back and the lady at the BA counter in SF said even though it was too heavy, she'd let it go.  I'm guessing because the flight was about half full.  The only passengers were in coach.  What's BA's new limit? 

And FWIW, I ALWAYS get a heavy tag on my suitcases.  The concept of packing light is always lost on me.  lol

Glad to hear you had no problems Anne  I fly to Houston about 4 times a year, out of Gatwick, and have never had my carry on bags weighed. I am usually flying alone tho, so I try not to make it too heavy anyway, because I am the one who has to put it in the overhead, and get it down again,,lol.  That said,, my husband is always shocked that I don't get charged extra for my checked in luggage. If you ever want a laugh, you should be in the luggage pick area when I am there struggling to get mine off the luggage bin, lol.