How strict on baggage?

I'm just curious how strict VS is on checked and carry-on baggage right now. My checked bag weighs 23.36 kg (just one checked bag) and my carry-on is 8.18 kg. As I understand it from the website the limit is 23 kg on checked baggage and 6 kg on carry-on. Will they let it slide or is it pretty strict?

The 23.36 should be fine. IMHO you will also be fine with 8kg, but please do not blame me if I prove to be wrong.

[Scrooge]

Phil may be able to answer this one better, but in Aug when the group was heading back from LAS one of the bags if I remember correctly was 0.6kg over..the agent wanted to charge them $30

[Decker]

Welcome to the site Elwood.

In fairness 66% over the limit is somewhat optimistic. But I appreciate you'd gotten away with it previously.

On your check luggage, you should be fine, if you can put some more in your checked luggage you should be fine. I always go down the route of being SUPER friendly, and check in as early as you can, and more often than not they will not charge you. I am always over on my luggage, and have never been charged.

Good luck, and have a great trip!

Dominic

[Pete]

I have noticed them tightening up on the limits over the last few months. This is probably taking advantage of the August BAA enforcements to bring back into line a general lapse in their own guidelines.

For checked baggage, the issue is cost (it costs more to shift heavier bags, and most airlines make more from cargo than passengers), plus there's also a weight limit on a single bag, purely as a health & safety issue for the baggage handlers that have to lift it.

For cabin baggage, the overriding reason for a weight limit is safety. If you get turbulence in flight, and something falls out of the overheads (or even once the aircraft is on the deck, and something falls out because it was disturbed in flight), then a particularly heavy bag is going to do a fair amount of damage if it lands on your noggin. Worse still, imagine it landing on a child. So... if you are going to risk going over on the cabin baggage and manage to get away with it, please make sure you're the punter underneath the bag so you really are the one taking the risk!

I will admit that watching people dragging on *way* over the limit onto an aircraft like Sherpas is the one thing that really irritates me. Not only is it selfish (taking up more than their fair share of space, and crushing other people's duty frees as they cram their bags into the overheads), it's also completely ignoring the safety of others in order to save some time collecting bags off the belt at the other end.

Pete

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by pixuk
I will admit that watching people dragging on *way* over the limit onto an aircraft like Sherpas is the one thing that really irritates me.

I totally agree with you on this, Pete, but Virgin are better then some carriers when it comes to enforcing this.

Having said that, it is back to the old 'consistency' theme. Quite often, just recently I have seen pax having to repack their hand luggage at check in, presumably because their small bags were overweight. I have then seen pax on the same flights struggling to get down the back of the plane to their seats, due to the weight of their massive carry ons, which they then expect crew to stow in the overhead lockers for them. [:(!]

The staff at the gate and then the crew on the plane must take some of the blame for this though. Why not challenge the 'Sherpas', as they go through the gate or board the plane, insisting that the massive bags are checked?

BTW, this isn't a dig at the OP - I can't see anyone having issue with .23 of a kilo (which, I think, is about 8 oz);)

Nick

[mitchja]

Welcome to V-Flyer

As Nick and others have said, you should be OK. One thing to bear in mind is that there are bound to be slight differences between your weighing scales and the ones at different airports.

I've had my cabin baggage weighed once when travelling with VS (that was at LGW several years ago)

Working in a science/lab background, I've often wondered how often, if at all, airport weighing scales/balances are calibrated and checked.

Regards

I've only ever had my cabin bag weighed at LGW too - they seem less bothered at Heathrow. (I ended up being forced to put my laptop into my suitcase, which didnt please me hugely).
Returning from SFO in early sept, we were in PE and each of our bags was about 26kg. The checkin agent seemed frosty, and when we joked that we could have crammed an extra 6kg of shopping in, she informed us that we were overweight, but she was going to let us off on this occasion. When we told her that the allowance for PE was 32kg, she told us that was not the case - it was 23kg. I checked upon our return to London, and found it was indeed 32kg - so I guess the moral here is that you never know how the agent is going to deal with you - or, for that matter, what information they have been given.

Originally posted by scally
Returning from SFO in early sept, we were in PE and each of our bags was about 26kg.

Now here's a thing. What on earth are you packing to get to even 26kg ? [:0] A few shirts and some clean undies is all you need, surely I often think we should make a few quid as a family renting out our spare luggage allowance (were it not for those tricky security questions).

What do people normally pack ? We're always heavier going out than coming back (as it's usually holiday time and we're laden with books) but I'm intrigued as to what people carry with them..

Paul

I've never had a problem with being overweight. As long as you don't push your luck, and make sure you treat the agent with respect when checking in, they generally forgive the odd kg.

How not to handle it, would be as friends did a couple of years ago...when arriving at the check-in desk, the first words they uttered were "we're sorry we're so overweight"[:0]

Originally posted by pjh
What on earth are you packing to get to even 26kg ? [:0]

It was cheaper to check in the kids than buy them a ticket

(seriously - you've obviously never been for a 3 week trip with a couple of poofs, where there's lots of opportunity for shopping...)

[Neil]

Originally posted by scally
(seriously - you've obviously never been for a 3 week trip with a couple of poofs, where there's lots of opportunity for shopping...)

Couldn't of said it better myself, what is the point of going to somewhere like NYC and not maxing out your CC with bags and bags of shopping!

Straight people, no idea[ii]

Originally posted by Attitude23

Originally posted by scally
(seriously - you've obviously never been for a 3 week trip with a couple of poofs, where there's lots of opportunity for shopping...)

Couldn't of said it better myself, what is the point of going to somewhere like NYC and not maxing out your CC with bags and bags of shopping!

Straight people, no idea[ii]

[:w] I'm afraid that, along with the sports gene, the shopping gene passed me by. I may stretch to a new pair of Levis, a Rockmount shirt and a pair of Converse on occasion (ouch, I hear you cry). My only lapses in this respect have been due to the temptation of 2nd hand CD stores around LA..

Paul

I usually travel to HKG and the 23kg limit is just not enough. I remember the days when it used to be 30kg. I weighed my suitcase and being empty is already 6.2kg so 23kg isn't going very far. I mostly have 25kg of checked baggage and the agent seems to be quite happy. I don't like carrying hand baggage. What you weigh at home and what you weigh at check-in is not at all accurate.

Perhaps it's time to introduce a "Total Pax + Baggage" weight allowance - (and I would probably suffer as a result), but what the hell this way everyone pays/are allowed the same weight, whether its large passenger and small bags or vice versa???[}:)] Can you imagine the fun at check-in this would cause...[:0]

Nooooo! Besides, it would be discriminatory against men

[Decker]

Originally posted by Attitude23
[what is the point of going to somewhere like NYC and not maxing out your CC with bags and bags of shopping!

When your credit card has no limit you just have to learn a little restraint [}:)][:p]

looks from the weights like you are traveling econ ,i have found them tighter on econ bagage but very liberal on UC even thought the alowance is higher anyway

steve

If you have a 2 bag allowance, and are only checking in 1 bag, and it's a little over, I've never had a problem. If you push the boundries then you have to face the consequencies......

And as for the (mainly) US based travellers taking on 3 medium sized bags on board, it really gets my goat.

I got done for 22.1 in September out of LGW- this despite the fact that our party only had two bags out of a possible 8!!! The check in staff didnt seem to follow the logic that in total I was well under the limit, claiming that the 20kg limit was for baggage handler who apparently now "refuse to pick up anything over 20kg"! how that can be when UC limit is 30kg I will never know [?]. unless they have some kind of lifting device out back the same handlers must pick up the 30kg bags !!

Must admit that I did feel rather had by VS- especially as it transpired (thanks to VS customer services letter) that the 20kg doesnt become company policy fully until April- that begs the question why they dont just politley point it out.

I would be very careful!

32 kg is the baggage handler limit, which is why the single bag limit is 32kg (See Here). I am afraid the comment that 20kg was the single bag limit was mistaken.

Decker. Apologies, I deleted my post (was going to include in a TR).

For benefit of others I was recently forced to check my only bag.

I only ever take carry on baggage so a total of ~10kg baggage for a W passenger is not, in my mind excessive.

The (IATA) bag was well within the size guidelines (downloaded from BAA the day before), contained none of the banned items and the response that security will send me back seemed to be a touch trite.

I understand the weight rules, but not the motives behind them. I would have thought reducing the Airline's operating cost would have been encouraged.

[Decker]

No probs.... regretfully your approach would require commonsense... I'd still go with the total weight idea.

Does anyone actually know why there is a difference in luggage allowance between US and Asian flights?