Does Your Luggage Lose You Money?

Different airlines have different baggage allowances. Get it wrong and your savings disappear at the airport.

 They used to say that time was money; these days it’s more like weight. And,no, I’m not talking about the fortune required to fund a personal trainer or buy diet pills.  

Most airlines charge you if your suitcase is overweight. Some do so astronomically. Even if you pay for an extra bag in the hold, you won’t be granted extra weight. In case you’re shrugging your shoulders and thinking that life’s too short to worry about the occasional surcharge, in the case of the airline I have in mind, we’re talking about £12 per kilo. We’d already paid for the bag – the amount they then charged us for its weight was more than I’ve paid for some transatlantic flights.

Airline in question, you know who you are.

Different airlines, different rules

The solution? Triple check your weight allowance before you fly – and force yourself to read the small print. Better yet, for a cheap weekend break, travel hand luggage only. And never bother to pay for an extra bag.

Don’t forget to actually weigh your luggage. You can buy nifty devices for this, but the cheapest option is just to step onto the scales - once with and once without your luggage.

Remember, different airlines haves different allowances. For example, Easyjet has a combined baggage allowance of 20kg. Jet2.com offers 22kg and Ryanair cuts that to 15kg. At the time of writing, Ryanair charge £15 for every kilo over that amount.

A cynical method of squeezing money out of customers or a responsible approach to reduce global warming? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

 So always, always, always check before you fly.