Airlines/Airports with strict hand/cabin luggage rules

Anyone that knows what Virgin Australia/Virgin Blue says these days? Will be flying with them next week...

It really depends on your points of departure. Sydney was great, Brisbane was pure hell. Good luck!

Cheers,

Marli

Anyone that knows what Virgin Australia/Virgin Blue says these days? Will be flying with them next week...

Virgin Blue/Australia, like all airlines in Australia have a 7kg carry on limit for economy and they do enforce it (business/premium give you two 7kg bags I think). At times they don't weigh carry on, but from my experience when you check in 1-2 heavy bags they always ask to weigh your carry on. If it goes over 7kg they will ask you to remove stuff or force you to check it so be prepared. They will let you keep your laptop in a separate carry on bag as a personal item (must be old style sling bag, not backpack), so I always do that and stuff a few lenses in there too.

As for check in baggage look up their policy, understand the implications and prepare to pay. It can get expensive by the kilo here too, versus the bag type limits that have in the US. You should also inquire to see if international connections give you

If you're buying domestic tickets always prepay the baggage for the first bag as it's much cheaper. No bag can go over 32kg absolute either, and most make you pay past 20-23kg by the kilo.

Sometimes you can get lucky, but rarely in Oz from my experience.

I'll be flying Sydney-Cairns and back. Only one bag to check in, and I've prepaid up to 23 kg. Man these things annoy me!

I have had experience with a couple of airlines where my cabin luggage was flagged because they exceeded the limit: Emirates and Indonesia Air Asia. Both have the somewhat common 7kg limit on cabin luggage.

• Emirates, they caught it when I was checking for a flight from Jakarta to Singapore a few years ago. Also, once when transiting in Houston on a non-Emirates flight, I happened to walk by an Emirates gate about to depart, and I saw a carry-on luggage measuring device with a scale.
  
• Indonesia Air Asia, they caught it on my way to the gate (after check-in) on a flight from Bandung to Singapore. In Bandung, on the way to the gate, there was an X-ray check, and after that there was an AirAsia agent checking your boarding pass. The officer doing the X-ray check notified the agent to check the weight of my carry-on rolling suitcase (the agent had a scale besides her), and it was more than twice the 7kg limit. Fortunately, I was traveling with someone else, and I moved some stuff to her carry-on. Also, I was carrying a backpack which was almost equally as heavy as the suitcase, but the agent didn't check that. This might be due to the fact that I was unlucky, because for most of the other passengers the agent didn't check the weight of their carry-ons.
  

you can add Air Asia in general, there is a weighing scale at the departure gate before the X-ray machines. what i have been told by their employees is that you can have a carry-on (1 piece not exceeding 7 kg) and duty-free purchases or yr laptop. maximum!

they do not mind if collectively you have 2 bags (total not exceeding 14 kg) and one laptop plus one duty-free between 2 pax.

but i cannot find it on their website. this was told to me by their staff at KL--their headquarters.

This probably applies to almost no one, but I had huge problem with Rex (small planes in regional Australia) two weeks ago. Over 7kg in carry on and you hit the dreaded "OHS requirements" and nothing can be done. And because the "airports" are tiny, the staff watch you as you repack over and over again. For $55 they will let you carry a bag to the plane and watch as the pilot puts it in the hold, so that can help. To assist fee collection in this area, they routinely weigh every hand luggage bag. Following quite a long debate and several repacks, I watched channel 7 carry on their film camera - at 15kgs!

Other Australian domestic - Jetstar now allows 10kg carryon, but only in one bag. Qantas allows 2 x 7kgs, and one has to go under seat in front of you. They're not keen on coats, laptops, purses, etc in addition to those 2 bags though - consolidation is now the best bet. I think Virgin is still 1 x 7kgs plus coat, purse, etc but I'm not sure.

LOL, thanks JimG. That's well worth knowing.

Except that Jim was just lucky: Thompson can, and do weigh, not only charging excess but insisting that the bag goes into the hold

Yes Tim you are right. Been with them again since my earlier reply (which was based on multiple trips with them) and got weighed at check-in. I was about 8.5kg and told to get it down to 7kg. I was wearing a photo jacket and still had some space in it fortunately - also a camera body had a strap attached so I just slung it round my neck. That did the job and I switched it all back once I walked round the first corner. Loopy isn't it?

I'm flying to Auckland on Air New Zealand economy class in April. I've heard their carry-on policy is draconian: 15 pounds. Anybody have experience with ANZ, and any suggestions (besides a photographer's vest)?

They did not weigh my carry-on in LA, but it was Premium Economy. I doubt they weighed them for economy either. I had my packed vest in my carry-on and had put it on just in case. They do allow a thin lap top bag, so I had 15 lbs. in it, 15 lbs in the carry-on, plus 18 lbs in the vest, which fit in the carry-on.

They didn't weigh the carry-on from Auckland to Tonga in Economy class. They did weigh the carry-on on the ANZ flight originating in Tonga.

LAX is very random. It really depends on how full the flight is. CX weighed for Econ and Prem Econ just last week, but it was overbooked fuller than full. I ended up getting upgraded and had to carry my travel buddy's bag because he was stopped at the gate! Opps I shouldn't admit that out loud!

Auckland/LAX

I live in NZ and travel to the US about 6 times a year. More noise recently but I’ve rarely seen them weigh anything (only large wheeled carryons). I bought an Aquatica housing back in a backpack (handles off) just wrapped in bubble wrap along with a macro port, mini dome, DS125 and a laptop and a few other heavy items. Plus I had a small camera bag with a body and 3 lenses in it and an 8 inch dome port in a separate box. It all weighed a ton but they didn’t even blink at it. No surprise I guess but the trick is looking like it is small. Great airline and if you did have any issues but explained the sensitivity of the gear I wouldn’t be surprised if they let you though.

If you need to check stuff in I have always had my gear arrive at both ends between LAX and Alk either way. Lax to other US destinations is a completely different story.

As an aside, when I bought my Aquatica home I had the handles in my checked luggage and they went missing along with 2 ikelite optical converters. My luggage had been searched in Fresno by TSA so I contacted them and they just sent me claim forms. Two months later I was passing through Fresno and I stopped by the lost and found and they actually found the handles, so it was definitely TSA who misplaced them. Never got the optical converters back.

Hope that helps. Cheers.

I am visiting the Canary Islands quite often, Binter Canarias has a tight allowance for Hand luggage (22*33*44cm, 6kg). Therefore never flown them yet, always took the ferry....

What are the rules about taking the housing with camera, port, lens just openly on the shoulder? It's good 6-7kg. Does it fall under carry-on luggage?

What are the rules about taking the housing with camera, port, lens just openly on the shoulder? It's good 6-7kg. Does it fall under carry-on luggage?

If worn on the body, doesn't it then become fashion accessories and not gear?

 

If worn on the body, doesn't it then become fashion accessories and not gear?

I hope so But I'd like to get more descriptive answer

Egypt Air flight - Johannesburg-Cairo-Amman return:

In Johannesburg we had some troubles with check-in luggage. We traveled in two with 2 check-in cases, total weight was below limit, but we were forced to redistribute weight to not more than 23kg per case . It's the first time in my experience such stupid requirement applied . I did hide my back-pack from check-in counter and successfully passed the boarding

Cairo - nobody care about anything

Amman - nobody care about anything

Cairo - nobody care about anything

Emirates flights Johannesburg - Dubai - Male return and local flight Male - Baa Atoll return:

All Emirates flights - no problems at all (30kg luggage allowance) and not too much worry about carry-on items

Male - Baa - had to pay for over-weight as all items were weighted and I didn't find the way to hide the back-pack

Baa - Male - no problems, as there's no place to put scale

Amman - nobody care about anything

 

Coming back from Aqaba in June, I ran into problems in Amman. Like most of you I presume, I normally hand carry both my computer and regulator, and my video system. I have never had a problem with this on any prior flight. In Amman, as I was going through the security screening, I got pulled aside for them to look at my hand luggage after going through the X-ray machine. No problem, that's normal and expected by now. However, I got an inspector who had no idea what I was carrying and would not allow me to carry either of those bags onto the plane. I fussed, and got him to bring his supervisor over - who agreed with him. They forced me to go back to check in and check the the two additional bags, and made me pay for the additional baggage. Of course, I had carefully gotten rid of all my JD's by now, and their VISA card reader was having computer problems at the time, so that was an additional aggravation. Additionally, since I always hand carry my video camera, there were no locks on my Pelican case. Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy about the entire process and worried if my gear was going to be pilfered before I got it back. As it turned out, everything arrived safely back home, but I was a mess for the entire flight back home. It really put a sour taste onto what had been a good trip.