Holidays, hand baggage allowance not good

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Guys and gals, what do you do when you go on holiday?

I am used to travelling on scheduled flights and there is rarely any check on hand baggage weight and consequently it is loaded with all manner of photo equipment, laptop etc.

However, the holiday season approaches, it means flying with Thomson or whoever and the max. allowance for hand baggage is often around 5kg! That's maybe a DSLR, a lens and the bag to put it in. What do you do? Do you know any companies that are generous? I'm not talking charter package holidays...the family trip to Spain, Ibiza etc.
 
Smuggle the extra lenses in your pockets :) or make them look like belt accessories :lol:
 
Put it in the hold in a Peli with case with locks or as stated in your pockets or one of those tog waistcoats with loads of pockets and a big b****r pouch in the back.
 
Air Asia will check your hand luggage weight as they are a budget airline.
 
Also just flown with Thomson past 2 weeks and they didnt check/weigh the hand lugguge, wish I had filled it to the brim now with extra camera and lenses!
 
johnb said:
Just flown with Thos Cook, no check on hand baggage weight
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Flown with Thomas Cook on a number of occasions to Canada - dire/ridiculous size and weight (5kg) restrictions re hand luggage - however have never been checked - just made
sure camera bag didn't appear too large (or heavy) even though it was well over the weight limit...
Having said that - Air Transat (part of Thomas Cook) weighed my sisters hand luggage at Gatwick...

Guess it's a bit of a lottery...
 
Just put things in your pockets then once weighed put it into the bag . It's only like putting duty free stuff in there before boarding .
I remember on a flight to Canada I took alsorts of rations for the flight and the bag was over weight with bottles of juice . I just took them out when told it was over weight and put them in my pockets and after been checked again put in all back in right in front of the check-in lady :shrug:
 
I have a lowpro computrekker, which generally weighs around 10-12kg and I've only once been challenged, but I've just showed them the kit and said it stays with me and they were fine about.
 
I must have referred to it a hundred times here, but this is an excellent resource for checking on baggage allowances on many airlines.

If an airline has a weight limit, they may not always enforce it - but you never know when they might. So I'd suggest you need to be prepared for them to weigh your bag. If there's a 5 kg limit, by all means load up your bag to 8 kg or whatever - but make sure you have a good plan for getting it down to 5 kg if they weigh it.
 
I've done seven foreign trips in the last year, including one to Canada (with Canadian Affair, who were excellent).

My cabin bag (another Computrekker; didn't weigh it, but two bodies, a bunch of lenses, flash, chargers and so forth add up) wasn't weighed once. The only thing they seemed to be interested in were the dimensions, plus did I have any evul liquid with me.
 
BigJohn said:
Just put things in your pockets then once weighed put it into the bag . It's only like putting duty free stuff in there before boarding .
I remember on a flight to Canada I took alsorts of rations for the flight and the bag was over weight with bottles of juice . I just took them out when told it was over weight and put them in my pockets and after been checked again put in all back in right in front of the check-in lady :shrug:
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Ryanair now weigh your bag again at the gate, friend of mine got charged having put a litre of gin from duty free in her bag to carry on :bang:
 
Thanks StewartR for the info. I will be flying to Malaysia with MAS in September.
 
I flew with Thomson a couple of years ago and they didn't bother weighing my hand luggage going out or coming back and it was a rucksack at the maximum size limit.

You may be surprised at what you can take within the 5kg. I took a gripped body with 2 lenses and a flashgun + personal items in the top section of the bag and it was only just over the allowance
 
I flew with my 1D in January this year to Prague on Easyjet, for a Yoyo Contest. I just put the camera on my shoulder, threw my coat on and it was fine, they didn't have a problem with it being in my hands and not in the bag or anything.
 
I always put all my kit in a lowepro fastpack 350 and just hope they never check it. Ive only had to unpack it once at Sharm when it was 15 kilos, i was told it should be 5k so i took it all out it was then put on the scales 5k great, i then put all back into my bag in front of the same guy and was told that is fine:cuckoo::cuckoo:
 
I travel with KLM for work, around 50 flights a year. Frankfurt/Schipol/Aberdeen airports and have been doing for the last 4 years. I have never had my hand baggage checked for it's weight.

We are travelling to Vegas next week for our holiday, I just hope BA follow the same principle! :)
 
gazfy said:
I travel with KLM for work, around 50 flights a year. Frankfurt/Schipol/Aberdeen airports and have been doing for the last 4 years. I have never had my hand baggage checked for it's weight.

We are travelling to Vegas next week for our holiday, I just hope BA follow the same principle! :)
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BA has no limit, which now makes them my favourite airline.
 
SimonUK said:
I flew with my 1D in January this year to Prague on Easyjet, for a Yoyo Contest. I just put the camera on my shoulder, threw my coat on and it was fine, they didn't have a problem with it being in my hands and not in the bag or anything.
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You would now - they are strictly enforcing the ONE piece of hand luggage rule, no extra duty free bags or handbags, everything has to go into one piece of hand luggage or you get charged extra for the additional piece to to into the hold.
 
The weight of hand luggage is amusing in a way, I weigh 10.5 stone so do I get an extra allowance over someone who is overweight and checks in at 18 stone
 
artyman said:
The weight of hand luggage is amusing in a way, I weigh 10.5 stone so do I get an extra allowance over someone who is overweight and checks in at 18 stone
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I have always been told the restriction is to limit the damage from the bag falling on someones head. This is the same for the underweight as it is for the more portly amongst us.
 
I flew back from Goa last Christmas with Thomas Cook. At the airport check in on the way home they look the combined weight of the suitcase and hand luggage and were happy as long as your combined weight came in under your total allowance.

Mine did by 0.3Kg. Good job I had filled by pockets with stuff beforehand LOL.
 
dubcat said:
I have always been told the restriction is to limit the damage from the bag falling on someones head. This is the same for the underweight as it is for the more portly amongst us.
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This always amuses me as some airlines will just charge you extra if your hand luggage is overweight. Does that mean hat, if your bag falls on someone's head, it's ok as you paid extra? :D
 
fabs said:
This always amuses me as some airlines will just charge you extra if your hand luggage is overweight. Does that mean hat, if your bag falls on someone's head, it's ok as you paid extra? :D
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Who says that logic has anything to do with the restrictions. Supposedly, the 1-bag limit is supposed to prevent terrorists. But BA allows anybody not travelling cattle class to have two items of hand baggage. Do they think that terrorists are going to be short of cash?
 
StewartR said:
I must have referred to it a hundred times here, but this is an excellent resource for checking on baggage allowances on many airlines.

If an airline has a weight limit, they may not always enforce it - but you never know when they might. So I'd suggest you need to be prepared for them to weigh your bag. If there's a 5 kg limit, by all means load up your bag to 8 kg or whatever - but make sure you have a good plan for getting it down to 5 kg if they weigh it.
Click to expand...
Agree what I do is put some stuff in the wifes bag and then once I'm through checkout put it back:):D:)
the weight allowances are a pain :bang:
 
hollis_f said:
Who says that logic has anything to do with the restrictions. Supposedly, the 1-bag limit is supposed to prevent terrorists. But BA allows anybody not travelling cattle class to have two items of hand baggage. Do they think that terrorists are going to be short of cash?
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Well it's more feasible than the anti terrorist theory. As far back as I can remember, there was always a 1 bag hand luggage limit so I seriously doubt it has anything to do with terrorism.
 
hollis_f said:
Who says that logic has anything to do with the restrictions. Supposedly, the 1-bag limit is supposed to prevent terrorists. But BA allows anybody not travelling cattle class to have two items of hand baggage. Do they think that terrorists are going to be short of cash?
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Right! And as terrorists only need a one-way ticket; why not have a bit of leg room until your underpants explode? Not as if you need to save the money, is it? (Unless the sandwiches are that much more in First?)
 
The one bag allowance does include an extra laptop bag; a small camera and reading materials for most airlines. Except slimey Ryanair and similar airlines out to make a fortune by imposing travel unfriendly rules with rigidity.

I notice that the sizes of handbags varies from airline to airline; Easyjet's actually look generous in that respect, but having seen a few fellow European passengers caught out with shock when their hand luggage didn't fit Easyjet, yet fitted their home airlines hand luggage allowance.

As far as I recall, the terrorist threats were stepped down, and there is no airline argument, against the aviation body that there only needs to be 1 bag: this rule is imposed by airlines to make extra duty.

The best way to carry hand luggage I've found, is to have a soft lightweight bag, that can deform into any possible shape to fit those blasted container measurement cages. Of course, that offers no protection for your camera gear inside, but if you travel, use neoprene wraps and similar protection - that way if you're overweight, just take one lens out and velcro it to your waist :)
 
artyman said:
The weight of hand luggage is amusing in a way, I weigh 10.5 stone so do I get an extra allowance over someone who is overweight and checks in at 18 stone
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This has always bugged me - I vaguely remember when one had to state ones weight when flying :$

As for the bash on the head, I don't put camera in overhead locker as other folk may dislodge it, on the floor under seat for mine ;)
 
Having sat on the apron numerous times (Easyjet) while they try and find room for everyone's hand luggage I quite undertstand why they are limiting it to one piece. The majority of people on the flights I tend to do on only take hand luggage so it tends to be bulkier than longer flights where the majority check in hold luggage as well.
 
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