A tale of excess baggage

Capt Lightning

Capt Lightning

Well-known Member
Location
Historic Buchan, Scotland
We arrived in good time at Aberdeen airport to check in our luggage and collect our boarding cards. There was a small queue at the desk, and in front was a family with a man, his wife, two children and a mountain of baggage. The lady on the desk started patiently to label the cases and sent them on their way.
When she had checked in the passengers baggage allowance, the man was left with a LARGE suitcase. The conversation went something like....
You can't take that as cabin baggage, it's much too large
Well can I check it in?
No, you've reached your baggage allowance.
Well, can I have one of the smaller pieces back and I'll check this in instead.
No, your luggage has already been checked in for loading. If you want to take another case you will have to pay.
OK, how much. He places the case on the conveyor belt and she says, £155 !
The man is not happy and neither are the rest of the passengers waiting to check in.
Unwilling to pay or abandon the case he stomps off.
Later in the departures hall, he appears with the suitcase and asks the duty manager if he can take the case on board. NO!

Then, a possible lifeline. There is an announcement to say that as the flight was full and overhead space was limited, anyone who
had hand luggage could check it in free and get priority boarding. The man goes to the gate and asks to check in his "cabin luggage"
NO, it couldn't possibly be, it was far too large. He was told in no uncertain terms that he either checked in the case or it didn't go.

I next saw him on the plane and when he disembarked, he asked if he had to collect his case and check it in again for the next leg.
No, it had been checked along with his baggage for its final destination.

An expensive piece of luggage!
 

When I was traveling, I always tried to keep the volume low and that was a real challenge because I would be riding a motorcycle at my destination - so it involved packing a full face helmet, boots and the pants and jacket plus every day clothing . Most of the time I was going for at least a week - sometimes more. The same for my 4 corner ride here in the States. There is only so much room on a bike for luggage and that ride took close to 3 weeks.
 

That’s a story worth telling. I never heard of so much hoopla over one checked bag. That’s pretty expensive for a checked bag. Freight, yes. Baggage, no.
 
There was a news article a couple of weeks ago about airlines considering charging for carryon and giving 2 free bags for regular check-in. That would make me happy; I’d gladly pay to not have to fight for space on board.
 
When I travel, I try to do so with one piece of luggage that I can hopefully (usually) carry-on.
 
With British airways, there is a different baggage allowance depending on class, national or international etc. Even if you check in online, you have to declare the number of cases you are checking in. If you have excess baggage, it's cheaper to pay at this stage.
 
Capt Lightning said:
With British airways, there is a different baggage allowance depending on class, national or international etc. Even if you check in online, you have to declare the number of cases you are checking in. If you have excess baggage, it's cheaper to pay at this stage.
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Yes it's far easier to get that out of the way from the comfort of home. It reduces the effort necessary for all concerned. The organized somehow have to make it easier for the disorganized.
 
We got sandbagged by a $400 charge in Amsterdam. We flew on BA Business Class on both transatlantic flights. However, we had a flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen that was apparently not.
We were then charged for the one extra suitcase. In retrospect, paying for Business Class on that flight would have been more expensive than the baggage charge.
 
Last time I went to an airport to fly with my children to California from here in mid Missouri was about 30 years ago. We had no problems, but we planned ahead, and traveled light. Now, I wouldn't fly out of Kansas City or St. Louis for all the tea in China. :)

This is a fun saying and it applies to the way I travel now. :)

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I may fly for free, but I still pay baggage fees, which I find tolerable, unless we go down to our home in Florida, we just need a carry-on. I heard a rumor that fees were going to be raised, but it’s only a rumor. I often tell people that I suggest they do not put their pets in with the freight or baggage.
 
You should see the baggage check-in process at Orlando International. I've seen people from Brazil and Argentina sometimes check in 10-15 pieces of luggage. Inflation is so bad in those countries that they come here, buy a bunch of cheap suitcases and purchase a lot of electronics, etc. Then they take them home and sell them for 5-10 times what they paid for them. It more than makes up for the excess baggage fees. Really slows things down, though.
 
I can tell you what’s worse. We were flying from Newark (EWR) nonstop to Los Angeles (LAX). We were about 2 hours into the flight when the master control alarm sounded. I was flying the plane and my first officer was taking care of communications and watching the instruments. He tells me we’re losing oil pressure in Engine one. I told him to keep an eye on it and if continues to drop, we’ll have to take action.

Fifteen minutes later, he tells me, pressure is still dropping. I asked him Ok, where are we? He said about a half hour outside of Kansas City, Missouri. I asked east or west. He said west, of course. Shoot! Ok, call Traffic Control and tell them we are in trouble, but don’t want to declare an emergency, if they can give us clearance for a straight in approach and landing. We have low oil pressure on Engine one.

They said yes, they could accommodate us, but we would be number 2 for landing. I agreed to line up. I spoke to the passengers over the intercom and explained to them that we weren’t declaring an emergency, but we had to get this issue checked out. I told the flight attendants to prepare for landing, but not an emergency landing. It really hadn’t gotten that far yet. I told the passengers to return to their seats and remain seated and buckled. We will be on the ground in 20 minutes. We didn’t dump fuel.

We landed and the mechanics checked out the low pressure and told us, ‘Sorry, guys. It’s going to have to sit for about 4 hours.’ We had 220 souls onboard, including crew. They booked us at the airport hotel. At 4 in the morning, I got a call from the mechanic that we were ready to roll again. I called United to get us a takeoff time. They got us in at 7:40. United called all the passenger rooms and alerted them to be at the airport at 7 a.m. At 7:45, we were back in the air and landed in LAX safely.

The passengers seemed grateful that we did the right thing. Most of them were smiling leaving the plane and shaking our hands.
 
jujube said:
You should see the baggage check-in process at Orlando International. I've seen people from Brazil and Argentina sometimes check in 10-15 pieces of luggage. Inflation is so bad in those countries that they come here, buy a bunch of cheap suitcases and purchase a lot of electronics, etc. Then they take them home and sell them for 5-10 times what they paid for them. It more than makes up for the excess baggage fees. Really slows things down, though.
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How much in baggage fees are they paying? Do they check in each new bag separately and empty?

I remember a case in Washington state where a man cut up his girlfriend and shipped her in a suitcase after she had bled out or so he thought. He was on the flight to New Mexico and when the baggage handler pulled the piece of luggage with her in it, the handle or some part of the bag was sticky. When he looked at his hand, he thought it looked like blood. He sat it aside and had the airport police check it out.

Yep, it was a corpse inside. They arrested the man with the claim check.
 
As expensive as things may seem to Americans, the prices seem great to tourists. It seemed every other person in the Vegas Ross store was buying huge luggage to haul their new goods home.
 
birdy said:
I wish I could do that. I'm one of those people that tends to overpack. I can't help myself.
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I used to be an overpacker, too, but after schlepping heavy suitcases laden with extra clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories just in case I needed them (but never did), I finally convinced myself I could do with less and it really has worked out fine.
 
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