V-Flyer

Just wondering why is it Virgin Atlantic have such a low hand baggage allowance - 6kg is a very small amount, especially when BA don't have a weight restriction, as long as you can lift it. VS enforce it when flying out of the US a lot.

I think it's better lower. If it fell out and hit someone on the head you could give someone a nasty headache at the least! This is always my argument at work when people whinge at me about hand luggage. If it hit a small child I dread to think, not to mention the uproar it could cause on a flight if that did happen.

6 kg (in Econ and PE) is 13lb so just under a stone.

Thats a pretty hefty weight to be lugging around and as Lizz says what if it fell on someone from the overhead locker?

And it all soon adds up - extra weight = extra fuel = increased prices.

But Tonty,

The weight is going into the hold anyway. I agree that the weight restriction is low, however they do often turn a blind eye in my experience...

Watching some of the huge and multiple bags being brought into the cabin on my last few VS flights, by Y and PE pax, I am beginning to believe that all carry on limits have been scrapped completely! n( n(

Kitchen sink has come to mind on a number of occasions. :w

Nick

On a recent flight to Vegas all our hand luggage was weighed and labelled so apparently it is enforced

I don't know the answer, but VS's limits are IMO ridiculously low and the enforcement wastes their time and is poor for passengers. In UC, there's rarely a check, and in PE the overhead bins can be half empty - so it's not a space thing.

On my last jaunt around the states, the UC check in at VS weighed my bag and said that even though size wise it was fine as hand luggage it weighed too much and it therefore went in the hold.

On the five internal flights I then took within the states, it went as hand luggage all the way.

Partly - I think because I had done OLCI for all the internal flights and therefore never presented myself or my luggage at a check in desk, whereas I did at LHR as my printer had died and needed to go to UC check in to get a boarding card.

Therefore, if you want to take your bag as hand luggage and it doesn't look oversized then if you OLCI you'll probably get your bag on.

With regards to hand luggage sometimes being checked and sometimes it not is usually based on who's checking you in. I admit I rarely check hand luggage at work, Monarch have a 10kg allowance on schedule flights so I don't see the point most of the time, if 10kg or 15kgs fell on my head, I'd want compensation either way!
I think it is just a health and safety thing, some airlines seem more strict on it than others.
I don't see why some people take so much in hand luggage. If that's all you're taking then fair enough but if it's getting pretty heavy I'd just check it in. I've had a passenger once before when I used to check in VS, they had 8, yes 8 books in their hand luggage. A book per hour of the flight? Unless you're superman, I don't think that's possible. Take the essentials, it's all you need.

Lizz

What about camera equipment - would you advocate that be checked, when at the least it'll be damaged if not stolen?

I've never seen hand luggage weighed in the US, nor have VS ever weighed my hand luggage - I usually travel UC, but is this a new thing to weigh it, and is more likely to happen at LHR than say in SFO?

No I wouldn't get someone to check something in that could break. I'd either tell them to take something else out, put it under the seat in front or if that wasn't possible put a gate message in the system to get the staff who board to ask the crew if there's somehwere else it can go. If that wasn't possible then if say I was at the gate I'd ask the crew what would be for the best, it's they who deal with things on board so (sorry about the pun) on their heads be it.

Of course this it what should happen really, but it rately does.

napamatt wrote:Lizz

What about camera equipment - would you advocate that be checked, when at the least it'll be damaged if not stolen?

I've never seen hand luggage weighed in the US, nor have VS ever weighed my hand luggage - I usually travel UC, but is this a new thing to weigh it, and is more likely to happen at LHR than say in SFO?

Don't forget that the UC limit is 2 bags weiighing in total 16kg (35 lbs)

That is true. I am however not referring to VS, but the cheaper chavier airlines!

GVHOT wrote: BA don't have a weight restriction, as long as you can lift it.

I've often wondered about the "lift it" test as picking a bag up off the ground is far easier than lifting it over your head. Perhaps there should be a test at check in? I've also seen a fair few people nearly brained by others being unable to take the strain of getting their luggage out of the overhead lockers.

Paul

I can't remember if the compartments fit three or four max size cases (9 x 14 x 22) but the weight restriction makes no sense. I've been told that it is the way they were designed, yet the maximum load for one is 40kg, so that would make it viable to have a 40% increase per bag assuming it's four per compartment

I've never ever had my hand luggage weighed when I've checked in or bag dropped, even when I carried my wedding dress on board in a box (this was in 2006 though). Ironically that fitted into the economy overhead lockers easily but wouldn't fit into the PE ones.

IMHO, the VS hand baggage allowance is perfectly adequate. After all, what do your need, as opposed to want while travelling

Slightly related but there have been some letters to the Guardian about hand luggage and musical instruments

Apparently a couple bought seats for their drums and the drums got an upgrade !

Leanne, there is no difference between PE and Y lockers, the difference is where i.e. in the middle or over the seats. Treelo that depends on what I'm doing - on a business trip I need suits shirts ties laptop etc etc. I would prefer not to have to wait two hours for these to appear from the hold if possible. Tonty be the drums!

seanpep wrote:Leanne, there is no difference between PE and Y lockers, the difference is where i.e. in the middle or over the seats. Treelo that depends on what I'm doing - on a business trip I need suits shirts ties laptop etc etc. I would prefer not to have to wait two hours for these to appear from the hold if possible. Tonty be the drums!

Well it didn't fit in the PE lockers at the side of the seats or above, but the crew happily took it and stowed it away for me.

seanpep wrote:Leanne, there is no difference between PE and Y lockers, the difference is where i.e. in the middle or over the seats. Treelo that depends on what I'm doing - on a business trip I need suits shirts ties laptop etc etc. I would prefer not to have to wait two hours for these to appear from the hold if possible. Tonty be the drums!

But you don't need suits, shirts, ties, laptop etc etc while you are on the aeroplane, do you?

Strange, if you look when you're next onboard you'll see they are all the same throughout the plane

seanpep wrote:Strange, if you look when you're next onboard you'll see they are all the same throughout the plane

Don't know if it was because we were up in the bubble for PE that it made a difference or not, hey ho I am just glad I got married and was able to take my dress onboard before the hand luggage rules changed :0 I don't think I'd been happy checking it in :0

Leanne wrote:

seanpep wrote:Strange, if you look when you're next onboard you'll see they are all the same throughout the plane

Don't know if it was because we were up in the bubble for PE that it made a difference or not, hey ho I am just glad I got married and was able to take my dress onboard before the hand luggage rules changed :0 I don't think I'd been happy checking it in :0

Ahh yes the overheads on the Upper Deck are tiny - they will fit a small bag only. Thankfully there's a big wardrobe for anything that doesn't fit.