Now Continental & American change their baggage allowance

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Be prepared for them all to follow this route and I belive that Virgin will also be enacting this by the end of the year

Continental will now only allow 1 x23Kg bag in economy within your allowance. any extra bag will be charged for
From their website:

"The fee to check second bags at the airport or curbside, for economy travel between Europe and the 50 U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada is $50 on tickets purchased on or after Aug. 27, 2009 for travel on or after Sept. 15, 2009. The fee is $45 for second bags that are checked and pre-paid at continental.com."

UPDATE
Also American Airlines
http://www.americanairlines.co.uk/a...Experience/baggageAllowance.jsp#International Baggage Allowance

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Add Delta to this growing list

"Checked Baggage—International
Currently when traveling to or from cities outside the United States you can check two bags, per passenger at no extra charge. For customers traveling between the U.S. and Europe for tickets purchased on or after May 23, 2009 for travel beginning July 1, 2009 customers in economy class will be charged $50 US (or the local equivalent currency) each way for the second checked bag. Exceptions to the second checked bag fee include:

•First and Business Class passengers
•SkyMiles and WorldPerks Elite members (Platinum, Gold, and Silver)
•Active duty military members traveling on orders
•Passengers who purchased tickets prior to May 23, 2009
•Passengers who are confirmed on a Full Y class Economy ticket.
You can refer to the chart below for exceptions to the checked baggage policy.
If you have additional bags to check, you may be charged excess baggage fees.

Each bag must:

•Weigh 50 pounds (23 kg) or less.
•Not exceed 62 inches (157 cm) when you total length + width + height."

 

[maznorm]

What makes you think Virgin will join this list? I really hope they don't. Soon it is not going to be worth paying the extra it costs to fly with Virign as opposed to Thompson or the like. We only fly with Virign because what you pay is all you pay. Now if there are going to be additional charges for this and additional charges for that, I think we will just fly with the airlines that already do this but their base rates are lower. So so sad that Virgin is doing this to itself and it's customers.

 

[scottishgirl87]

Yeah Continental changed this a couple of weeks ago as I've already read about it. I booked before August 27th though so

 

[rosiejo]

That's a blow - we usually fly continental and while we might go out with one case each we always need an extra one on the way home

 

[Lizzybear]

I had a feeling this would happen, the US airlines tend to follow suit when one cuts or charges for a service. Luckily we booked our transatlantic flights with them ages ago, have to pay for ALL our luggage with our internal (BOS-MCO) Delta flight though.

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Disneyholic posted this about AA last week - that's who we're flying with to Miami via JFK in October. American is $50 per extra bag and takes effect for flights booked after 9 September (if I remember). Luckily for us we booked a few weeks ago so our two bags each will be ok, but it does change the way we may do things in the future.

As I said then, this is not such an issue if you're travelling to somewhere nice and hot, you don't need so many clothes. However, we ski in the States and therefore need ALL of our two bag allowance for our ski clothing/winter wear; this then adds to problems with the size of cars we hire since we travel with our friends so there are 8 of us - 16 suitcases into two intermediate or full sized cars plus 4 adults, 4 teenagers just don't go

Ho hum - always fancied a cruise, or are they going to up the ante with regards baggage costs, too

 

[TinkTatoo]

Aer Lingus intorduced this policy over the summer so now it looks like we'll have to pay for any extra bags as we only tend to use them or Continental. I'm glad I've got my Owners Locker as we leave loads of stuff over there that would be eating up our now precious luggage allowance.

 

[brer_rabbit]

I couldn't see this posted anywhere else but BA are doing the same:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article6814126.ece

 

[Kath2003]

Unsurprising - the vast majority of people don't take anywhere near 23kg so any good businessman would note that opportunity to make money on those who pack the kitchen sink...

We will continue to fly American - with our hand luggage of 5kg or less...

 

[TinkTatoo]

Unsurprising - the vast majority of people don't take anywhere near 23kg so any good businessman would note that opportunity to make money on those who pack the kitchen sink...

It's not the going out that's a problem, we could easily manage with 23kg between the 4 of us, it's the coming back where we need every last gram of allowance

....We will continue to fly American - with our hand luggage of 5kg or less...

We're only taking hand luggage for our October trip as the kids summer clothes and most of everything else we need is already out there

 

[Kath2003]

You could try what I sometimes do: got a pair of sandals with not much life left in them? Jeans looking a bit worn? T-shirts a bit faded or out of shape? Take them with you, replace them when you're there. You can often find somewhere to donate old clothes out there, or even get a discount off new sneakers when you trade in your old ones.

I rarely find that I bring home significantly more than I take out there, yet I do plenty of shopping

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Well, I have had a response from Virgin
Good news, but still a little "open"

"Dear Obi

Virgin Atlantic will continue to enable economy passengers to check-in 2 bags free of charge, subject to certain weight allowances, until further notice. However, we do keep our baggage policy under review"

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Unsurprising - the vast majority of people don't take anywhere near 23kg so any good businessman would note that opportunity to make money on those who pack the kitchen sink...

We will continue to fly American - with our hand luggage of 5kg or less...

Kath,
visual evidence does not bear that out, the amount of people at DTD having to move items around to meet the 23Kg limit

Also, whilst you might be a thrifty traveller, many are not, what with young babies, young children, hotels without washing facilities, those of us who go to Victoria and Alberts so need more than shorts and a T shirt, wedding parties, etc etc

 

[Kath2003]

Kath,
visual evidence does not bear that out, the amount of people at DTD having to move items around to meet the 23Kg limit

Also, whilst you might be a thrifty traveller, many are not, what with young babies, young children, hotels without washing facilities, those of us who go to Victoria and Alberts so need more than shorts and a T shirt, wedding parties, etc etc

23kg is a BIG suitcase full of stuff; I can't imagine that most people - not just people who go to DISNEY - have more than 23kg worth of belongings with them on the flight. I couldn't physically lift a suitcase that big!

I understand that people need more than me. I travel with less than 5kg. I just don't understand why people apparently consistently need OVER 18kg more than myself. Families with children etc. also have their children's baggage allowance.

I understand that certain situations - weddings, skiing etc. - warrant extra luggage, but these make up a tiny fraction of airline travellers each year.

 

[paulh]

Well, I have had a response from Virgin
Good news, but still a little "open"

"Dear Obi

Virgin Atlantic will continue to enable economy passengers to check-in 2 bags free of charge, subject to certain weight allowances, until further notice. However, we do keep our baggage policy under review"

very ambiguous indeed, as one of there code sharers are introducing a charge think they will follow suit
Paul

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

23kg is a BIG suitcase full of stuff; I can't imagine that most people - not just people who go to DISNEY - have more than 23kg worth of belongings with them on the flight. I couldn't physically lift a suitcase that big!

I understand that people need more than me. I travel with less than 5kg. I just don't understand why people apparently consistently need OVER 18kg more than myself. Families with children etc. also have their children's baggage allowance.

I understand that certain situations - weddings, skiing etc. - warrant extra luggage, but these make up a tiny fraction of airline travellers each year.

Not really Kath.
hard suitcases with wheels can weight anywhere between 5 -10 Kg, if you are a familiy, you may have 3 x 2 x23kg each, but if you are on a flydrive for three weeks, in a small compact car you dont want 9 cases with you, you wnat a least amount of cases as possible, so you fill to your max limit

 

[paulh]

if i had packed for the 4 of us (3 males and one female)there would have been onl1-2 cases.As i am never allowed that privilege.It was 5 cases and 2 cary ons
could have managed with 4 plus 4 caryons no problem.all our cases came in under 20kg.We even brought back a full case of cloths not worn(needless to say they were not for the males in the party)
Paul

 

[Lisa x]

23kg is a BIG suitcase full of stuff; I can't imagine that most people - not just people who go to DISNEY - have more than 23kg worth of belongings with them on the flight. I couldn't physically lift a suitcase that big!

I understand that people need more than me. I travel with less than 5kg. I just don't understand why people apparently consistently need OVER 18kg more than myself. Families with children etc. also have their children's baggage allowance.

I understand that certain situations - weddings, skiing etc. - warrant extra luggage, but these make up a tiny fraction of airline travellers each year.

Personally, I could not ever manage to get my luggage under 23kg, in fact im lucky if thats all it hits!!

My suitcase is hard and like Obi says, weighs a decent amount before I start to pack....I take enough clothes to last me 15 days and 14 nights (there is NO chance that im standing wasting my holiday doing washing, drying and ironing when im on holiday - do enough of that at home!! )

No need to worry about lifting it....its on wheels!!

 

[Nitram64]

Its not that long ago virgin allowed 2 X 32kilo.Flew last year with thompsons and had only 1 x 15kilo each we did struggle on the return to get the weight bang on.
The travel scales we bought has saved us a fortune in excess baggage fees.