I was recently traveling and decided to check two bags in. Together, they weighed under the limit collectively, but individually one was overweight. Wouldn’t the total weight be all that matter though?
In: Other
Each checked piece of luggage is tagged with a barcode and managed by the baggage handling system. They need to know how much it weighs for routing and storage purposes as it moves throughout the system.
In part it is so no luggage is too heavy to handle. There is people who move the luggage by hand in several places. The individual weight of luggage is important for this reason.
Get a small portable luggage scale and use it to weigh your bags. Put it then in your bag so you have it with you for the return trip. The are cheap, light and easy to use. The one I have uses a surprising amount of battery so I have an extra button cell battery to it taped to it so I have a replacement,
I have been on full flights that left luggage behind before, but I’m not sure whether it was for space or weight issues. In any case, the reason for those weight limits is because they need to protect the ground equipment, and probably for health and safety/insurance reasons to do with injuries by staff, not because they’re worried about the weight onboard.
(Although they will obviously monitor that too, for flight-related reasons.)
The weight limit is not for the airplane. It is for all the ground handling equipment, which usually also involves people lifting bags all day. On the ground the baggage is handled individually. So it is weighed individually.
Safety of workers who have to lift each individual bag onto the conveyor belts, load planes, etc.
The weight limit on luggage is for the people handling it, not for the airplane. In the US, OSHA guidelines state that anything over 50lbs is a required team lift and needs 2 people to lift it.
Most flights ive been on has weighed the luggage collectively, so you must be from US of A.
Because people will always push boundaries. If you don’t set a limit what’s to stop someone from packing a huge suitcase that weighs 80 pounds and then a much smaller suitcase that weighs 20. You are still at your 50lb average but one is absurdly heavy and in some cases dangerous.
[removed]
i’ve actually had a few agents let me slide with two bags and one was a few pounds over but the total was under.
Latest Answers