eli5: Can anyone explain why all your checked baggage isn’t weighed collectively and instead weighed individually?

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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?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

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.)

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