Watch your baggage allowance weight on Monarch flights

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

They've really tightened up. I rekon the check in staff are on a bonus. We were 10kg over (packed in a hurry, threw everthing in) Got charged 90 Euos. Couple in front were only 3 kg over. Still got hit.

[Cassandra]

I have a foolproof way of checking - if I can pick my case up with one hand it's OK, if I need two I have a problem

[Wicksey]

90€ .... ouch I can see I'll have to find out where I've packed my old bathroom scales (still in storage somewhere) before my next trip back !

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Forgot to say...
There was an option to pay £6.00 per kg and as the rate is so poor I wanted to do that as 90 Euros @ 1.20 to the pound works out at £75 so I'd be better of paying £60. However girl at counter wouldn't accept sterling for some reason. So on our return I rang the customer service desk and they eventually agreed to credit me with £15.00
Every little helps, and that will pay for a couple of king prawn tapas next time (we've never located the mythical free ones )

[curatokid]

I got caught once and have now purchased one of those small balance spring scales like fisherman use, this goes with me everywhere and of course can be used for the return trip, they cost about 5 euros.

[.Griff.]

A few kilograms over is one thing but 10... That's 22 pounds using my limited maths and I've owned mountain bikes weighing less than that in my younger/racing days.

[Floriana]

Hi folks

We bought fishing scales for weighing bags a few years ago - brilliant.

With frequent trips we can pretty accurately 'guestimate' the weight of our hand baggage these days - but its reassuring to be able to check accurately, particularly when on the heavy side.

Bathroom scales are a bit 'iffy', particularly when weighing large suitcases.

[Floriana]

P.S. And of course, as they are compact and weigh very little, you can stick them in the luggage so you can re-check for the return journey, especially if you want to bring gifts back....

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Yes 10 was a bit OTT but that was for two people. I guess we should have left the 10 pin bowling balls behind.

[ht006d5256]

I can accept weight on a plane is an important factor in costs what I cant get my head round is I weigh 140 kilos + 15 kilos baggage 155kilos the guy behind me 200 kilos +15 kilos baggage 215 kilos so who is costing the airline more in fuel, I think its just another way of getting more out of the passengers there has to be a fairer system of weight allowance but why bother lets rip the public off as much as they can while they can

[.Griff.]

I can accept weight on a plane is an important factor in costs what I cant get my head round is I weigh 140 kilos + 15 kilos baggage 155kilos the guy behind me 200 kilos +15 kilos baggage 215 kilos so who is costing the airline more in fuel, I think its just another way of getting more out of the passengers there has to be a fairer system of weight allowance but why bother lets rip the public off as much as they can while they can

You raise a good point. If anyone watches Air Crash Investigation you would have seen that a plane crashed recently as the "average weight" system used for passengers is well out of date and people today are a lot heavier than 30 years ago when the maths was calculated. In this particular case all the baggage was weighed as you would expect but, and I'll use the PC phrase, larger people than normal took the flight. It wasn't the main reason the flight crashed but it certainly contributed.

The obvious answer would be to set an "ideal" or mean weight for passengers and then weigh people, along with their baggage, at check in but being the modern world we live in I doubt the airlines want to spend years countering discrimination claims and fighting off legal action. Whether that's right or wrong I'll leave for others to decide.

[Don]

As bad as it was for you with Monarch, beware if you ever are tempted to fly direct Malaga to Scotland with Flyglobespan as they add together your check in AND your hand baggage against your "free" ie included allowance of 20kg. So 16kg of check in plus 8 kg of hand luggage puts you over at 4 kg, for which you must pay extra. It was so much better in days of Iberia or BA when it was not treated so much as a chance to charge extra for anything they could. Two of us flew with Iberia from London with 100kgs and they just smiled and upgraded us. We were strictly allowed 50 between us plus hand luggage but we were frequent flyers with them and treated as such. All a lot cheaper in the end than the so-called low cost airlines we now have to use.

[gus]

Did I read this right??????????
I weigh 140 kilos
That's 22 stone in Sterling..........that should qualify for 2 seats!!!!!

Gus

[Don]

Even worse gus, if you, like me are on the tall side and dont need two seats but just a bit of leg room ...... yes sir, the exit seats are available but it will cost you 25 pounds (per person per flight extra at time of check in). I can lose weight but I cannot lose leg!

[ht006d5256]

oopps got my Lbs mixed with my Kilos should have been 150lbs

[Gogs]

We used Globespan to Malaga the last time and were hit for £30. We used the bathroom scales to check but they are really only an estimate and we were 1.6 kilos over on each suitcase. They also added my OHs handbag - bummer! On the aircraft, the person next to my wife was too big to sit in the seat so the armrests were raised to get her in, then they had to provide a seatbelt extension as the belt wasn't long enough and the flight was full so there was nowhere else to sit. The flight for my wife was not a pleasant experience. Needless to say, I was not a happy chappy.

[Free at Last]

Monarch must have really tightened up their rules in the last few months. I flew back to the UK with them last December and had only paid in advance to check in one suitcase on each leg of the journey. I had to check in an extra item on the outward leg because I'd stupidly bought a present for someone that wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and an extra bag on the way back because I'd done so much shopping whilst I was there! Whilst it didn't put me over the weight allowance, I was still fully prepared to be charge for the extra bag, but they didn't ask me to pay either at Malaga or Manchester on the way back.

I read in one of the Spanish papers a while back that the Spanish airlines were making overweight people pay for two seats on planes. Whilst it might be controversial I thought it was great, if this catches on no longer will I have to risk someone overflowing the seat next to me and encroaching on the space I've paid for. I sympathise with Don on this one, I'm tall too and I resent having to pay extra to guarantee I will have enough space to be adequately comfortable in.

[Wicksey]

The fishing scales sound a good idea and, of course, handy for the return journey. I can see that the bathroom scales may not be accurate enough if they're going to be charging for even 1kg over. I am usually well under the weight limit but for the first time my OH is going back with me so we may well be a bit nearer the limit this time. Easyjet don't have a weight limit on hand-luggage so at least we can put heavier stuff in there providing it's not liquid.

[Cassandra]

Free at Last - we also flew with Monarch in December with no problems, maybe, like us, you had booked your flights before the new charges were introduced. If so then your booking would have been marked as 'luggage paid' or something similar and wouldn't have specified the number of cases as this wasn't asked for until they started charging.

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Further to this.....

We did cheat a bit as I had one of those sleeveless jackets with about 20 pockets, each one of which was stuffed with small but heavy items. I could hardly walk, the jacket was so heavy and this went thru ok. Spect the excess baggage police are reading this and will jump on me next time.