I would urge people please don't give in and pay extra for 5kg worth of luggage. I am already mightily peed off that they seem to have convinced so many people to pay for specific seat requirements................. and don't even get me started on charging for meals....................

A few years I went to Gran Canaria with some girlfriends flying with MyTravel Lite......the name was totally correct as only allowed 15kg. Anyway going out we all were under this weight. Coming back everyone in the queue was being charged for being over their limit. We thought we would be fine as the only extra thing we had bought between us was 1 bottle of vodka and 2 bottles of perfume...bearing in mind we had used all the heavy stuff like suncreams and left our books behind.

The people in front of us in th queue even commented that they had been charged on the outwardbound flight for excess so would be again....and they did have loads of stuff. Imagine my horror when we got charged excess of 20euros each. No matter how hard we argued they were insistence.....and the rep very helpfully slunk off and wouldn't help at all. Now call me cynical but EVERYONE in that queue was getting charged....mmmmm very odd.

Ironically, and to make me more irate, the couple in front of us who had been charged outbound DIDN'T get charged!! I was ready to unpack my case there and then but my friends bundled me up and we ended up paying. Being a bit older now and way more experienced I would stand and fight now but you live and learn. However, will NEVER travel with MyTravelLite again.

As to the earlier comment about people's own body weight, I once read that the airlines allow an averge of 13stone per person...........so when do you reckon the airlines will start trying to charge on body size then eh!!!!!!!

On a XL flight to Turkey 2 years ago I was sat next to a lad who said he couldnt fit in his seat as he must have been 20-25 stone.He made such a fuss everyone nearby was shuffled around until him and his equally large girlfriend/wife had 3 seats each!
I was sitting away from my husband which I dont mind if it means having a family sitting together but this lad nearly started world war 3.I couldnt believe how accommodating the staff were.They were lucky the flight was not full and it wasnt Thomas Cook!

bit this, but i've seen an ad for an ''air crash investigation'' forthcoming episode centred around and american flight which actually failed to get up high enough due to the human blubber on board, i thought it was a joke until i saw the clips from the program, i didn't watch it though as i don't want coming back to haunt me on my next flight just incase i am sharing it with a few bessie-bunters....does make you wonder though

We always find our bags heavier when we return as we've bought our cigs (naughty) and we enjoy a brandy with our hot chocolate! Flying back from Costa del Sol to Blackpool last year my OH was charged a fortune to bring everything back as his case was overweight. As we had checked in we were more or less forced to pay or empty the case in front of everyone and dump in bins! We paid and still saved but we did notice that the majority of the queue to check in were in the same position as us. As a low cost airline they must have re couped a fortune!

However, now we take less........ Only one pair of spare shoes for me!

I don't think I will have a problem with 15k per person x 4 people,

What I am worried about is does it all have to be 15k or under, what if one is say 13K and another 17K will they get uppity about it. If I can aggregate I will be fine, say split between 3 cases rather than 4.

I agree about tour-reps making themselves scarce when stuff goes -up at check in. I think they dont want to upset the check-in staff for some reason at foreign airports. In some places ie Sharm where I have been the reps aren't even allowed into the airport buildings with you (local regulations) so once at check in you are subject to the dodgy practices of staff leaning on your cases with their arms to put the weight-up0 or 'loaded' scales.

We are going to Italy for a week in June with Ryanair - we are too tight to pay for any more luggage than we think we might reasonably need as its supposed to be a cheap holiday (we've already done a 'biggy' in Orlando, plus a wedding in Grand Cayman in February).
So we have only booked for 1 case (15kg allowance I think) between our family of four !!!!!

Luckily we are self catering, so we will have a washing machine in the appartment.......but its going to be a very interesting exercise !!!

i'd be very careful trying this on with ryanair as they are quite clear in all there T&C's that you cannot pool luggage even among families or those travelling on same booking.
i'd be careful what i packed in each bag. i'm sure you will all be taking full advantage of the carry-on allowance, so i'd want to have only one persons clothes etc in the suitcase and fill it up with all the communal things like toiletries and books etc.
you only need 1 snotty check-in person(and ryanair have 1 or 2 of them ) and you could end up with an expensive or stressful start to your holiday.

so i'd want to have only one persons clothes etc in the suitcase and fill it up with all the communal things like toiletries and books etc.

...are you saying that you can't use one suitcase between a family of four with Ryanair ?....

Hi Judy

You must be able to otherwise the site wouldn't let you book varying amounts of bags. There is nothing to say you can only have one persons clothes in that one bag.
With EJ someone at work booked 4 seats but only paid for 2 hold cases as they were only going for a week and didn't need all 4 case allocations and it would have put the price up needlessly. Dont suppose Ryan are different. How would they know who wears what anyway?

Doe

judy,
have a look here at ryanairs T&C.
as i said before, if you all have carry on bags at 10kg and a suitcase at 15kg you should be able to get all your stuff in.
i would have 1 persons stuff in the hold baggage as i said and use the carry ons to take the rest.
but whatever you do -WEIGH EVERY BAG BEFORE YOU LEAVE HOME and make sure that ALL are under the limits.

If we are travelling with ryanair or easyjet we only ever book 1 case between the 2 of us (up to 15kg) or maybe 2/3 between the 5 of us . . what you cannot do is book say 2 cases and then think that you are allowed your combined weight of 30 kgs in one case which they call "pooling together"

Becki - we travelled out from Manchester to Tenerife with Thomas Cook in November with a 15kg hold luggage allowance. We got to check in and my friends hold luggage AND her hand luggage were overweight ( i had warned her) . the girl at the check in said that they were more fussy with the hand luggage and they would not let her take the extra weight ( she had handbag etc also) she told us to open my suitcase as mine was just on 15kg. We had to pack her extra stuff into mine ( bloody annoying) and it weighed 19kg and they let it through with no extra charge. She was quite clear that Thomas Cook are very strict on flight bag weight and size and will be more lenient on overweight hold luggage. We flew back with jet2 so dont know what would have happened on the return flight.

I thought Judy was saying she was using just ONE suitcase between the 4 of them. - No problem then as long as the case isn't over 15kgs...... Or have I misunderstood? Denny

Judy thats fine .It doesnt matter what you have or whos luggage is in the one case that you check in as Denny says it cant be over 15kg then all 4 of you can take on your little cases/bags as hand luggage. Im assuming though that because you have decided to check in 1 case the 4 of you will now have to check in and ryanair now charge you for that as well , both ways . Or is this an old booking before they brought out those charges. ??. ryanair are and I agree with Jimd . weigh and weigh again and double check the measurements allowed for your hand luggage cases . sometimes ryanair check your hand luggage weight and measurements , sometimes they take no notice but you cant take the chance.

lyn

We've just come back from a 4 night break on a Ryanair flight. We were allowed 15k checked luggage and 10k hand luggage which we thought was daft. Why not have 20k and 5k?.

The size of some of the holdalls being 'rammed' into the overhead lockers was ridiculous.

Going out my case was 10.5k and coming back with cigs 14k. Someone told me that a carton of 200 fags was half a pound ie approx 250g.

As we entered the airport we found a check in desk that was closed and used their weigh station to check our bags. We were carrying a rucksack for 'emergencies'

10k hand luggage is great. I fly twice a week on the low costs. 10k allows me to take a weeks worth of stuff without wasting anymore time at the airport than I need to. When I'm on holiday and I have to take cases its such a drag.

I think the reason they do that Glynis is to try and steer folk into just taking hand luggage if they can possible manage it.

It probably costs Ryan less to process everything the less hold luggage they have to get the airport authorities to handle.

Thanks everyone for the clarification -

We'd like to have just used hand luggage, but I really think this would not have been practical for us . .. not least because we don't even have enough suitable holdalls of the right dimensions

These restrictions are a pain, but in actual fact they have ended up saving us more money - now we only have the one suitcase, we're all going to fit into the smallest economy hire car (lol)