I see from a previous post that you are flying with Monarch. It will be one piece of luggage at 20kgs per person which is fairly standard. I don't believe you can purchase additional baggage allowance, but you would need to check the Monarch topic for that.

It may be worth investing in some luggage scales if you think you may go over as excess baggage can be very expensive, £6-9 per kg.

luci

thanks Luci, have already bought some scales....... will just get on and enjoy the holiday!!!

Hi

We're travelling with Thomas Cook to Mallorca on the 30th (package deal), the flight is with Futura.

When we booked, we were told we had 15kg allowance, plus 5kg carry-on, but the tickets say "Baggage Allowance 20kg" and "5kg Hand Luggage"
Does this mean we have 15+5 (total 20) or 20kg for checked-in AND 5kg hand ? Might seem a daft question, but I don't want to be caught out.
Also, are we limited to 1 piece of hold baggage each ? Last year we flew with Thomson with 15kg hold each, and 4 of us checked in 5 cases between us, with the total being well under 50kg, but I know some airlines only allow 1 piece of hold baggage per person.
The cases we have this year aren't that big, and we could do with taking an extra one, and even with that, we'd be under the total allowance.

Cheers for any help

I would go with what your tickets say.

Cheers for the reply.
It's just not clear whether it's 20kg total, or 20kg+5kg
The other part I cant seem to find anywhere (read through 50 odd pages of Thomas Cook threads so far), is whether it's one piece of checked in luggage each only, or whether we can take an extra case as long as we're under the allowance.

Fatgit we are flying from manchester to Varadero Cuba with thomas cook and were told 15 + 5 . Got tickets through and they, like yours say 20 + 5 so we taking 20 hold + 5 hand and pleading dumb ignorance :-D. Fingers crossed. Steve

fatgit. we were also told by thomas cook that THEIR luggage allowance would be 15+5kg's. we recieved our tickets last week and they state 20+5kg's and that its actually booked with sunset... we we're told that its the company you BOOK through ie sunset, panaroma, etc etc that give you the luggage allowance.

If we had FLOWN with thomas cook airlines we would of only got 15+5kg's..
but thomas cook are only the AGENT and they go to the various other companies and book your holiday for you,then take their commission etc etc..

go with what your ticket say..

The holiday was booked with Going Places. I'll give em a ring to check on the hold item limit, it's that, or go out and buy bigger cases

fatgit,

TCX's standard allowance is 15kg hold and 5kg hand luggage, but it depends which sister company is selling the package, eg Thomas Cook themselves, Airtours, Panarama, Sunset or Manos as even though they are part of the same group, they have different allowances. I've just looked at my tickets for friday, and it states 20kg hold and 5kg hand luggage (I paid for the extra 5kg). There is either a mistake on your tickets (I'm aware of a few where new tickets were issued when the mistake was realised), in which case I would go off what is stated on your tickets as that is legally binding, you are allocated an extra allowance as 20kg + 5kg is the standard allowance when flying with Futura or your holiday is booked with one of the sister companies where that is the standard allowance. Go with 20kg hold + 5kg hand

Darren

PS This is more of a question for the Thomas Cook thread.

Cheers for the advice
I was going to post in the TC thread, but wasn't quite sure whether it should go there, or in here as it dealt with Hold baggage.
Will post there if I have any more questions

hi
we flew to tenerife with monarch on 8/8/08.
we had booked through thomas cook a package holiday and were allocated 15kg luggage, so we paid the extra £15.00 each for an extra 5kg.
when we checked in at luton for the flight, the ground crew told us that we were allowed 20kg regardless as it was a scheduled flight, so we wasted our money booking the excess luggage.
i have complained to thomas cook about this and will let you know the reply.
regards
tracey

Just as an update, I called Going Places today, who informed me that we are indeed limited to 1 piece of hold baggage each, so I guess we need larger cases.

May I suggest that anyone who is told at check in that they have excess hold (or hand) baggage weight requests that their bags are re-weighed on a DIFFERENT set of scales before accepting the charges to confirm the accuracy of the displayed weight. Just the way that a large piece of baggage is wedged or otherwise on the baggage belt MAY affect the perceived mass of a bag and there is always the issue of confidence in the accuracy of the measuring device.

The small spring-operated hand scales give an "approximate" idea of the weight of a bag but cannot be relied on, especially over time, to be 100% accurate The airport baggage scales themselves are subject to a fair bit of wear and tear, and in my experience despite, in the UK at least, being required to be regularly calibrated etc (don't start me off about scales in more far-flung destinations!) can become less than 100% accurate although I can honestly say that there would be no malicious intent in this - just fact of over-use!!

Check in staff are sometimes but NOT always, incentivised to collect excess baggage charges;For some flights, the weight of an aircraft on a given day may be critical to the airline for whatever reason (cargo booking,full flight,air temperature,proposed flight route - basically anything that affects the flight performance) and the airline may be actively trying to reduce weight for that trip. Frequently it is just an issue of running a business - maximise the revenue and minimise the cost equals marginally more proft in an industry not known (especially in the current economic situation) of being a huge money-spinner.

Many - probably MOST - check in staff are employed by ground handling agents rather than the airlines themselves They are only TRYING to do their job and may have been briefed to be firm on baggage for a specific flight/period (and ,yes on some occasions this results in small benefits to the agent who braves the wrath of passengers to collect the most excess baggage revenue) I speak from experience when I say that suggesting that someone has excess baggage tends not to produce a mild-mannered and appreciative response!!.

My advice - smile & try to be friendly to check-in desk staff (it MAY just work!) politely ask for a re-weigh if necessary and if you are proved to be overweight and don't want to leave items behind, accept the charge with gritted teeth and chalk it up to experience!! You were, after all, warned on your tickets of your allowances and usually the adage "you get what you pay for" IS true, however hard to swallow!!!.....

Hi Tracey just read your thread re; baggage allowance on Monarch, we have flown twice with monarch in six months and it has always been 20kg. I would definitely check this out. First time we flew with monarch we book through the co op and the second time was booked with Thomas cook.

Julie

Yes be cheerful and happy at check in. I was 3K over with Jet2 and 7K over on the returning flight. Not a word was said and I would have been to pay the excess charge and fully expected to do so.

I find men will often ignore the weight excess. Jet2 outbound 17K allowance 3K over. 20,8K
Return from Barcelona 17K allowance weight was for my friends case 16.8 but when my case went on the weight total was 40.6K so my case must have weighed 23K approx or rather 6K or 7K over. Not a word was said. Also no checking plastic bags with liquids mine I always and bagged ready but no one else was bothering. Belts were having to be taken off but no shoes jackets etc as they do in the UK.
I had good luck at Leeds a lady I know came just behind us who had a 20K allowance as she booked. She was over by 2K at 22K and was going crazy and indignant at having to pay this. My friend and I just kept quiet as I know fine she would go and say something about us and set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Sue

hi can i take a video camera in hand luggage and also can i use it on the plane and also can i bring over liquids ie orange squash etc in my hold luggage

on the monarch flight returning to the UK from Sanford
11th sept 08
we were told by a chap named 'Dante' did we have cigerette lighters? yes we did, not allowed in the hold but could carry one lighter on our body each.... i questioned that as i was pretty peeved at having to go through the cases and finding lighters bought as gifts.... armed with one each in pockets ready to move along....... Dante then weighed our luggage said something about allowing 115kgs per family.....there were 5 of us, not sure if we were overcharged..... we had 5 lots of hand luggage one was about 1kg over.... the more i think about it the more i believe we were charged to much!!!
we were then told we were over and had to pay excess charges of $307 incl tax..... mad... but we knew we were a little over one case was 7kg over another 4kg, and didnt see the rest.... i was to scared!!
going through passport/xray machines they took the lighters away from us, mine was ok as it was a flip flame one.... not the type you cant see.... or blow out......
personally i think NO lighters at all in the cabin..... after all we couldve set light to the plane!! stupid idea......

Best friend

No problem with liquid in hold luggage. Always take your Videocamera as hand luggage, it's safer and it is allowed.

Judith

many thanks xx