greenshoes, I started this topic a long tome ago, We all know what we are allowed to take so we really dont need that information as it has allready been said time and again in this topic, What we are more concerned with is the companies that are doing this, Time and time again the To Thomas cook comes up with charging us excess charges, This topic was made to discuss who are charging excess and to warn Members what to expect when travelling back from Dalaman, I have been stung with this excess charge myself I paid £24 for 4kg's over the 20kg with Thomas cook 17 months ago, And considering I have been 16 times with other To's to Turkey and not had the excess charged and I might add here I am always overweight and yes I expect to be charged and will pay for that privalage.

It's fair enough being charged if your case is actually overweight, but there are numerous examples on this thread alone of people being charged when they know for a fact that they are within the set limits. When we flew back in June, our cases were all within the limits, but the two women in front of us both had cases which weighed more than the 20kg allowance, yet they didn't get charged any excess. As others have pointed out, the charges don't seem to be applied consistently, and that is quite patently unfair. No wonder people get annoyed when they see some people being charged, yet others getting away with it.

Hi

we are flying out on friday 12 sept and was wondering if they allow you to combine your allowance i.e we are a family of five and have a total allowance of 80 KG, can we have 3 cases weighting 25Kg (total 75KG) or will we be charged excess as they are over 20KG each?

Rob

you need to check the maximum allowance per suitcase , it is usually 30 kilos, so in this case you should be ok

we have recently returned from dalaman airport flying with aegean flights 3 in our family and with friends that are a family of 5 who booked seperately, we decided on return flight to pool all 8 suitcases together as we had bought some things and might have been over by 1-3 kilos max and they were a lot under the limit and there was no problems at dalaman doing this, just wished i had bought more now if i had thought about asking our friends earlier lol

The majority of Airlines will not let you pool together unless you are all on that ticket, It would be advisable to check with that particular airline your flying with.

make sure YOUR case isn't overweight, you wont get charged then you wont have anything to complain
about and wont get involved in this childish 'but she was overweight and not charged' and blah blah. Im sorry but I have just came back through Dalaman and everyone was being charged for being overweight, this was Thomas Cook. So many people were complaining about it but at the end of the day their case was over their allowance.

It all depends on who you're flying with. They're grumpy anyway at Dalaman.

we got charged on way out from Mcr last year with First choice for the first time ever. So its not just there. That Celeb Air thing last night they mentioned overweight baggage and the mentor said it was a Monarch policy to always charge.

portable fishing scales is the answer and dont take more shoes than you need. I had 2 pairs in the case plus birkenstocks that I wore mainly so could actually have done with just them and me foam flipflops for round the pool.
I learned my lesson from last year.

Didn't see anyone being charged excess at Dalaman on my return last Thursday night - I was under 15kg so knew I was ok, but my allowance was in fact 20kg - so the tickets were correct, and the info on the Thomas Cook website when booking was not. I did not pay extra to increase allowance to 20kg as I didn't think I would need it. Hadn't booked a meal, but got it both ways anyway - when I said I hadn't booked a meal, I was told everyone gets them anyway (not always my experience..)

Lady in front of me at departures had paid £10 for a small packet of Doritos and a can of coke - clearly had not read this discussion topic and was furious!!!!

came back 20th sep we got 20kgs without paying the extra with thomas cook we was told to weigh our own cases before we got to check in we was 18 kg on each case but they let you put the weights together anyway if you are over the thomas cook rep told us to take the things out and leave them there some body in front of us had to pay over 100 pound its disgusting espicially the prices of food and pop in there £5.00 for a can of coke we took our own pop as your allowed drinks and food threw

Just returned 23/9 from Dalaman flying with first choice.

I was very concerned about discrepencies with my baggage, after reading this thread thought we may be charged at Dalaman. I was very surprised to see they did not even weigh our cases . I was all ready for them, as I knew 100% we were under the allowance, but did'nt need to worry.

The only thing at the airport that made me mad, was the cost of the food at the airport £10 for a KFC!! . When you have to come home, make sure you take drinks with you as the prices are disgusting and really really high.

Peggy

Peggy, It has been widely reported on here regarding the sky high prices on this thread many many times, The mods should make this thread a sticky so people always see it, Over to you Mods.

Just returned from Turkey last night, we flew with Thomas Cook and I would be very couscous of flying with them again.
Paid for the extra luggage (20ks) other's on the flight (friends ) didn't pay for extra luggage and only had 15ks but had 20ks on their tickets , anyway on departing at Belfast our luggage weighed 21ks each so we were charged £8 each for being over, on the way back we discarded loads of stuff to make our luggage lighter at Dalaman (toiletries, beach towels, shoes etc ) didn't buy anything as it was our 13th time in Turkey and have bought it all before, Guess what luggage was still 21ks and charged another £8 each on the way back.
It quiet clearly states at Dalaman that you have to get a receipt of the Thomas Cook rep for the money you pay, when asked for this she informed us that it wasn't them who charged but Dalaman airport, Check in operator said it wasn't them but Thomas Cook who charged for the extra luggage.
Have flown with many different airlines over the years to Turkey and including Onur air (gold trail) and have never had to pay anything.
Many people at the check in Dalaman had to pay a lot more than us, woman in front was 9ks over weight and was charged £80.

When I was returning from Dalaman early in September it very much looked like it was the airport making the charges (in accordance with the weight limit you personally had), although that may well be purely the staff there doing this on behalf of the airlines concerned. They were certainly hot on about it with our Thomas Cook flight although the staff were not in Thomas Cook uniforms - there must be some sort of agreement with staffing/charging.

Anyway, I did consider because people in front of me were being charged (whilst being adamant they were okay on the way here and therefore must be fine returning what with lots of items like toiletries being discarded) that the Dalaman scales were in some way 'out', but mine was weighed in at 11.3kg so if they were 'out' by the 4kg the lady in front was charged for (19kg as opposed to her weight limit of 15kg) then that would mean my bag actually only weighed 7.3kg which was not possible.

I agree make this a sticky. I believe that UK staff are often very lenient with weights. Dalaman staff not so. I also believe that there must be many people like the woman who was moaning and whinging in front of me, who have packed more than their weight and were just hoping to get away with it.

The airport check-in desks aren't manned (if that's the politacally correct way these days!) by Thomas Cook, but their ground handling agents who are employees of the airport / thier agents. They are acting on instruction of the airline, in this case Thomas Cook. Although the airport is taking the money and no doubt a commission, excess baggage charges are nothing to do with the airport or the staff involved. They are acting on a work instruction from the airline, ie Thomas Cook. I know excess baggage charges are frustrating, our group was charged £48 for being 6kg over earlier this month. They are very strict at Dalaman, probably more strict than any european airport but it's not the airport making the charges, they are just administering it on behalf of the airline. We've all been getting away without paying charges for years and I suspect this is the start of things to come across the board with the current economic climate and the aviation industry struggling.

I know it's frustrating, but don't put the blame on the airport because it's not them in this case. The high cost of drinks etc at Dalaman is a different story (that's covered towards the bottom of page 18).

Darren

Haven't read through all this thread, so apologies if this has already been said. - If it's the airline making these charges at Dalaman, in my case First Choice/Thomson, then why do they not charge when flying out from a UK airport?
When checking in at Stansted to go on our holiday, the person in front of me, their case was over the limit, but just had a 'heavy' sticker put on it. Surely if they are going to charge for excess weight, then you must charge for both inbound and outbound flights?

We too were overweight on our return a week ago. We also challenged this. The check in staff wanted £75, they asked for cash Sterling (why can't you pay with either a debit/credit card if it's the UK airline making these charges)? We also challenged a couple of First Choice reps who were around the check in desks. They were next to useless, and seemed more confused than us regarding this, saying they can't do anything about it.

intervoice wrote:

why do they not charge when flying out from a UK airport?

They do! It's becoming more and more common. Thomas Cook are certainly charging for excess baggage when departing from Manchester and seem to be the most strict of the charter operators.

Darren

It's probably only the difference in discretion used by UK checking in staff whereas the ethos in Turkey may be to follow instructions to the rule. I certainly saw plenty of people being stung at check in with Thomas Cook in Manchester but equally they were allowing removal of things, shifting about of clothes within groups and waiving the proper rules on grouping together allowances (ie. a friend on the way out was allowed to combine her weight with others travelling together - this was disallowed on the way back because although they were friends they had all booked and paid for their flights individually, were therefore on different booking references and she was fined accordingly).

There also appeared to be a member of staff at Dalaman specifically there to ensure payment of excess was forthcoming. That is, when someone started to dispute the charge he would come along and point them in the direction of the cash machine and allow the check in staff to carry on with their jobs while he argued with the stubborn customer checking in.

If you know you are overweight then you should consider yourself fortunate for not having been fined in the UK as well as Turkey, not peeved. Whilst we may disagree with the excess charges they are clearly laid out when you book, you are clearly told the baggage weight limits. It will only serve to cost more in fuel if they are continually letting people on with huge, heavy cases that go over the limits.

post deleted

Please keep things friendly

Biff

I have noticed that when you see someone else usually a man with a White shirt and Tie on hovering to the left hand side of the check in that will be the ones who are more likely to charge for excess baggage.
SandC, Just because someone is overweight on the departure flight from Turkey certainly doesent suggest to me that they were overweight when they left the Uk in the first place, And the reason that people are overweight is because they have purchased far to much goods, We all know our allowance and if you dont know that allowance it's tough luck and you pay the price sometimes, And again im telling you all the biggest culprit with this is TC.