lincasanova

Careful with overweight HAND luggage and purse at CDG. They are now WEIGHING both pieces together as you enter the security lines. .. not more than 12 kilos.. I saw two businessmen turned away with a huge red adhesive square slapped onto their hand luggage . They were sent back to pay to check it. This was at 2F. I'm not sure if it is elsewhere.

I was not asked to weigh mine nor was my husband but I certainly will be very careful when transitting here... which I do quite often.

Christina

That's pretty heavy for hand luggage, doesn't bother me as I would never carry anything on board that weighs more than that, including my purse. Now if you were trying to do carryon luggage (I don't call that hand luggage but I think that's what you mean, anything you don't check). I bet that will affect some people. Not me, as I don't do carryon to Europe. I can see it will affect business people a lot.

Now are you talking about transatlantic flights or just those smaller local ones? Because I don't pay to check a bag for any transatlantic flight I've ever taken.

lincasanova

this was at 2F.. I was connecting to a flight to Spain BUT if had luggage is overweight plus you had checked a bag you would have to pay to check another bag even if it were international. Since so many people are NOT checking bags on these shorter fights.. their clothes/shoes for three days can add up.

Just putting a "heads up" out there.. I agree it will mostly affect business travelers. First the size now is so reduced.. and now.. the weight. Some hand luggage already weighs a few kilos.

Andrew

I expect to fly out of CDG in May, but on an international flight (so probably out of 2E not 2F). I'm guessing my camera bag is too heavy - can't really check it. If this happened to me, I'd probably pull out another fabric shopping bag and shift some weight into that and carry that and my camera bag on and check the small suitcase. (Won't cost me anything, just slow me down.) But thank you for the heads-up - I might plan some extra time at CDG now.

danon

On a fully booked flight from Amsterdam to Madrid ( last April) the KLM rep.
went around the gate collecting most of the hand luggage because there
was not enough room in the bins.

It was the first time my light (and correct size luggage ) was not allowed on board.
I can see airlines starting to charge for hand luggage as well.
Fine with me ; we have been traveling with carry on only for years.

NYCFoodSnob

This has been going on for years, but it's arbitrary, and it depends on the airline carrier. If you're on a non U.S. carrier, it would be prudent to weigh your carry-ons before you board.

To get around this, many professional photographers are limiting their international flights to non-stop on American carriers.

Sarastro

Air France has been doing this at CDG for a very long time. They weigh and size any bag of those in line at security, that they think might exceed their rather draconian limits.

Flying a US air carrier is about the only way to avoid it.

lincasanova

..they were weighing BOTH pieces together on the scale.. a purse AND the carryon.. or a computer bag AND the carryon.. together..

good luck. I think this only happens when you come in and check in from the street as first time, regardless of where you are going. When you arrive from overseas, or to connect from another flight, i think you are just going through a security area and immigration that AF isn't controlling.. I have not seen the weighing or scales there.. just at the terminal. We were leaving from Paris as first point of travel.

Dogeared

This isn't news to anyone who has flown with different airlines in the world.

If you think a 12kg. limit is a problem, take a look at some examples of what some other airline limits are.
https://www.skyscanner.net/news/cabi...t-restrictions

I have flown airlines with a 5 kg. limit. People often run afoul of carry-on restrictions when they transfer from one airline to another during their journey.

kerouac

Often the limit on planes is just 8kg. When they are checking in the boarding area, though, they are only strict if the plane if fully booked.

lincasanova

in this case it would not have mattered had I been flying a US carrier leaving Paris. To get to it, I needed to go through this check point..

NYCFoodSnob

<i><font color=#555555>"in this case it would not have mattered had I been flying a US carrier leaving Paris. To get to it, I needed to go through this check point.."</font></i>

This doesn't make much sense, and I'm reluctant to believe it without further confirmation. Many U.S. carriers say on their website that they don't weigh carry ons for international travel. They care about dimensions. What would be the purpose of CDG to do this en masse? Unless they're simply using it as an anti-terrorist thing, and it has nothing to do with the rules pertaining to your actual flight.

kerouac

I was about to point that out. There are absolutely no scales to weigh bags at security and in any case different carriers have different weight rules, not to mention the same carrier having different rules for economy and business class. However, there <b>is</b> the bag sizing frame at security, the very same one that you saw at check-in and that you will see again at the boarding gate.

The reason that you see these frames three times is because many people have expandable bags, and some of them get bigger and bigger as the passenger approaches the boarding gate.

lincasanova

I was coming from the city of Paris to being the journey.. and had I been beginning a trip to the USA I would have had to go through that same check point.. where they check your boarding passes as you enter the security lanes.. I saw it.. I was there..

and people were turned away and sent somewhere with a big red square adhered to their carry on. You tell me what that was about.

...perhaps if they saw that I was going to the states then they don't slap on the red tag for overweight.. that's the only explanation I have.. it MIGHT depend on your destination...but I think this entire terminal is AF

scrb11

Do any of the airlines make you check carry ons at the gate?

Or perhaps give you tags before you board and then bring your carry ons as you deplane?

kerouac

On my last flight I saw them turning away bags at security but just by looking at them. As I already said, there are no scales at security.

Guenmai

They were doing this last summer, 2016, as I was stopped and ordered back to the check-in line and then had to pay. The guy, at the turn-away point, had a scale and weighed my small suitcase and handbag. I travel, around the world and regularly, with a small, international-sized carry-on suitcase and a handbag with my 10-inch, MacBook Air in it and that was the first time that I ever had that type of problem. I've been traveling to Paris for 4 decades.

I need to take a carry-on suitcase as there are items that I need to have in case my suitcase doesn't arrive to my destination and I've had enough lost luggage, over the last 40 years, to write plenty about it.

When I was turned away at CDG, I think the weight was about a kilo over as both my carry-on suitcase and my handbag were weighed together which I have not experienced on any airline or at any airport on flights that I've personally taken around the world.

If one tries to get on a plane with one of the old-school-style, big carry-on suitcases, then that person is usually stopped. But, mine was the small, international size and all airlines, in the past, have only looked at the size.

I had arrived into Paris, with that suitcase and handbag, and with no problem and then was only trying to get from Paris to Copenhagen after spending a week in Paris. When I left Copenhagen to return to Paris, I had the same suitcase and handbag and had no problem boarding Air France back to Paris and no one weighed the carry-on pieces.


"Do any of the airlines make you check carry ons at the gate?
Or perhaps give you tags before you board and then bring your carry ons as you deplane?"

I personally have not seen that happen at CDG. I know that it's common, here in the U.S., and travelers do it regularly and by doing it that way, one doesn't need to pay to check in a carry-on suitcase. The airline staff will ask, at the gate, if there are volunteers to check in their carry-on, at the gate, and then will give the passenger a tag and take the carry-on suitcase and put it in the hold-space under the plane and then after landing will hand it back to the passenger. No need to wait at a carousel.

Happy Travels!

hetismij2

Perhaps they were weighing carry-on for certain flights because of the plane type on that flight. If it was a smaller plane, or a turbo prop it probably had a stricter weight limit than your normal 737.

Last time I flew, on Transavia bags were tagged as underseat or overhead and the attendants checked the tags on the bags in the overhead lockers and removed those tagged as underseat.

Dogeared

Things change all the time and over the last few years, the rules for carry-on and checked baggage have seen various changes by different airlines.

Some now charge for carry-on bags while others charge for checked bags. Some have changed their size and weight limits and some have started enforcing their limits more strictly.

All of this is about money. Travellers today focus more and more on 'cheap seats'. Booking online through third party sites and only interested in where they can find the lowest price.

As a result and it should be no surprise to anyone, the airlines are getting squeezed on the price of a seat and so have to make up the money somewhere. The obvious ways are by charging for food and drink that used to be included; charging for pillows, blankets, earphones, etc. that also used to be included; charging for baggage that used to be included.

The traveller is getting what they deserve, no more and no less. But bear in mind that you now fly for less than it cost people in real terms 30 years ago! You may feel you have cause to complain, but you aren't paying enough to have cause to complain.

http://www.askthepilot.com/cheaper-and-safer/

Consider paying the equivalent today of $3690 one way between NYC and Ireland as you'll see the price was in 1946. Pay that and you will get the right to complain about something. Pay $600 return! with Aer Lingus today and you don't get to complain about anything.

aliced

I think I'd actually be glad to have it weighed as many people abuse the rule of one bag to put up top and the other which must fit under seat. On a recent trip, I could not put in my soft tote in the overhead bins which were already stuffed because previous boarders put up their bags, their smelly food bag, their coats. They stuff them sideways drastically cutting down on efficient loading. This policy is not addressed at all by the flight attendants. You see lots of passengers waiting to board with three bags, and if you're lucky to be in boarding group 1 or 2, you'll get the space. It's become a real circus.