Sandi and Patty, I'm a bit confused - on the small planes inside Kenya/Tanzania, does the 15kg. weight restriction apply only to the checked duffle? What about the backpack, cameras and heavy items stuffed into your vest pockets? Thanks!

I think technically it's for all bags, but in reality, they may not care about your carry on and I don't think they'll be weighing your vest ;)

In Tanzania, they didn't care about my carry-on at the Arusha airport. They only weighed the checked baggage. I'm not sure I would count on that, though.

Btw, do the baggage handlers there always ask for tips for taking your baggage to the airplane? I found that rather strange.)

I carried a whole dead wildebeest in my XL Eddie Bauer duffel.

Um, just kidding. I think I take the large size.

lifelist, <i>someone</i> unexpected got me to tip at JRO but not, I think, at Arusha. There I was asked to pay some sort of tax (6 bucks?).

Technically, the 15/kg is supposed to include the carryon bag, but at Arusha, they only weighed our checked duffle. My backpack and camera came with me in the cabin without a weight check.

In Nairobi, they weighed our duffles to be checked (by this time we both had extra bags with &quot;stuff&quot; collected - business stuff), but not backpack and camera. It was the extra bags that brought our weight up, and though they wanted to ask for overweight charge... they didn't.

My actual duffle weighed in way less then the 15/kg (final was 26/lbs). If me, the overpacker, manages, most everyone else I believe can do likewise.

Thanks Patty! I'm a little lazy B-)

My fiance and I found some great bags at EMS last night - has anyone used the Stash Duffle bags? Quality and color selection were great. We picked up a training bag (24 x 11 x 13 in.) and medium duffle (22 x 10 x 12 in.) Hopefully they will work well and BA will let us carry on.

What about bringing home souvenirs? Won't things get crushed in a soft duffel?
Aside from the weight restrictions, is a duffel with a hard side and wheels an absolute no-no?

I use Eagle creek soft sided duffels when in Botswana. They really get crammed in, particularly on the small Cessna's. We also use space bags to minimize the bulk of large jackets and sweaters in winter. When mice gnawed the space bag recently, the duffels got bulkier and were definitely harder to fit into the space even though well under the weight limit. Of course the Euro trash we picked up had a myriad of bags with wheels etc, none of which would fit underneath and had to go in the cabin, making the pilot a touch nervous. I really hate when that happens.

I don't know what size planes you'll be flying in East Africa, but in Botswana, they use small Cessnas. To give you an idea of why they require light-weight, soft-sided bags, use this link to Sefofane, who flies in Botswana:
http://www.sefofane.com/ouraircraft/...rcraft_id=2025
If you click on the image labeled &quot;C206 Cabin and Baggage&quot; and enlarge it, you'll see that the opening to the luggage pod under the plane measures 9.5&quot; by 27&quot;. There's a photo of it with a duffel next to it, as well. The pilots can compress a soft-sided bag to get them into the pod, but can't do so with hard luggage. A good soft-sided bag such as Rick Steve's Back Door bag starts at about 3/5 lbs. A wheeled bag starts at about 8 lbs.

Soft sided luggage means soft sided, not one hard side and one soft side. The restrictions of 15 kg is per person per &quot;luggage&quot; so it includes everything you carry-on; backpack and duffle.
This is a space and safety issue so think 3-4 times if you really need that gps!

I have been told that i could carry about 45 lbs of checked baggage even on my internal flights in Kenya. ( there will be three.......I will be traveling with a group of about 18 people....is it possible that i will be flying on larger aircraft that can accommodate more baggage weight? Also, i was told that wheeled luggage is OK as well.

Some of the flights between Kenya/Tanzania might be larger, so more weight. Once, in-country, you maybe in a small place or smaller plane. Few are more than 19-seaters and even on these paxs requested to have soft-sided bags w/o wheels. Too much weight or wheels - you'll pay an excess fee; wheels can always come off or be damaged.

Since you won't have to carry your bags, it's just as easy to go soft-sided, 15Kg/33-lbs, w/o wheels.

Huladolphin,

We leave this Friday, flying Air Kenya London to Nairobi. The Air Kenya websites post two different weight restrictions. My husband got off the phone 10 minutes ago with Air Kenya and they told him: in the cabin, one carry-on weighing NO MORE than 6 kgs (13 pounds.) A purse can be carried IN ADDITION and can weigh UP TO 6 kgs!
Checked bags can weigh UP TO 50 pounds. It's all so confusing. Now I'm worried about getting my duffle slashed...!

carolines,
<b>Kenya Airways</b> is the carrier that flies between London and Nairobi, not to be confused with Air Kenya which flies mostly domestically and to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Are you originating in London or elsewhere? Is your LHR-NBO segment part of a transatlantic ticket or was it separately ticketed? Different limits apply depending on how you're ticketed but for checked luggage in economy class, it's basically:

ex-UK 20kg per person

ex-US 2 pieces (23kg max per piece) per person

Of course, you may have much more restrictive limits for your internal flights within Africa, so you'll need to check those as well (but generally it's 15kg per person).

And regardless of what carrier you're flying and what they're telling you over the phone, there's a limit of <b>one</b> piece of carry on per person at <b>all</b> UK airports no matter what class of service you're flying in. If you try to go through UK airport security with more than one piece of carry on, they'll make you check the second piece. You can, however, temporarily stuff your purse inside your carry on while going through security.

Forgot to mention that the one piece you carry through UK security has to be no larger than 56x45x25cm in size. See http://tinyurl.com/ego9c for more details. They even specifically say &quot;Other bags, such as handbags, may be carried WITHIN the single item of cabin baggage, not in addition.&quot;

Speaking of bags, I saw a couple getting off a Coastal flight last month with 2 hard shell suitcases. After seeing that, I didn't feel too bad about our 20kg duffles :D I'm pretty sure they were chartering as were we. They got off the plane that we boarded.

I also had the opposite baggage handler tipping experience as lifelist at the Coastal terminal in DAR. They whisked our bags out of the vehicle, took them through xray and up to the check-in counter. I tipped them before I realized they were airline baggage handlers and I got a very confused look in return which told me it was totally unexpected.

Patty, yes, sorry I did mean Kenya Airways!
We are ticketed Toronto - Nairobi, flying Air Canada to London on Friday. We leave London heathrow Sunday night on Kenya Airways. I do have the travel carry-on restrictions for BAA (British Airport Authority) and do understand the purse must be packed into the carryon. Kenya Airways says the purse can be carried in addition.
But, more confused now - if coming from Canada, we are allowed TWO pieces of checked baggage? We are actually squishing up our duffels into large suitcases along with their contents plus stuff for London (a weekend before and after Africa. And lots of gifts from Canada to England for friends.)

Weighing our duffels, they come out as 31 pounds. Hoping this is enough leeway in case our bathroom scale is not that accurate!

Discussing packing with the forums' packing queen, our beloved Lynda, I did mention to her that our solution to the nightmare piles of stuff for duffels was quickly sorted with colour-coded ziplock bage. We have to repack everything into duffels in Nairobi. So we recorded what goes into which zippy, which zippy goes into which duffle, along with a clothing list, so in Nairobi we'll have no problem knowing exactly the weight of duffles. I have this feeling our second trip to Africa will be rather more simple!

OK as long as you can fit your purse inside your carry on and be within the size limitation allowed through UK security, you're fine. I wasn't sure if you knew.

Originating from Canada, you're also allowed 2 pieces with a max weight of 23kg per piece. If you're traveling on a single ticket from Toronto to Nairobi, this allowance should apply to all of your segments. However since you have a stopover in London, they may tell you that you're only allowed 20kg per person when you check-in again at LHR. If that happens, I'd remind them that having a through ticket entitles you to the higher allowance (although it doesn't seem like this will be an issue for you anyway). I think the baggage allowance is stated more clearly here than on the Kenya Airways website - http://www.klm.com/travel/nl_en/trav...ance/index.htm

Thank-you, Patty. That website is great but raises more questions...it contradicts what the Kenya Arrways told us re: weight of cabin baggage. Sheesh! Also, the British Airport Authority at Heathrow ALLOWS butane curling irons in checked baggage (one butane cylinder attached, but no refills.) But the website you posted says no butane. Do you know if that also applies to the little canisters in the curling irons?

Kenya Airways website states 10kg and Air Canada is also 10 kg for carry on, so I'd go with that. You may want to print everything out and bring it with you.

I've never looked into flying with butane, but is this what you saw? &quot;Gas and gas containers, e.g. butane, propane, acetylene, oxygen in large volume&quot; It seems to imply a small volume is allowed but doesn't specify the volume. Have you also checked Air Canada's restrictions? How long would one cylinder last, just curious?