RJames

Are Qantas and Air New Zealand strict about the 20kg baggage allowance? I am used to the US 2 pieces of luggage allowance, which I am entitled to for my flight to/from the US but not on domestic flights within Australia and New Zealand. Does anyone know how much I will have to pay if I am overweight? (ie, I have more than 20kgs of luggage). Thanks in advance.

maryk

They are not so strict on the 20kg - but it does depend on how full the flight is and I know of people who have been charged (incidentaly Vigin Blue appear to be less strict on this). They are all however VERY strict on the cabin baggage allowance - both size and weight- so don't even try and exceed that.

Mucky

Hi,<BR>My experience is that the Australian baggage handlers cannot 'by law' lift over 20kg, its some kind of employment law.<BR>When we flew from HK to Sydney we had 1 large case between the 4 of us and it was 26kg, we had to empty the case there. Luckily for our forward thinking we carried a large holdall which folds up quite nicely inside our large case too. Not sure about single allowance though. I would suggest seeing how you get on but be prepared to move some things like heavy books into hand baggage.<BR>Muck

alliegator

I wouldn't know about the 20kg allowance because we had a couple different checked bags, but carry ons are very strict. The overhead compartments are super small and most can't even handle a full backpack. Be prepared to check carryons. In other words..have a couple smaller checked bags.

ateabag

My husband &amp; I have traveled the world with carry on luggage only &amp; it has saved our skins more than once when their has been flight problems. Just returned from 4 wks Aus-NZ [will be posting trip notes for questions when I get a little more settled] &amp; Qantas to date has been the most strict airline we have encountered but it is a changing world. Qanta's website spells out the baggage allowance. We logged 20,000 airmiles with Qantas this trip &amp; had to ck even our carryon a couple of times. One flight to Hobart was cancelled due to tow bar breaking &amp; damaging the brakes on the plane thus had to fly to Melbourne &amp; then on to Hobart. We were not expecting to be forced to ck our carry on bags &amp; it happened so fast &amp; that we stupidly did not think about what we were cking &amp; that they might go astray. Bottom line, they were lost &amp; after a <BR>VERY long day of traveling &amp; we arrived at our apt without some the things we needed for the nite . Qantas was kind enuf to give us a kit to help tide us over. Feeling stupid, we then packed for each flight, with the thought that we might have to ck our carryon &amp; made sure what we needed for the nite was with us plus anything we could not live without if it was lost permanently. Qantas did bring our luggage to our apt the next am @8am. I really felt for the poor Qantas employee that was on the receiving end of some ladies disleasure at having their luggage lost. IMO, cking luggage is like saying goodbye to your kids, you never know if you will see it again. It would be interesting to see the stats on it.

Rainy

When I travelled Air New Zealand said my bag was under 20kg and I had no problems but Qantas made me take stuff out - even though the scale didn't even read 0 when Nothing was on it! So I would make sure you are under weight by at least a couple kg. I am not a big Qantas fan obviously! Not only for that but many other reasons.

lizF

Qantas has always been very good with baggage and weight but always strict on weight and size for the carry on bags. I have taken up to 50 kgs on a flight without any extra baggage charge but I have had to take items from my carry on because it was over the limit. Qantas provided me with a free bag to use for that purpose and all was fine. <BR>One thing you have to remember on this forum is that you are dealing with 2 countries here and although we are close in geographical terms we are poles apart in likes of other aircraft etc sometimes. Your best bet is to phone the 2 airlines and get the answer from them - then it won't be biased either way. Also rules for domestic flights are different from International.

Mucky

Oh Liz,<BR>2 Countries??<BR>Its at least 3 don't forget us guys in the UK !!<BR>LOL<BR><BR>Muck<BR>

Pauline

Qantas transport checked domestic luggage up to 32kg. At least they did when I flew from Sydney to Canberra back in 2000, carrying 31.5kg in the suitcase. Apart from a very large and bright label saying &quot;HEAVY&quot;, there was no penalty. <BR>I was very fortunate that Singapore Airlines didn't charge me for being overweight on my international flight, where my allowance was only 20kg.<BR>If you are flying on the smaller domestic 'Dash 8' planes or similar, Qantas are very strict about the carry-on bags.

Debi

We flew ANZ in December of 2002 and were initially concerned since the US has a larger luggage allowance. ANZ honored the US rules since we were from the US. We had ALOT of luggage (plus dive gear) since we were on a 3 week vacation. We had no problems at all with them. We did have problems in Hawaii coming back to the mainland and had to re-pack stuff into other suitcases due to weight constraints there (Delta Airlines). But we never had that problem in New Zealand.....

lizF

OK Mucky 3 countries, but because its Qantas/British Airways on a 51%/49% basis ( just about anyway) its really only 2 countries over here with NZ and OZ. <BR>If you can tell me Mucky the best way to get from London out to Harwich I would be most grateful. I will have bulky luggage I guess ( as per usual).