British Airways baggage question.
 

We will be flying BA in Europe. BA will not give us the North American baggage allowance (2pieces) for flights within Europe. We are travelling for 5 weeks and we will have quite a bit of luggage, I'm sure we will have more than the 23 kilos that we are allowed. Are BA very strict about the weight of the checked bags? Thanks.

Sorry this won't be of much help, but in my limited BA experience I get the distinct impression that they don't follow strict rules or guidelines about much of anything. It will be entirely up to the whim of the person you encounter that day -- depending on his/her mood at that particular minute.

I have traveled on BA with more than the allowed number of carry-ons (one being a musical instrument), but they usually charge extra for overweight bags, or additional checked bags. They give you a little leeway, but only a few pounds. Plan on paying extra every time you check in with luggage that exceeds the limit.

And my experience once just before 9/11 was that BA wouldn't let me on with my carryon. It was small enough, but over the 11? 13? pounds they permitted for a carryon.

If you are traveling for five weeks, perhaps you can ship some luggage ahead to one of your destinations
Makes it easier for a number of reasons

They can be quite strict. I did exceed my bagage weight allowance when flying last spring. However I was traveling with six other people and the VERY NICE ticket agent decided to lump all of our bagage weight together. Since the total weight was within the guidlines, I was not charged. Glad I was travelling with light packers!!!
Pare down as much as possible- books etc. Failing that, I have found that if you are as pleasant as can be, airline employees will help you out.
trying to argue "North American bagage allowance" will probably only get you charged the MAXIMUM fees! Kill them with kindness and you might just get by.

You need to be prepared to pay the excess baggage fees if you have more than the allowed limits which are posted. If by some chance you happen to not have to pay it on one r more legs of your trip, then consider yourself lucky. If you don't want to pay the excess baggage fees, however, you should figure out how to reduce what you take with you to stay within the limits no matter how long you will be gone. It can be done (as atested to by many posts on this board) but will require preplaning.

We flew BA to Europe from San Francisco last summer and they were very strict about weighing the luggage. Not only that, but they made people repack if one suitcase exceeded the limit and the other was under as they said the luggage had to be well-balanced in the plane. Passengers with luggage over the weight limit had to go to a new line and I don't know what happened to them after that. To be safe, I would be very careful about the limits and pack as lightly as possible. Good luck!

British Airways has gotten very strict with its luggage policy. They weigh everything, both checked and carry-on luggage. If your carry-on weight is over the allowed weight (different limits for different class of service), you will have to check the luggage or try to repack to get it under the carry-on limit. They are very, very strict if the flight is full. BA used to allow some leeway when the flights are not full. But I have not seen this recently. Rules are strictly enforced. Even on a half-full flight, everything was weighed. Since 9/11, the only time I've seen a very slight waiver (talking about less than 2 kgs over) was when traveling in business class.
Maybe, you can pack lighter? You can do laundry along the way. And many separates can be mixed and matched. You can bring shoes that can serve multiple purposes.
5 weeks in Europe, you're so lucky!Have fun!

I think many of the above posts have to do with international flights, specifically from the US to UK or the rest of Europe. The question was about BA flights within Europe. I think you'll find them a lot less strict. I swear they never even weighed our big bags (packed for two months) when we flew BA from London to Berlin. Nor when we flew from London to Dublin. If they had, I'm sure we would have been over those weight allowances.

i also have had my carryon checked by ba due to the weight. they were adamant over this- this was pre 9/11 if that matters.

When my daughter moved to England she had 2 large pieces of luggage. I know they had to weigh more than the allowed weight, but they checked them through without a problem. I guess it depends on how busy they are and who is working at the time.

I'm no expert on this but if you are flying with BA to London and then continueing directly with BA to another location you might be allowed the US baggage limits on the last leg of the journey. Last time I had similar problems I asked a friend of mine that works in the travelagency and depending on a certain luggage code on my European leg he could tell what luggage limit I had. BUT if you are stopping in London and staying for some days then you have to follow the intra-European rules.

Cobos

In general BA will be pretty strict - you may run into a counter agent who will let a little overweight slide. But you certainly shouldn't count on it.

But get back to your initial premise - that you will be overweight. The weight allowance is just over 50lbs per person. That is an awful lot. Most anyone should be able to work w/i that. How are you traveling once you are in Europe - by train? If so I certainly would not want to be wrestling 50 lb bags (plus your small carry on) on and off trains.

do a search on Fodors - there are many threads w/ helpful hints about packing light. I never use more than a 21 inch rollaboard for any trip - that is for up to 6+ weeks. I'm not suggesting you need to go that light, but most folks don't really need huge luggage.

We flew two intra-European segments on BA late last year and were slightly overweight on our checked luggage. Nothing was ever mentioned by the check-in agent. Might be different it yours are significantly overweight.