poss

I keep reading contradicting details. I've read somewhere on Fodors that there's a weight limit for carry-ons at Heathrow. But the BA website doesn't mention any weight limit-- only size limit. Anyone know for sure what the "truth" is? Thanks!

Julie_Hurst

If I were you, I'd call them just to be sure. We flew BA in April of this year (Amsterdam to London) & did not see any carryon bags weighed anywhere - checkin or at the gate.

Have a good trip, Julie

alanRow

Airlines impose the weight limits not airports

In the case of BA there is no weight limit - apart from what you can lift

jody

Weight limits are imposed by the airlines, or sometimes size or number. Number limits are imposed by the security .

BA has no weight limit, if you can lift it you can carry it on. From the US to UK you can have one bag, within the six=ze limit, and 1 personal item..purse, camera bag, computer bag.

Exiting the UK , the rule...not BA's.. is ONE..no purse, no cmaera bag ..just one bag

jody

I do know how to spell...but typing is sometimes beyond my powers!

DCJones

The weight limit on BA is what YOU can lift to the overhead bin.

rkkwan

You can leave your box of gold coins underneath the seat in front of you. No one mandates you put everything in the overhead bins.

Jake1

You don't have to put it into the overhead bin, but the weight limit is what you could lift into the overhead bin by yourself if you had to.

CarolA

The weight limit on ANY airline should be no more then the traveler (or thier companion) can get into the overhead in a reasonablely quick manner. The FAs are NOT required to help you and your fellow passengers don't want to help you either. So if won't fit under the seat and YOU can't get it in the overhead, it should be checked...... (Sorry, but I no longer help after the "gold bullion" suitcase nearly did long term damage.. LOL!)

Christina

Actually, there are a lot of people on airplanes who are helpful and nice, and DO want to help you. I don't carry a super-huge carryon as I check bags, but even when I try to put my smaller one which I easily can handle myself into the overhead bin, there is ALWAYS some guy who asks if he can help, even when I don't need it. Several guys usually ask. They probably wouldn't ask a man, I agree, but a lot of people are very helpful and nice. SO a lot of fellow passengers do want to help, actually, at least in my experience. This isn't unique to me, either, I've seen and heard the same thing happen to other people.

I'm actually surprised they don't have weight limits on BA carryons as not long ago, they were one of the worst with very strict limits of about 6 kg, as I recall.

gigivee

We flew to Athens Greece via a overnight in Ny.When we were getting ready to board in NY for Greece via Heathrow.They come on the intercom and said when flying BA you could only have l carry on per person so we were combining bags quickly. I have a CPAP machine and they said that would count as a carry on and a purse would count so had to put purse in CPAP machine. When we flew back from Greece they had changed the rule again saying you could carry a laptop and a carry on. It changes all the time. We were surprised when we checked in at NY that they did not tell us about the limit. When we landed at Heathrow they were checking the bags and making people get down to the l bag limit. We traveled Aug 13 until Aug 23. We landed at terminal 4 at Heathrow and departed at term. 1 and they said allow 75 min. for the transfer well if our plane hadn't been late coming in to Heathrow to take us to Greece we would have missed the flight to Athens. I have never seen such confusion and so many lines. We will never make a connection through Heathrow again. Hope this helps.

Elainee

BA at Heathrow has had the ONE carry-on rule for quite a while...I had it last March. Very strict about it. I had to combine since I had two shopping bags and a pocketbook. But once thru security you can un-recombine.

cruiseluv

Heathrow is a joke! We flew back on Virgin Air and it took them 45 mins to check our "group" of 5 . Why so long? Because my husband and our son have the same first and last name ( different middle initial) and ditto my sister and I. They were all twisted, like a pretzel, trying to print boarding passes for the 4 of us. I kept asking why didn't they look us up by reservation code, but they kept doing it by name. What a mess! In the future I will avod Heathrow if at all possible.

We also had to do the combining of two bags into one to go through security.

GreenDragon

When I flew to Ireland (via London) last summer, Virgin had a strict weight limitation. I don't know if they still do. I'd take the earlier advice and call to be sure.

As for those that say you can only take what YOU can get into the overhead - what if you're too short to reach the overhead? I know several friends that are 'vertically challenged' and could never get anything into the overhead, even a sheet of paper.

annhig

hi, poss,

yes, it's all very confusing.

the trouble is, that the airlines have rules about size and weight, and the airport authorities have rules about no. of carry-on items.

for flights leaving the UK there are two main rules - one carry on through security only, and only liquids in 100ml see-through containers all within a see-through zip-lock or similar [which must go into your one carry-on]are allowed.

So if you have a hand-bag and a flight bag, you'll need to be able to get the hand-bag plus the ziplock into the flight bag. Ditto a lap-top, vanity case, etc. etc.

what you need to check therefore is that whatever carry-on you intend to use is big enough to take all you need to take through security - you can buy water and food once you are airside.

then you need to check the airline rules to make sure that this case is not too big or too heavy to be allowed as carry on. each airline seems to have different rules.

then you need to check that your checked luggage is not overweight - they will charge you penal rates if it is.

once you are through security, you may take your handbag out of your flight-bag, get some duty-free, buy any numer of bottles of water, etc. etc.

the long lines are caused by people trying to cram their carry-one bags all into the largest one, realising they can't, repacking their checked luggage, only to discover that they are now over-weight! LOL! the airlines are certainly enjoying the extra they are earning from overweight luggage.

unless you are not checking in any luggage, you don't need to worry about the 100ml /transparent container rule- just put all liquids in your checked luggage.

hope that's clear as a zip-lock bag,

regards, ann

poss

Ah, for those actually-enjoyable flying days of yesteryear. Thanks, everyone!