[RoadRunner]

A word of warning for all of you traveling on Air New Zealand: They are absolute sticklers for details!

My husband and I dutifully ensured that our checked baggage (one piece each) was well under the weight limit. Made sure we each had only one carry-on item well within the size limit. Going outbound to Welly - no problems. Coming back is another story!

A gate agent in Wellington saw my carry-on and decided that it was too heavy. She pretended to try to lift it but claimed it would not be allowed in the cabin. All carry-on bags must be 7kg or less. Period. No exceptions. (mine was a hefty 16kg :oops: I had many books, papers, home brochures, etc., etc. packed in there). I figured that the weight limits flying international were higher and that is why we were allowed on in LAX. She said the international limits had absolutely no bearing on what she would allow (yes, what she would allow) on her plane. She then went on to regale us with a story how just the week before, someone had carried on a bag that was too heavy and it fell and - here's the good part - tore off a child's ear! Yep, tore the entire ear right off. Good one, eh?

Besides the utterly ridiculous story she concocted, the other galling thing was that half the people in the lounge were business travelers with bags that were the SAME size as mine. If weight was truly such an incredibly important issue (we have to protect those ears!) then you would assume that standard procedure would be to weight ALL bags prior to boarding. Yeah, but you'd be wrong. Not one single bag was weighed, other than mine. Not one. She didn't question any other person boarding the plane with us. So much for the laid back style!

This was our only bad experience with anyone in NZ. It's a shame it happened at the end of our trip - there were so many incredibly nice people that we met.

So, make sure to weigh your carry-on, too!

[neilw71]

I think that is a bit unfair !! Just remember that "business travellers" bring regular income to an airline - hence there are frequent flyer programmes that reward regular travellers with priviledges - eg higher allowance for carry on bags.

As a regular traveller - I have to say one of the MOST annoying things about getting onto the plane is people struggling to lift bags that are obviously too heavy into the overhead bins! Then there are the people that bring those massive bags with wheel onboard that I could fit my whole life into.....at the last minute and expect there to be space for it right above their seat!!

As with many things - it will often depend on the person you are dealing with - if he/she decides to stick to the letter of the rules, then you have NO comeback, as you accept the T&Cs when booking!

Neil

[kiwi]

They just had an article about this in the star newspaper (I think..or the press) and peoples number one complaint is people not sticking to the rules and bringing a laptop, a heavy over night bag, a suit bag and then a hand bag ...all into the cabin and taking up ALL of the over head locker so when you pop down with your one 5.3 kg bag you have to go find a spot miles from you and you cant get to your munchies too often.

The way Neil wrote I would have sworn he had written the piece! Word for word.

I had a bag with those wheels fall on my head last month by an asian guy leaving chch (as we went to bris) luckily I was sitting where I was and not my 2 yr old it would have knocked her out it was really heavy I went burserk....screaming and yelling "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, YOU NEARLY KILLED ME" blah blah...(ok, I was a little tense, 5 kids going on our first holiday together!!! what if it had been one of them etc) he just kept saying "sorry sorry" and I was screaming, 'sorry aint going to stop the blood' (had an egg, but no blood, he didnt need to know that, I had my head down and was craddleing my fore head) and so on and so forth (my husband hid)

glad it wasnt 16kg! he could barely lift 10kg , hence it topling and falling on moi....man was I cross!!! :no

[veronica]

Sorry, its a pet hate of mine when people think that rules are made for everybody else, but not for them.
The limit of 7 kg per bag is heavy enough to have overhead, 16 kg is over twice the limit and I certainly wouldnt want that much in a single bag over my head. couldn't you have packed some of the brochures in your main case if it was underweight. Blow the fact that it would hurt if it fell on a kid, it would hurt if it fell on me. I also hate it when people turn up with those cabin suitcases but as long as they are within the size and weight limit they are legal, even if they do fill up the lockers. they don't have that squashable factor that daypacks and bags have. These rules and regs have been formulated for the comfort and safety of everyone on the plane so I for one am more than happy to stick as close as possible to them.

[Iain]

I think 16 kg is taking the a bit. It's clearly stated what the limit is - I suspect they aren't going to stress about the odd pound or two, but that is pretty heavy for a carry on bag.

[jubjub]

We have carefully weighed our hand baggage since we had to check in a bag weighing 7kg instead of 5, even though it was one bag between two of us, no other baggage (and it was well within size limit), other people do seem to get away with murder with their wheelie cases, and big rucksacks!

It does not seem fair, but rules are rules and if they pick you and no-one else its seems even more unfair! Its not personal, it can depend on what mood folk are in on that day!

[RoadRunner]

My complaint is this:
1. I didn't know what the limit was - I booked on United (but flew ANZ) and they did not mention anything about weight on the outbound flight. Coming back, I had no way to weigh it and did not realize that the books and papers I had accumulated weighed so much. Since I was never told about a weight limit, I didn't think about it when packing the checked bag v. carry-on bag.

2. I agree with rules but believe they should apply to everyone equally. If everyone in the lobby had had their bag weighed prior to boarding, I would have had aboslutely no problem. As I said, most of the bags were as big as mine so they could easily have weighed as much. But since I was the only one singled out, I felt it unfair (particularly given #1, which is lack of notice).

[veronica]

The 7 kg cabin baggage bit is standard for most longhaul crossings and is usually stated on the ticket, the check in counter and the website for the airline. did it matter that it went in the hold. Paper is a much denser weight than clothing and most people just have clothes in their mini suitcases. just out of interest my skis and boots weigh about the 16 kg mark and when I carry them it really pulls my shoulder down, perhaps that was the give away to the flight attendent.

[kiwi]

maybe road runner has very impressive bicep muscles and can lift it no probs!

The business travelers you mentioned...you mean business class people?..who have about 6 seats and 24 over head luggage holders so they dont really have an issue.(and they can probably bring on whatever they like cos there is room and they are paying 3 times as much as economy)

It is cattle class people that should know the rules (you didnt, but that is no excuse) and follow them....and the staff should be a bit more vigilant with all cattle class so those rucksacks that they insist on wearing down the aisle dont bang people on the heads!

(that is always a good look, nicely done hair then "WHAM!" half your head is now coming out your face....)
Nci

[Carol]

When we went back to the UK for Christmas we (all 5 of us) made full use of the 7kg limit.
None of the bags were overweight apart from mine with my laptop in it...... but they allowed me to take it out and carry it seperately.
Fair enough I think.

Actually - hubby is a STRONG guy -
(big in the biceps dept but that's a WHOLE new thread... ;) :nice1 :laugh )

Anyway -
As he was lifting his bag down - he ly knocked the 's head in front of him -it obviously hurt quite a lot and he was very apologetic but - I dread to think what could have happened if it had been the one with my laptop in also.......

[foolsgold99]

I agree with rules but believe they should apply to everyone equally. If everyone in the lobby had had their bag weighed prior to boarding, I would have had aboslutely no problem

Check in staff ain't blind, it's fairly obvisous by watching someone walk and carry a bag, what's heavy and what ain't. That's why you got caught.

[RoadRunner]

Sorry to go on about this but I don't think I've done a good job of explaining and/or have given the wrong impression.

First, I do not carry on 22" monstrosities. I agree that it is rude and people look ridiculous struggling to put those bags in the overhead. The bag I had was a small compact bag that fits under my seat (depth and width) with no problem but extends a couple of inches. Hence, I put it in the overhead. But it is small enough to fit nicely with 2 other similarly sized bags in the overhead compartment.

To foolsgold - your argument has one flaw - I wasn't carrying it or rolling it when we were targeted. My husband was sitting waiting when the woman came up and said the bag was too heavy. We'd been there for over 30 minutes (far longer than she was there) and there is no way she could have had any idea how much it weighed. There were at least 50 other people (too many for pure business class) who had a small carry on bag that was *exactly* the same size as my bag. And she never asked any of the other 50 people how much their bags weighed. The only difference between us is that they were clearly Kiwi business people and we were clearly tourists.

As for knowing the rules:
I have flown over 120,00 miles in the past year alone -- certainly enough to have a clear idea what the "rules" are in most places. My most recent travel has not been limited to the US but has included Japan, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, and the Bahamas (and many other countries in past years).

**NOT ONCE** have I ever been asked the weight of my carry-on. There aren't even scales in the US gate areas (there wasn't a scale for the ANZ flight from LAX to Auckland). Nor have I seen a scale in the international airports I travel to/through. So, this is clearly not a universal rule. The only rule with regard to weight is for checked baggage. Because you face hefty fines for overweight checked bags, I put the heavier items (likes books) in my carry-on. (Admittedly I don't normally accumulate 7 or 8kg of books/papers on my travels but we were gathering info for our permanent move to NZ - a unique situation for us.)

As for knowing ANZ rules, my filght was booked through United. The tickets were United tickets. Ditto boarding passes. Nothing indicated there was a carry-on weight restriction. Since I have never encountered a carry-on weight restriction in all of my international travels, why should I imagine one exists?

This was actually the purpose of this thread - to warn other unsuspecting Americans who probably were not aware of this limit. I had hoped that by reading this they would avoid the problem I experienced. If other Americans have learned from my lesson, then perhaps this thread has been useful.

Finally, as for the policy itself, I think it is a fine policy **as long as it is equally enforced for all.** If overweight carry-on bags are truly such a hazard, then each and every carry-on bag should be weighed either at check-in (when checked bags are weighed) or when you board the plane.

Yes, I realize that some business travelers have special allowances but that is no excuse not to weigh all bags if this is such a dangerous issue as most of you seem to imply. I am all for fair and equitable bag checking.
Again, we were just sitting and waiting when the gate agent came up and informed us that our bag was too heavy - without even knowing if it was. And, again, we were the only person to be checked in spite of the fact that at least 50 people had the same sized bags.

My final thought: If the policy is to truly prevent dangerous incidents, then weigh each and every bag. Otherwise, the policy comes across as nothing more than a tool to target unsuspecting foreigners.

Anyway, probably enough has been said.

[neilw71]

Just so anyone who wants to be clear, here is the link to the ANZ rules so you can be sure in advance:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/travelinfo/baggageinformation/cabin_baggage.htm

Neil

[veronica]

You may find that you, along with all the other pasengers, had been watched on CCTV or that the security at the X ray machines had tipped the ground staff off. Thats what they are there for, safety and security of passengers. That may be why they came straight to you. Most people only take on the plane what they need on the flight or immediately on disembarking so the likelyhood is that the majority of the bags taken in the cabin were lighter. Most international travellers know of this rule. Why take all that stuff in the cabin if you don't need to? Why was it such a big deal that they put the bag in the hold? On Air NZ you get 64kg of hold baggage allowance. Something I couldn't manage to carry, let alone fill for a holiday. On most airlines you get 20 kg baggage allowance and most of us who travel the other way round the world to get to NZ manage to start living here on that (although they are inclined to allow up to 25kg )

You were breaking the rules, albeit unknowingly, you got caught, you have now tipped off everybody that the rule is there and enforced. End of story.

[shagen]

I am a frequent traveller and I do notice that most Asian airports do have weighing scales for carry on bags. Usually you slide your bags in it and the contraption itself sits on a scale, so if your bag fits and the scale does not go over the 7kg limit, you are okay. Wonder why all airports don't have this.

We are travelling on Air New Zealand to Wellington. Our tickets say baggage allowance 20kg per person. Correct me if I am wring but I think the 64kg baggage allowance applies only to and from the United States.

[veronica]

Youve got it. all the west to east airlines have the 20kg limit and the ones through the US have 2 bags each up to 32 kg but they do have a size restriction on them.

[Milliemoo]

Hi,

I can understand what your trying to say about if they have the rule, they should enforce it for everyone, but that will never happen ....it's too impractical. If they had weigh and measure every single passengers hand luggage the airlines would never meet their turnaround times which would increase costs and the end result would be more expensive airline tickets :no . The best solution is what they currently do, which is spot checks and also check obviously overweight baggage. I agree that every airport should have one of those wee cages that check and weigh the size of your bag ....not too sure how many people would use them, but at least they would be there so no one could act surprised that their hand luggage is well over weight.

We always take a wheelie case on as hand luggage (within standard dimentions) because I like to pack spare undies etc just in case our case doesn't show up at the other end (which has happened 3 times! :eek ) It's tricky keeping it within weight, but I always make sure it is. :mrgreen:

Milliemoo :nice1