suspicious?

[mizzy]

fishermans scales now that is going the distance[laugh][grin]

[steph_goodrum]

We have a set of bathroom scales in our villa and they have come in very useful over the years, not just to us but friends and neighbours.

[ShirleyCottam]

I have also bought a set of bathroom scales and have left them in the villa. With airlines being more strict on the weight of cases I thought it would be a good idea to have some scales to see how heavy the cases are, so the contents can be moved about between cases if needed, before reaching the airport!

I usually pack a soft, holdall type bag inside my suitcase for the return trip.

[bargainqueen]

I use the bathroom scales but DH has the final say, he lifts bag and tells me when it's getting too heavy. He's spot on with the weight too normally around the 28kg mark.

My bags have never been weighed at DTD, just lifted by handlers for confirmation.

Have ordered a new camera so will try to take some pictures and post them on our return. Most people in line at DTD have normal cases and then we have ours which take two trips to get them all there and that's with a large car[msneek]

Luckily we can remove the seats in our car and get them all back from Gatwick

[alastair]

Are your cases larger than "When added together, the three dimensions of any piece of luggage must not exceed 158cm (62in)".?

[nicklangdon]

We always pack a case within a case -we had a suitcase searched on departure last year and he never said anything to us about it so it must be ok - he just had the kids to answer to -what are you doing? why are you doing that?
Bet the next person he picked didn't have any kids! [msnwink]

[bargainqueen]

Alistair - Just measured a couple and the wheeled one works out to 65" but another is 61. Have been using the wheeled holdall for some years now. I used to take two with me and the other was even bigger. Have never been questioned about size and dimensions before.

Afraid the wheeled holdall has taken it's last trip to Florida and will shortly be going on its final journey in our wheelie bin. A faithful friend who served me well.

[alastair]

Zena, I was just curious as to how strict they are on that element of baggage policy, but would imagine a bag with total size 65" would not look much different to the human eye than one measuring 62".

[bargainqueen]

Only one time have I seen anyone get into trouble with the size of there bag and that was some time ago when DTD used a wooden hut as a check in desk. The bag was one of the holdalls which have wheels in the four corners and unzip to extend up to three sizes bigger. The bag had been extended to it's full height, I'm not sure whether it was the size that was being questioned or maybe it was just the weight.

I also had one of these bags but only used to extend it once, a very useful size for "Bed in a bag" items but not recommended as if packed to capacity it becomes very cumbersome to pull along.

When you're using holdalls it would be very hard to measure the size as they do not have rigid sides. Mostly they are looking for weight, we always fly Premium Economy and they are normally around the 28kg mark (still labled heavy though)

Since Virgin outsourced there ground staff two years ago the check in procedure is pretty dire. I think they have a high turn over of staff and most of them are still coming to grips with the basics without checking the bags for size restrictions. You leave the bags in front of the van designated for your flight and the bags are ticketed last after a quick check for weight. If it can be lifted it's ok.

[bargainqueen]

Quick update from our trip in March. The bags have to stay with you now until you check in, there are scales there to check bag weight (23kgs for economy) but ours where checked manually by one of the loaders. His expression when he lifted the largest bag was classic as it was also the lightest (one foam mattress topper and a couple of mattress covers) The others were all much heavier but within limit.