Flying with Easyjet – are new hand luggage restrictions fair?

Agreed, and the European Commission is looking at a common standard. However, we also need a removal of limits (or sensible limits) on weight. It’s absurd that a 70kg passenger with a 15kg regulation-size case can’t travel but a 110kg passenger with a small 5kg case can. As Alfa points out above, if airlines impose weight limits on cabin baggage, passengers simply move items to their pockets. All airlines should adopt no weight limit (like Easyjet) or a weight limit that’s more than adequate (like 23kg on British Airways).

Airlines don’t handle the cabin baggage so there’s no good reason for them to restrict its weight. It makes no difference to an airline whether excess weight is carried as body fat, in the passenger’s pockets or in a regulation-size case.

Sorry, I meant to make this point. If you are packing to return home after a holiday you might not be able to check the weight of your cabin bag, though its size will be the same as before unless it has been seriously over-fed.

23kg is no problem on a 2 week summer holiday, but if you are going on an extended holiday where you need clothes for cold and heat, it is not enough and does not leave spare for any purchases.

They should remove these ridiculous weight limits.

If you’re going on a two-week summer holiday or longer, then you’re more likely than not to have at least some hold baggage. We’re talking here about cabin baggage, and 23kg within regulation-size cabin baggage would only be some very dense material such as a lot of liquid.

Sorry, lost the line of this comment. I was referring to 23 kg for hold allowance.

Quite a few people per year – in the hundreds, worldwide – are injured by items falling out of overhead lockers, so there is a difference between additional passenger weight and additional hand luggage weight.

It’s extremely rare that my hold baggage makes it to baggage reclaim before I do, even when BA puts priority labels on it in business and first class, but it’s nice when it does happen. If it was the norm rather than the exception, I would travel more often with hold baggage as I don’t tend to travel lightly.

EasyJet also combine the luggage weights, which is great for me since I pack the kitchen sink and my husband is nicely minimalist.

As for the size restrictions, it is all very well if you have forked out for a nice rectangular case for hand luggage. However, we tend to go on walking holidays and use our day-packs for hand luggage to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. These don’t hold their shape so, although the total volume may be the same as a small case, often they stretch out to be a bit too deep for the testing rack. EasyJet have never penalised us for that as yet so I hope that the new restrictions aren’t going to be applied as stringently as the dreaded Ryanair.

I worked as BOAC/ BA cabin crew for 40 years with the last 19 as Cabin Service Director. Hand luggage in the economy sections has truly been a longterm problem. Have you ever noticed the placarded weight limits placed inside overhead lockers? This is a safety issue…those lockers are stressed to accept a limited weight. As John Ward mentions, many passengers struggle to put their cabin baggage into the overhead lockers. Cabin crew were not allowed to assist in my latter days, (retired in 2007),as there had been so many instances of crew members injuring themselves doing this. The rule is that you must be able to store your own hand luggage, so only carry what you personally can manage & then only to a reasonable weight & size.
As for hold luggage, BA has a very generous allowance of 23Kg at no additional cost. There is an agreed “maximum lifting weight” in all industries now, I believe, & I think that is 25Kg. This is a “Health & Safety” mandate. Anything above should be label as “Heavy” & may then require special treatment by, say, two people.
Weight in aircraft uses extra fuel so limits & extra charges are acceptable in my opinion, but some of the budget airlines seem to be milking this to unreasonable degrees!

I agree with that. You can never find a weighing machine when you want one. I’ve never seen one in a hotel to help you check your baggage on departure. Those hand-held balances are useless at any point close to the limit. We always seem to manage to go home with lighter baggage but heavier bodies than when we flew out.

Easyjet don’t impose weight restrictions, it is simply a reduction in case size. Last year we purchased some electronic baggage scales from Home Bargains for around £4 and they are accurate to within half a kilo when weighing 10 kilos for a Ryanair flight.

We recently stayed at 50 Flats apartments in Valencia and they had dedicated baggage scales in reception. It’s about time all hotels provided these as part of their service.

Totally agree. Some people put open carrier bags containing heavy articles up in the lockers and quite a few people can barely lift their own bags.

Although I can’t agree that it would be good to put everything in the hold (you need something to carry the books, MP3 player, water etc that people use during the flight, as well as breakables like a laptop), I heartily agree with John Ward about people who place open carried bags in the lockers. On one flight I was sitting under the locker when someones bottle of red wine had come loose and started to knock around in turbulence. The result was a trickle of wine down my neck ruining an outfit for the holiday.

Yes, it’s never in the right place so you can catch the drips is it?

Please see my comments, (cb47), in reply to John Ward’s message re weight limits for overhead lockers.

Andrew – Your quotation from the Easyjet website refers to hold baggage, not cabin baggage which was the point of Barbara’s enquiry. It would appear that there is no weight limit on cabin baggage on Easyjet other than what the passenger can physically manage. I would suggest that the maximum weight that most adults could lift up into the overhead lockers is well under 20 kg [the weight of a DIY cement bag]. I have seen many worrying situations on planes as people struggle to get their bags in the lockers and further problems when people open the lockers mid-flight or on arrival. The budget airlines can get a speedier turn-round if the passengers handle most of the luggage themselves but this should not be at the risk of aircraft or passenger safety.

The airlines are dodging this issue. They seem unwilling to enforce the restrictions they impose and they let people take oversize cabin luggage on board to the detriment of those with compliant bags. This also leads to difficulties in finding an overhead locker near your seat with enough space for your case. You will observe that the scramble at the boarding gate is often precipitated by those with the biggest bags and they get quite anxious on board the shuttle buses as they try to be the first off.

You can put everything in the hold and take nothing onto the plane if you want to, but there might be a limit on the number of bags you can put in the hold, and there is also the overall weight restriction before punitive excess charges arise. Will you be submitting your question to easyjet? It would be interesting to see their response.

There is no reason why your camera cannot go in your carry-on bag and that is the preferred method.

Check your camera’s operating instructions to see if there is a warning about sensitivity to x-rays [unlikely]. Modern digital cameras should be OK and the memory card will not be affected.

Some advanced cameras have a magnetic storage drive that could be affected by the powerful magnets used in the motors that drive the conveyor belts so check to see if there is a warning about magnetic fields.

If necessary, or if you are worried, ask to have your camera inspected manually at security.

Putting your camera in your hold baggage would not be as good as keeping it with you; your luggage goes through a scanner and on a long journey on conveyor belts and baggage wagons at each end of the journey so is at greater risk of damage.