Delta Penalizing for Heavy Luggage??

I'm leaving for my cruise on Sat. I'm flying Delta and their website says if any suitcase checked weighs more than 50 pounds, they will penalize you $25 each way. I packed some things and weighed my suitcase and it was about 45 pounds, but I still need to add some things.

How strick are they with this? If it's a few pounds over, do they really penalize you the $25? Thanks! I'll definitely NOT fly Delta again if this is a strick rule.

It depends on the person checking you in, how overweight your bag is, etc. whether they will charge the extra fee. You are permitted to take 2 bags + 1 carryon and a personal bag on most flights, so you should be able to pack what you need. Most of the airlines are now adhering to the 50 lb rule for flights within the US. Southwest is the only airline I'm aware of that allows bags to weigh more than 50 lbs. (70 lbs-last I knew).

Six weeks ago we flew Delta St Louis to Honolulu. They didn't weigh them in St Louis but sure did in Honolulu. One of my brother's suitcases weighed 49.6 pounds and the agent said you just made it. I know all the airlines are cracking down on this and most charge $25 per leg of the flight. It could get expensive if you have connecting flights. I have seen some who had to pay and read on other forums of some who were over and paid. One had two connecting flights and had to pay $75 for a bag that weighed a little over 60 pounds. I guess it's up to the agent on how much over bdfore they will make you pay. I know over 70 pounds and it's even more. Many of the smaller wheeled bags like a pilot uses will qualify as a carry-on and you can carry 40 pounds in those. Might want to think about one of those as a carry-on to take care of your extra weight. That's what we did.

Southwest is the only airline I'm aware of that allows bags to weigh more than 50 lbs. (70 lbs-last I knew).

AirTran allows 2 x 70 lbs.

The airlines seem to be very strict now. I've weighed mine at home only to find out they are to heavy at the airport and then have had to shift things around. I always carry a fold up suitcase in my suitcase in case we are over with souvenirs or poor planning. This has worked out great a couple of times! I'm excited we're leaving on our Dawn cruise from nearby New York and won't have to worry about weight restrictions (although with all the good food, we'll have to worry about weight in general :) ) so we can really squeeze a lot into those suitcases!

Thanks,

I was going to try to just have one suitcase to check in, but glad to know they're pretty strict about the weight restrictions. I don't want to worry about that coming back, so it'll just be easier to check two in. I don't have any way to weigh it before coming home!

Last November we flew United, and my mom had 2 suitcases, put together they weighed less than 100 lbs, but one was over 50lbs so we had to transfer some things from one suitcase to the other one. She was so embarassed ,we had to do this right at the check in with everyone watching , so be sure you weigh each suitcase.:eek:

Well, if you want potential embarrassment, there was my experience in December. 2 people, 20 kg free allowance each (flying London to Sydney). I'm fine because I have a 23 kg case and I'm entitled to 10 kg extra for being a frequent flyer.

My travelling companion (with whom I have sworn - for the time being - never ever to travel with again) decided to bring a total of 57 kg. 17 kg was in one suitcase, and 40 kg in the other. This causes more of a problem than mere allowance - the airline will not accept any single piece that weighs more than 32 kg for health and safety reasons.

So my companion trots off to the left luggage store to buy a holdall. (They sell a lot of luggage now, because of the 32 kg limit.) We repack the 40 kg suitcase into the two bags, and get them about even. And return to the check-in desk.

The airline will happily accept the bags now, but there's still a catch: the excess luggage payment. It's about £450 (about $850) for the one-way trip. My companion throws a fit and refuses to pay.

So we have to repack again - emptying out both cases and sorting items into "take" and "won't take" piles. And the left luggage store gets some more business, to the tune of almost £100 for storing the spare bag for over 2 weeks.

It's a good thing that I have a very thick skin, fly a lot and remain totally unfazed by someone's problems. And we did end up getting a total of 67 kg out to Australia on that 40 kg baggage allowance. With no extra charge. :)

It pays to read the airline regs and pack accordingly. They are especially restrictive on international flights.

I understand the concern for their employees lifting overly large items.

I fly frequently on many of the major airlines. All of them are strict with this policy - although it depends what airport you're at and what employee you end up with to check your bags.

Whenever possible if you think you have bags exceeding the weight limit - use curbside check-in and tip the sky captain checking you in. They tend to overlook any weight issues when they see a nice tip coming their way.

It's not the airline, it's not the carrier, it's the luggage handlers union at that particular airport.

We spent a wonderful week in Disneyworld last July....we got to the airport....we ended up staying the night in a hotel..

WHY?????????????

because there was a lightning storm 50 miles away and the luggage handlers refused to load or unload...so all the planes sat on the runways

It's not the airline, it's not the carrier, it's the luggage handlers union at that particular airport.

 

We spent a wonderful week in Disneyworld last July....we got to the airport....we ended up staying the night in a hotel..

 

 

 

WHY?????????????

 

 

 

because there was a lightning storm 50 miles away and the luggage handlers refused to load or unload...so all the planes sat on the runways

No its not the Union. Most baggage handlers and airlines are NOT UNIONIZED. The weight limits were set by consultants to avoid back injuries- the side of this for the airlines is they make more money. Southwest is not Unionized at all. Florida is a right to work state- very few unions. Right now less than12% of the entire work force in the US is Unionized. There may be a Union at Orlando but I would bet that if they stopped everytime there was a lightning storm no luggage would ever be loaded since Orlando is the lightning strike capital of the world. I was in an emergency room in Orlando when they brought a ligtning strike victim in and his body literally had exploded. If I was an baggage handler around a grounded airplane I would be careful too.

No its not the Union. Most baggage handlers and airlines are NOT UNIONIZED. The weight limits were set by consultants to avoid back injuries- the side of this for the airlines is they make more money. Southwest is not Unionized at all. Florida is a right to work state- very few unions. Right now less than12% of the entire work force in the US is Unionized. There may be a Union at Orlando but I would bet that if they stopped everytime there was a lightning storm no luggage would ever be loaded since Orlando is the lightning strike capital of the world. I was in an emergency room in Orlando when they brought a ligtning strike victim in and his body literally had exploded. If I was an baggage handler around a grounded airplane I would be careful too.

Yea right....

An entire airport gets shut down because one old lady had an overweight bag!

Yea right....

 

An entire airport gets shut down because one old lady had an overweight bag!

? I thought you said it was because of lightning? Maybe they though she was Al quaida and it was really Al Rocker

We are from Canada and flying Delta to Honolulu via Atlanta, looking on there web site we are allowed 2x70 lbs. I hope I read this correctly as its classed international. My poor friend in Florida who's flying AA is only allowed 50lbs her flight is classed domestic to her flight in Honolulu. Anyone know if I'm on the right track?

Besides AirTran, I think JetBlue's weight limit is also 70 pounds.

Besides AirTran, I think JetBlue's weight limit is also 70 pounds.

I don't want to worry about that coming back, so it'll just be easier to check two in. I don't have any way to weigh it before coming home!

John

Our luggage at Christmas was over 50 lbs. on our way home. They let us go because we only had one big suitcase for my dh and myself. I said to the airlines I did this cause I thought they would prefer less luggage. They replied "no, next time use two bags and keep it under the weight. " They would have charged us an extra $25.00.

We were in Jacksonville last summer and sat on the tarmac for over 45 min. The pilot announced that FAA regs do not allow planes to refuel if lighting is within 5 miles. It seemed silly at the time since the sky didn't even look like it would storm, but I guess if you were refueling or loading luggage, it would be a big deal.

I recently returned from cruise to San Juan. They checked our bags at the pier and when I asked about the weight of my suitcase ( I had added a few extras and was concerned about being overweight) the US Air rep. said there wasn't even a scale there. I had heard from someone that returning cruise passangers were allowed extra weight in their luggage. Does anyone know if this is true?

I know that when I returned from my Alaska cruise and flew out of San Jose to Baltimore, I sure wasn't allowed anything more than 50 lbs. per bag.

One suitcase weighted 56 lbs and the other was at 40 lbs. They told me to either transfer something from one suitcase to the other or pay the $25.00 overweight for the one suitcase. I open both bags right there, on the floor in front of the counter and moved 8 lbs from one bag to the other, she re-weighted both bags and tagged them and off I went.

All the airlines are cracking down, BIG TIME, on weight restrictions on luggage. I'm sure part of it is the fuel costs to fly heavier planes and why should the airlines absorb this expense when they can pass it along to the passengers?

LizBeth953 is right on target.

Check in with the Sky Cap., in my experience there is usually a shorter line and for a decent tip they don't even put the bags on the scale.

In January we weighed in (inside of the terminal, too early in the morning for Sky Caps) at 56lbs and had to transfer some to a carry on. After that I've been a lot more careful. I know I've checked several bags since then that were overweight, but $5-10 to the Sky Cap (depending on number of passangers/bags) has gotten our bags through w/o anything more then a wink and a nod.

From what I've seen lately, if you checkin inside, you do get weighed and they will charge you if they can.

Just be careful. One trip we were fine leaving as we checked in outside and they are easier to get through. But coming back it was closed outside and we had to go inside. Then you could run into problems. We were fine as we took extra bags to carry on and put our purchases in them.

This is true, you could be un-lucky and have to check-in at the counter inside. Comming back from Vegas (on United Airlines) last week we had to do this. Luckly we were only on a short trip and had about 40lbs in our bag, but the people we were traveling with had over 50 and had to pay the $25 on the spot.