In Reply to: a story about excess baggage posted by smurf on Saturday, 27. January 2007 at 16:15 Bali Time:
Many many years ago I worked for a large international airline (God how I miss the travel perks) I assisted the Airport Station Manager one morning as she was working out the aircraft trim (that's the calculation they do to work out how much cargo, how many people, how much luggage is on board and therefore where it all has to go on the plan and how much fuel etc). They worked on an average weight per adult of 66kgs, 33kgs baggage - even though the allowance is 20kgs. Bottom line, if they don't get the trim right you don't get an aircraft off the ground safely. Airline staff know that people don't all weight 66kgs (I'm not fessing up to my own weight)and that luggage is often over the 20kgs allowed - but the baggage allowance is there for a good reason - trim. They have a bit of room to allow extra - but if everyone turned up and tried to check 40kgs of baggage then their calculations are all out, they need to repack the cargo/baggage hold and they need to take on more fuel....all costs money. You know when you buy the ticket that the allowance is 20kgs checked and 7kgs carry on. If you're 2kgs over and they want to charge you - then I'd be a little miffed - but if you're 9kgs over, pay up and get over it. Next time don't buy so much stuff. No one expects to get on a plane and have it fall out of the sky, so think about what the airline staff have to do to get it in the air and be reasonable with your baggage.