Avoiding excess luggage charges when checking in…

Later on today/tomorrow I am flying from a central European destination back to Cork. The worst thing about flying back from a destination is that you always have more luggage than when you went. This is especially true, if like me you love food and do some local shopping before you leave or its Christmas time and you are laid down with gifts.

So below are the things I do that normally help avoid the excess charges (20KG is not realistic IMHO). While these will not work all the time, the majority of the time I have found one or more of these in combination has allowed me to exceed the baggage allowance by a few kilograms (maybe 5 or 6KG if you are pushing it)

1. Don’t try this or fly with Ryanair if possible
2. Don’t try this or fly with Aer Lingus if possible
3. Use an airline with non native English speakers
4. Try to be the first to checkin or even early checkin if possible. Explain that you wish to walk around and be nice an polite with the checkin agent. Find one that is not busy. Use you Irish accent and charm as much as possible but be innocent at the same time. They don’t know how much baggage to expect yet and you may get away with it.
5. Travel in a pair, man and woman are better.
6. If you are a man traveling with a woman, approach a male checking agent, they is more unified sympathy amongst men I have found for such excuses as “her clothes” or “her mothers stuff” I know this is terribly sexist, but it has worked for me in the past
7. When checking in, stand slightly offset from the weighing scales, you can easily balance the bag on you knee, lightly enough for the scales to show a correct value. But be steady as if the weight does not settle, you are busted
8. If the above fails, try the second time, but don’t put the bag fully on the scales, leave a little on the metal strip, they are unlikely to ask you twice.
9. My camera (Nikon D80), its lens and a laptop I always carry on. It weights exactly 10KG, but usually they don’t weight hand luggage, although this is now changing. Try and fit as much possible into your hand luggage
10. Wear a big jacket with lots of pockets. It won’t make you popular with security or with fellow passengers, but you can fit lots of cheese into a jacket
11. Use you charm whenever you can at checkin. Be nice but not overly so. Always be polite, smile and let the checkin agent know they are in charge, be submissive but not a walk over. You will find this one is the most helpful
12. Don’t attract attention to yourself in the que
13. Don’t be loud in the que or rude. If you let a woman and child go before you, such a small act of visible kindness in front of the desk works wonders when approaching a female checking agent

So there are my tips. I’ll let you know how I get on. I am presuming my posts are not monitored by airlines just yet, so I have not been flagged. If I have any problems I’ll let you know.