When I joined BA, any bag with wheels was banned as cabin baggage. We started allowing small trolley bags based on the, then benchmark, Samsonite product. As was demonstrated to us in training sessions, "if you crammed it full of wine bottles, it would weigh no more than 15kg."

Now, with the size of trolley bag allowed, 23kg is getting to be the norm. People are getting wise to the allowances and are maxxing out both hold luggage and cabin baggage when they move from one city to another, or are returning home for holidays.

In fact, on Monday, I took a 34kg wheelie bag down the stairs (and strained my shoulder) from the BA480 BCN flight.

The woolly anecdote "passenger must be able to lift it above his head", which our literature quotes is totally unacceptable. I had a member of HAL security approach and ask if 46kg was considered okay - "the guy can lift it above his head okay, he's a US marine!" It turned out he had a Cadillac he was doing up at his barracks in Dusseldorf and his kitbag was full of spare parts.