Originally Posted by aerobod

it is not “stupid” to ensure the bag is within the maximum standard weight. If it is overweight it needs to be labelled as “heavy” and handled by the baggage handlers differently, not doing this could cause workers compensation issues in handling a bag heavier than expected and hurting someone’s back. “Heavy” bags are not necessarily put on the carousel but arrive at a separate point, depending on the airport, then leading to people complaining that their bag is “lost” when they can’t find it.

In the past WestJet used to allow overweight bags, but then caused issues of rejection of the bags with interline / codeshare partners and guests complaining when their bag was the same weight on the return journey and flagged as overweight, when it wasn’t on the outbound.

The rules are not there to be bureaucratic, but to resolve previous issues when employees didn’t ensure the bags were handled properly.