Originally Posted by
CanadaDH
I had 8 check-ins with my skis this winter with Air Canada (4 of those in YYZ), and wasn't ever asked about the contents of the tube. They did, however, weigh the tube at check-in.
On every trip out of YYC, an AC agent was hovering around the oversized check-in, and asking all AC passengers to put their ski bags on a scale set up against the wall directly opposite from the oversized check-in. I thought that was odd, since it was just weighted at the business class check-in, but maybe she couldn't tell who came from and agent and who came from a self-check kiosk. But in talking to the agent, she said she's just making sure that the ski bags are within the 50 or 70 pound limits per the passenger's allowance. She also said earlier that day, she stopped someone trying to check an 80-pound ski bag! If that's indicative of what some people try to get away with when using some of these newer oversize equipment bags, I can understand why they're stepping up monitoring efforts.
This mirrors my experience at YYC 3 weeks ago. 50k, went to drop my bag off at oversized (I didn't have to wait in line), but all of my other friends were yanked (and just about every pax who was unfortunate enough to have to wait any amount of time in line to drop off at oversized) for a bag weigh across from the dropoff point.
I suspect YYC sees a disproportionate amount of ski/snowboard bags, and that a vast majority aren't within weight limits. One guy who was disputing the weight of his bag (at check-in desk) was pulled over to this machine, and his bag came back as 75lbs.