How strict is Air France in regards to checked luggage dimensions?
 

I'm traveling to Paris for the first time since the pandemic. I'm flying Air France from EWR to CDG on April 9.

I'm in the process of buying new checked luggage for my trip. I figured that the luggage on the market today are more lightweight than the ones that I bought 6 years ago.

I'm interested in getting a Travelpro check-in expandable spinner. Its dimensions are 31" x 21" x 13" if you include the wheels and carry handles.

But according to their website, Air France has the following hold luggage restrictions:

The spinner that I'm looking into measures around 65".

How fussy are major international airlines when it comes to the dimensions of your checked luggage?

Not very. So long as it's not obviously oversized (i.e. you can tell at a glance it's too large), they're not going to care. They're not going to pull out a measuring tape for a few cm difference.

That said: it is a risk you're taking, and especially so if you're ever trying to check it on a low-cost carrier.

I'd risk this with a legacy carrier but never with a low-cost. Debundling is the business model for low costs so they will enforce every rule they have to avoid people don't pay additional charges.

Thanks, guys.

But I'd imagine that a large airline like Air France or Lufthansa wouldn't be too curious about dimensions as long as your checked luggage actually looks like normal hold baggage, right?:confused:

Basically yes.

Size is less a concern than weight. At some point if it really exceeds 23 kg they could ask you to remove some stuff or will charge you.

I was trying to find a better thread to bring my up experience, but this one seems to be the closes for now....;)

I had this issue recently with both DL and AF - as a FB Plat and travelling in PE - where I in theory on both combined situation have up to 3x 23kg bags to check in. From DL's side, they insisted that I remove the extra weight (was a DL-AF connection) or pay USD100.
At CDG I collected my bag and stuffed back the removed article back into my checked bag - and was hoping that at AF homebase agents will be more forgving for that 2 kg extra. Nope, had to remove the said article.
Rather dissapointed that no logic is used here - as in customer is flying in Premium and Plat, furthermore the said item will be still onboard. I just wish that in this case they would have used logic and not make it an issue. It should have not been regulation thing (ie protecting the baggage worker - as in J, bags are allowed up to 30kg).

Strangely, AF in US is very strict about short checking baggage (not sure if this is due to the same policy that DL's adopt to avoid the hidden city situation). In Europe the few times I have requested to short check bags hav never been an issue.

Cheers!

No idea (but wouldn’t be surprised): it could be that AF/DL pay an extra fee to the handling company for heavy bags, hence why they are less incline to providing some leeway. They are usually ok 23 to 23.9KG (in my experience with AF). But poor customer experience indeed, especially for a FF

it's probably more linked to health and safety rules: a luggage of 23 kg is ok for one baggage handler, but above it it needs to be tagged as heavy and handled by two, leading to more costs for the airline.

That is exactly that. 50lbs is the limit in the US, and usually 25kg is in Europe, which is why often airlines will close an eye for up to 1.5kg over (24kg rounded)

The same reason why you can have 2x23 or 3x.23 but you can't show up with 1 pc of 30kg. Premium cabin have 32kg limit which is an extra service (heavy bag) for the handling.

It reminds me a situation as a Club 2000/LTPE in CDG - My checked in luggage was 25 kg, and my allowance was 3x 23kg, and they refused to take my bag. Had to have the "agent de maitrise" come to tell the check-in agent "Don't you see he is Platinum and Club 2000"?

....and meanwhile I had a previous domestic Hop ! flight where the agent at the SP queue didn't bat an eye as my single checked bag was 25 kg. :confused:

Back when I was a student, in the 90s, I would frequently try and put up to 5kg above the limit (which was only 20kg then I believe) and nobody ever complained. But i rarely dared more.

I would instead often pack more weight in my hand luggage than in my hold luggage, since they did not weight it and thus there was truly no limit. My shoulders do not remember the 40kg dufflebag fondly. Of course, all sorts of glass bottles and liquids inside :)

For the worst, but most probably for the best, those days are long gone.