Greetings:

I am flying J to London then switching to Easyjet the next day to Geneva from LGW. My question is regarding their baggage policy. I read their contract of carriage and it looks like the total allowed weight for all checked pieces is 20kg. I have already paid extra online for an additional bag. This article is what sparked my concern: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18700377/

Is it really 20 kg. for your total baggage allowance -- i.e. if you have one bag that's 20 kg and another that is 10kg you will be paying for 10 extra kilos? The whole pre-purchasing additional hold baggage has me confused as I thought that would entail an additional weight allowance but this seems to not be the case.

It sounds like excess weight could be a costly problem. I realize that this is indeed one way they make their money and do not want this to turn to a Easyjet bashing thread. I got a cheap ticket and I am more than happy to give up frills and such but just want to clearly understand their checked baggage policy.

Could someone who has flown them please comment...

Thanks...

Easyjet makes money on excess baggage, so yes you'll if the checkin agent is paying attention you'll be paying for 10kg of excess.

From what I understand the only way to avoid these charges when you connect in Europe is to interline your luggage from the US to your end destination. That basically means the connection must be within 24 hours and the connecting airline needs to have an interline agreement with your airline from the US. I doubt if Easyjet has an interline agreement with anyone, but I could be wrong on that part.

On flights within Europe (and much of the non-American world) 20kg is the norm for Y class. Some airlines are a little more generous. 30kg is the typical limit for J class. I don't know how people manage to go on a long vacation and pack anything but we are in the minority on the 2 bags at 40lbs each (or more).

Interline agreements are expensive.
Easyjet does not interline with anybody. Period. You are at the mercy of their airport scale and hefty overage fees

Sure. But DO bear in mind that due to the incompetence of BAA, there is certainly a SIZE limit to the ONE carry on item for all flights departing from BAA operated airports (UK)...

Thanks for all of your responses. I guess it will be me against the scale . Not a big deal. Will just have to park smarter and leave lots of room to bring back loads of chocolate from the Nestle factory, LOL!

Like I said in my original post, I am getting exactly what I paid for -- from point A to point B at a very good price. Just glad I have a clearer understanding of their baggage policies.

Oh, and by the way I was toying with the idea of switching to a Swiss flight but their intra-european limit is 20 kg anyway (in Economy)...so it seems to be more the rule than the exception.

Thanks again!

Yes, 20 or 23 kg are standard in economy for European airlines (even for intercontinental flights). On *A, a *G card increases this by 20 kg, though.

SmilingBoy.

If you change to the LX flight you should be able to interline if your connection in London is under 24 hours.
If that fits your situation and the flight isn't much more expensive than the EasyJet flight then I'd go for it since you'll get out of the excess weight charges that way. If the bags are interlined then you are supposed to get the weight limit of the original flight which will be 40lbs x2 or 50lbs x2 depnding on your airline to the UK.

I've flown them a few times now.

Carry on bag has no weight limit, but size limit is stricter (smaller) than normal on US carriers. I think my carryon bag is a 22 incher, and it will NOT fit in the sizer next to EasyJet check in counters....

If your carryon won't fit, you then have no option but to check it.

Obviously, EasyJet makes a lot of money on this, since you already packed your check bags and made sure not to go over 20 kg, and now you have a 30 lbs carryon bag that you will not be allowed to carry on, so you are now 30/2.2 = 13-14 kg overweight.

1. Use slightly smaller rollaboard or whatever
2. put heaviest items in it
3. if other 20kg that you will check won't fit into one bag, then prepay online for an extra bag (won't get you more weight, but will get you more space for clothes).

I agree with you, the ticket price is so low, what's the big deal with some overweight charge? Not much, unless you are not prepared and end up 30 kg or more overweight, in which case it adds up quickly!

They certainly do have a sizer in Milano - Malpensa.

My wheels would not let my rollaboard go in, and ended up checking overweight by a lot. Had a very long argument and was told that there was no way I could carry it on as the overhead bins are not big enough.

So of course when I got on the airplane, the overhead bins were the largest type in existence. But they got my 70 euros for overweight.

So if your check-in bag is over 20kg, does anyone know at what rate Easyjet charges for each kg over 20, flying from the UK to elsewhere in Europe?

Click the embedded link for the overweight fee >20kg but less than 50kg.

http://www.easyjet.com/EN/Planning/baggage.html

Great. Thanks!