The US Department of Transportation rules that travel to/from the US is piece based baggage rules rather than weight based (pretty much the rest of the world). They do permit limitations on pieces - currently they have approved 50#/23kg per piece.

If all travel is on the same ticket (so Ryanair never will be...) to/from the US the piece concept applies for the entire journey - so the example of PHL-CDG-FRA you are entitled to the PHL check-in limitations...

On another note .....

If you baggage is lost (read not loaded ) you can forget customer service etc...

We had a frined coming in for a wedding .. and her suitcase was starnded in London....no one new. Thank god another friend was flying out a bit later, he physically went to the luaggage loading area and convinced the guy to release the suitcase nad brought it along himslef ... :td:

Unfortunately, that is not true.

Yes, if you are flying PHL-CDG-FRA with only a connection in Paris you would be entitled to the two pieces from CDG-FRA. If you decide to have a layover in Paris -- even for 24 hours -- your CDG-FRA limits are the same as if you had started the trip in Europe.

This is true even if all the flights are on the same ticket.

I am sure that the DOT would like to hear about experiences where this has happened.... My (not uneducated, but not overly educated :D ) understanding of the ruling is that it states the piece system applies for the journey's to/from the US irrespective of intermediate stops or how fares were used on the ticket (that is to say that it doesn't matter if PAR is a stopover on a PHL-FRA fare versus PAR as a fare break point - PHL-PAR fare end-on-end with a PAR-FRA fare).

That being said - you show up at an airport and most of the times you live by the rules of guy checking you in....

I have, unfortunately, had a lot of experience with this. I have been given the same answer by DL, AF, and AZ -- and I am referring to their offices in Tel Aviv, not the check in desks. (The same was true of Sabena and SwissAir when they were still in business.)

It is a major PITA for me because almost every year, between November and March, I go to FLL and then stop in MXP for a few weeks. I have to pack both for summer and winter and yet I am restricted to 20-23 kgs.

I didn't think the US DOT had jurisdiction over flights between European countries operated by European carriers.

When the ticket has a US point on it - the US DOT feels they have jurisdiction over the passenger and "protecting" the passenger's rights.... The carriers that fly to/from the US have ticketing and baggage agreements with other carriers and that is what drives the ability for the US DOT to state its case - and to attempt to enforce its rules.....

But this is getting way off topic.... I am pretty sure that what I said is true in ruling if not practice... If I can find what the DOT ruling was or the IATA Resolution it was in response to I will start a new topic in a more appropriate forum....

correct they just think they do like the US travellers we all see screaming the odds in European airports and on board tiny intra european planes about how they were allowed to check in in the US !!!!
and of course the classic "what is wrong with you people" like they are now talking to someone on another planet :D