GrandMoffJoseph

To save everyone from reading a super long post, I'll cut to the chase as far as background info goes: My wife and I just came home from a 10 day cruise in the Mediterranean, plus a couple of extra days in Barcelona. We didn't buy a ton of gifts/souvenirs, but we were coming home with more in the bags than we left home with. Our return trip was BCN-LHR-DEN (on BA), then DEN-STL (on SWA) after a overnight stop. (the stop was intentional to provide us some sleep, and prevent a 'don't get to STL until 2am' scenario)

Knowing that we'd have to re-check our bags, we carefully re-packed everything, and triple checked our bag weight. Each of our two check bags rang in on our travel scale at 49 pounds.

Upon arriving at the check-in counter, things went south quickly. I'll summarize as follows:

Me: Coming back from 2-week intl. trip. Triple-checks each check bag with scale. Both weigh 49.
SWA ticket agent: Nope, I have 50.5 & 51.
Me: My scale says otherwise. I 3x checked it.
Agent: Re-pack or pay $75 per bag.

**frantic and frustrated re-packing ensues**

Me: Takes one pr. jeans out of each bag, transfers to carryon. Bags reweigh at 47 and 48.4.
SWA agent: I have 49 and 49.5.
Me: ... that's where I was before. Check your scales.
Agent: *stares blankly* um, ok.

Cherry on top: The extra jeans made the carry-on hard to scan, so of course TSA manually tosses the bag like a jail cell, forcing us to repack a bunch of fragile gifts from our trip.

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Now, a few points I wish to make in summary:

1. I acknowledge that the airport scales are certified for use, and higher-grade than the scales we buy for home use. My scale has served me well for years, and this is the first time I've had an issue, fwiw.
2. Were I many pounds over on their scale, I'd concede the point (and I would guess that my scale would have said similarly before I even got to the airport). BUT, even if SWA's scale was dead-on, it's ~1 pound between two bags. After coming back from a long intl. trip. Have some damn mercy.

3. Barring any mercy being shown, I suggest one/both of the following need to occur:

A) passengers be given a 1 pound buffer on weigh-in, especially if transiting home from intl. travel.
B) some company designs/sells a travel scale that meets the same accuracy standards as the ones used in the airports. That way, passengers can have more confidence that their scale is giving a reading that won't be contradicted at the airport.

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Personally, this whole thing was pretty much the last straw for me and SWA. Their cattle-car boarding has always been a PITA, but I used to overlook it because they flew most everything that was NS out of STL. But after all of this, I am sorely tempted to go back to multi-stop AA routes. At least their folks don't seem to jerk folks around for a (questionable) pound of bag weight.

And before someone says it... yes, I know the current rule says 50. And I always adhere to it. That's why I bought a scale, and measure my bags multiple times. But my larger point is that either pax need a buffer zone on that, at least in limited scenarios, or the scales we all buy and use need to match what the airport scales can do.

smmrfld

Nose. Spite. Face.

GrandMoffJoseph

*duplicate post*

GrandMoffJoseph

Perhaps. And it's not lost on me that I'd be sacrificing travel time by doing this. But when the only thing a passenger can do is vote with their wallet/feet, I'll go back to the airline that (despite their lack of NS service to my area) has never thrown a fit when there was a small gap between my scale and theirs.

LegalTender

Some La Rambla gewgaw had to be re-distributed? Re-packing killed the Mediterranean vibe?.

My advice is re-read the spiel in 6 months and see if you still feel that oppressed.

No one should be "given a 1 pound buffer on weigh-in if transiting home from intl. travel."

MADPhil

I have had AA agents who were picky about the odd pound and I dare say you would find the same with DL and UA. It may be no coincidence that ancillary fees have become a major source of airline income.

kerrigjl

Try curbside. They rarely - if ever - weigh the bag.

GrandMoffJoseph

1. I didn't buy anything from Las Ramblas. Far too kitchsy.
2. No, it didn't kill the vibe, but it made for a nice headache on the way home.
3. I'm not oppressed, nor did I claim to be. What frustrated me was the agent being a hard-nose over a magic pound that her scale had, then after my scale said I had reduced the bags by more than 1, her scale reads exactly what my scale read in the first place.
4. Well, if we can't go out and buy travel scales that meet the same accuracy standards as the airport scales, then a small margin of error isn't too much to ask for.

GrandMoffJoseph

Good idea! Thank you.

Critterlynn

Why not create your own buffer and weigh in at 49 pounds? This will give you a little wiggle room since your scales are not accurate.

trooper

A few thoughts :

1. If we can't weight them accurately then surely the onus is on US to build in a buffer. I use a simple hand held scale...but would try very hard to avoid having a bag weigh 50 lbs on MY scale.....because Id be concerned about exactly what happened to you.
2. I note they gave you options other than paying.
3. WN gives 2x 50 lb bags for free.... how much would the bags have cost to check on any other airline?

I too dislike the cattle call boarding... but given the baggage allowance offered, the suitability of their network for my US Domestic travels, AND (a bit specialised I know), the very straightforward and sensible gun/ammo carriage regulations they have..I can overlook that!

MSPeconomist

In this case, because BA/AA and WN don't interline, from the ariline's perspective there was no international travel. There would have been separate tickets, with the WN flight being part of a purely domestic itinerary, perhaps as a stand alone one way segment.

justhere

Why would you argue that your scale, which you took with you hither and yon, is more accurate than their scale?? Scales are (somewhat) sensitive instruments. Given theirs has to be certified by Weights and Measures for commerce, the odds are that theirs is more accurate than yours. When I'm pushing the weight limit I just throw a small, lightweight duffel bag in one of the cases. Can pull out a few things and check that extra bag if needed. Obviously assuming I haven't reached the free bag limit yet.

I understand your frustration but part of your argument boils down to "I traveled a lot, which is a unique situation compared to all these other people who are.......um, traveling a lot".
WN hasn't had cattle-car boarding in years. In general it is one of the most orderly boarding processes out there. However, if you feel that WN isn't for you, you might peruse the AA forum and see what fun there is to be had over there.

ursine1

Personally, I would never pack that close to 50lbs and expect my travel scale to match the scales at the airport. "49lbs" could easily be 49lbs 15ozs, and the margin of error be +/- 1 lb. Checking it 3x on an inaccurate scale just means you get the same inaccurate reading 3x.

If I were concerned about being over, I'd curb check, with a tip in my hand.

At least they let you repack and didn't just charge you $150.

rsteinmetz70112

Let's see. The OP spent two weeks out of the country. A couple spent 2 weeks traveling outside the US but when they returned to the US their baggage was overweight. I've spent that much time traveling out of the US with far less than the 200 lbs. of checked baggage plus 40+ lbs of carry-on and personal items.

My wife and I took a Mediterranean cruise with 10 days plus a 4 days landslide neither of us exceeded 50 lbs per bag.

We recently spent a week out of the country with 40 lbs of checked baggage between two people.

The best travel advise I ever got was :
"Take half as many clothes and twice as much money as you think you'll need."