Nobody wants to reach the airport and discover their suitcase is overweight.
Baggage charges can quickly turn a cheap flight into a considerably more expensive journey, particularly when you’ve booked a fare that includes little or no checked luggage.
Fortunately, it’s usually possible to avoid excess baggage fees with some preparation before leaving home.
The key is to understand exactly what your ticket includes, check both the weight and dimensions of your bags and purchase additional baggage before reaching the airport when necessary.
Here are practical ways to avoid excess baggage fees and keep more of your holiday budget for the actual trip.
1. Check Your Baggage Allowance Before Packing
The easiest way to avoid excess baggage fees is to know your allowance before putting anything into your suitcase.
Don’t assume that two passengers flying with the same airline automatically have the same baggage allowance.
Your allowance can depend on:
- Airline
- Fare type
- Route
- Cabin
- Loyalty status
- Baggage purchased separately
- Connecting airlines
Check your booking confirmation or the airline’s website for the exact allowance attached to your ticket.
Pay attention to both weight and dimensions if you want to avoid excess baggage fees.
A bag can be within the weight allowance but still attract a charge or require different handling if it’s too large.
If your journey involves more than one airline, check the applicable baggage rules carefully rather than assuming the first airline’s allowance applies throughout.
2. Buy Additional Baggage Before the Airport
If you already know you’ll exceed your allowance, buying more baggage in advance can help you avoid excess baggage fees charged for turning up overweight.
Airlines frequently provide ways to purchase checked baggage or additional weight through their website or app before departure.
For example, easyJet currently allows additional weight for pre-booked hold luggage to be purchased online in 3kg increments, subject to its maximum baggage limits.
At the airport, easyJet currently charges £12 per kilogram when a hold bag exceeds its pre-booked weight.
The exact price and options can change, so check your airline directly before travelling rather than relying on an old baggage-fee table.
The important point is simple: if you know you need more baggage, deal with it before reaching the check-in desk.
Planning ahead is one of the easiest ways to avoid excess baggage fees at the airport.
3. Weigh Your Suitcase at Home
A luggage scale is one of the simplest tools you can use to avoid excess baggage fees.
Weigh your suitcase after you’ve finished packing rather than estimating its weight by lifting it.
Leave yourself a little margin rather than packing exactly to the maximum.
Scales can vary slightly, and you’ll probably want room for anything you buy during your holiday.
If your bag is overweight at home, you still have time to:
- Remove unnecessary items
- Move permitted items into cabin baggage
- Redistribute weight where your airline allows it
- Buy additional baggage
- Replace heavy items with lighter alternatives
Discovering the problem at home gives you options. Discovering it at bag drop gives you considerably fewer.
Pack your luggage scale for the return journey too.
4. Don’t Forget the Return Flight
It’s easy to concentrate entirely on the outbound journey.
But souvenirs, clothes, gifts and other purchases can make your suitcase considerably heavier on the way home.
If your bag is already sitting right on the weight limit when you leave Britain, you’ve given yourself no room for anything you buy while you’re away.
One of the easiest ways to avoid excess baggage fees on the return journey is to leave some spare capacity.
Alternatively, weigh your suitcase before leaving your accommodation and reorganise your belongings while you still have time.
5. Understand Baggage Pooling
Travelling with somebody else doesn’t automatically mean you can combine baggage allowances.
Airline rules differ.
Ryanair currently allows passengers with checked bags on the same flight reservation to pool their checked baggage allowance.
For example, two 20kg checked bags provide a combined 40kg allowance under Ryanair’s pooling rules, although no individual bag can exceed 32kg.
easyJet also allows passengers on the same booking to share their total hold-baggage weight allowance.
British Airways works differently: it says passengers cannot pool, share or combine their checked baggage allowance, even when travelling together.
So don’t redistribute everything between suitcases until you’ve checked your airline’s policy.
Used correctly, baggage pooling can help families and groups avoid excess baggage fees, but only when the airline permits it.
6. Use a Lightweight Suitcase
Choosing lighter luggage can also help you avoid excess baggage fees because your suitcase itself counts towards the baggage weight limit.
If an empty suitcase weighs 5kg and your allowance is 20kg, you’ve already used a quarter of your allowance before packing anything.
Modern lightweight suitcases can weigh considerably less than older hard-shell luggage.
That doesn’t mean you should automatically replace a perfectly good suitcase simply to save weight, but it’s worth checking how much your empty bag weighs.
If you’re buying new luggage anyway, compare:
- Empty weight
- External dimensions
- Durability
- Wheels and handles
- Airline size restrictions
A lighter suitcase gives you more usable allowance for the things you actually want to take.
7. Make the Most of Your Cabin Baggage
Moving suitable items into your cabin bag can help you avoid excess baggage fees, but only if your ticket actually includes the necessary cabin allowance.
Airline cabin-baggage policies vary significantly.
Some fares include only a small personal bag that fits underneath the seat, while others allow a larger bag in the overhead locker.
Don’t assume you’re entitled to two pieces of hand luggage because another airline allows it.
Check the permitted:
- Number of bags
- Dimensions
- Weight
- Personal-item allowance
If a larger cabin bag costs extra, compare that price with purchasing additional checked baggage.
Sometimes one will offer considerably better value than the other.
8. Check Hand-Luggage Security Rules
Moving items into hand luggage can help you avoid excess baggage fees, but only when those items are permitted through airport security.
UK rules on liquids now depend on the airport.
At most UK airports, liquid containers in hand luggage still cannot hold more than 100ml.
However, some airports may allow containers holding up to 2 litres.
The rules can also differ at airports you travel through or use for your return journey.
Check the latest GOV.UK hand luggage restrictions and the guidance from the airports you’re using before packing.
Sharp objects and other restricted items have separate rules, so don’t simply transfer everything from your hold bag into your cabin bag to save weight.
9. Wear Your Heavier Clothing
If your suitcase is close to its limit, wearing heavier clothing can help you avoid excess baggage fees by freeing up some baggage weight.
A coat, jumper or heavier pair of shoes can make more sense on your body than inside a checked suitcase.
You don’t need to board the aircraft wearing half your wardrobe.
Concentrate on a few genuinely heavy or bulky items that you’d be taking anyway.
Remember that you may need to remove coats or other items during airport security screening.
Sensible packing is usually better than trying to turn yourself into another suitcase.
10. Pack Fewer Shoes
Packing fewer shoes is another simple way to avoid excess baggage fees because footwear can be both bulky and heavy.
Before packing several pairs, think about what you’ll genuinely wear.
For many holidays, a versatile everyday pair plus something suitable for the beach, evening or a particular activity may be enough.
Wear the heaviest pair while travelling and pack the lighter ones.
You can also use the space inside packed shoes for small lightweight items such as socks.
Reducing unnecessary footwear saves both weight and suitcase space.
11. Don’t Confuse Saving Space With Saving Weight
Compression bags and packing cubes can be useful organisational tools, but understanding the difference between space and weight can help you avoid excess baggage fees.
They can reduce the volume occupied by clothes and make a suitcase easier to pack.
But they don’t reduce the weight of your belongings.
In fact, compression bags can make it easier to accidentally exceed your baggage allowance because you’re able to squeeze more items into the suitcase.
The same applies to rolling clothes.
Rolling may make packing more efficient, but a 500g jumper still weighs 500g whether it’s rolled or folded.
Concentrate on reducing actual weight rather than simply creating more space.
12. Pack Multi-Purpose Clothing
Packing versatile clothing can help you avoid excess baggage fees by reducing the number of items you need.
Instead of packing a completely different outfit for every activity, choose items that can be combined in different ways.
Think about:
- Neutral layers
- Quick-drying clothing
- Shoes suitable for several activities
- Lightweight outerwear
- Clothes that can be washed during longer trips
Check the weather forecast shortly before departure too.
Packing for every imaginable weather condition can quickly fill a suitcase with things you never use.
13. Consider Doing Laundry
For longer trips, doing some laundry can help you avoid excess baggage fees because you don’t necessarily need enough clean clothes for every single day.
Check whether your hotel, apartment or destination has convenient laundry facilities.
Washing a few items during a two-week holiday can require considerably less luggage than packing 14 completely separate outfits.
This approach won’t suit everybody or every trip, but it can be particularly useful when you’re travelling between several destinations.
Travelling lighter can also make trains, buses and hotel changes considerably easier.
14. Be Careful With Toiletries
Reducing unnecessary toiletries can help you avoid excess baggage fees because full-size bottles of shampoo, shower gel and other products add surprising amounts of weight.
Check what your accommodation provides before packing duplicates.
For products you do need, smaller containers may be sufficient for a short trip.
Just remember that cabin baggage has separate liquid-security rules, so check the airports you’ll use if you’re moving toiletries from checked luggage into your hand luggage.
Buying inexpensive toiletries after arrival can occasionally make sense too, particularly on longer trips.
But don’t automatically buy everything again if the cost outweighs the baggage saving.
15. Understand the Difference Between Overweight and Extra Bags
Not all excess baggage charges work in the same way.
Some airlines charge according to the number of excess kilograms.
Others may charge a fixed heavy-bag fee or require you to purchase an additional bag.
British Airways, for example, currently charges £65 per overweight bag per one-way journey where its heavy-bag charge applies.
Its standard 23kg checked-bag limit applies individually to each bag and can’t be split across multiple bags.
No checked bag can weigh more than 32kg.
easyJet, meanwhile, currently lists an airport excess-weight charge of £12 per kilogram per item per flight above the pre-booked allowance, with a maximum accepted weight of 32kg per hold item.
Understanding how your airline charges is essential if you want to avoid excess baggage fees.
Always check the current policy for your specific airline and booking.
16. Check the Maximum Weight Per Bag
Checking the maximum individual bag weight can help you avoid excess baggage fees and problems at check-in.
Purchasing a large overall allowance doesn’t necessarily mean you can put all of it into one enormous suitcase.
Airlines impose maximum individual bag weights for handling and safety reasons.
Ryanair and easyJet, for example, currently set a maximum of 32kg for an individual checked bag.
British Airways also states that no checked bag can exceed 32kg.
If you’re travelling with a lot of equipment or belongings, check both your total allowance and the maximum weight permitted for each individual bag.
You don’t want to arrive at the airport with a suitcase that’s too heavy to be accepted at all.
17. Check Special Baggage Separately
Sports equipment, musical instruments and other unusual items can have separate baggage policies.
Golf clubs, bicycles, skis, surfboards and large instruments shouldn’t automatically be treated as ordinary checked luggage.
Check with your airline before booking if you’re travelling with specialist equipment.
You may need to reserve space or pay a separate fee.
Knowing the rules before purchasing your flight lets you compare the real total price between airlines and can help you avoid excess baggage fees or unexpected equipment charges.
18. Compare the Total Flight Price
Comparing the complete fare can help you avoid excess baggage fees and choose a flight that genuinely provides better value.
A £30 flight isn’t necessarily cheaper than a £60 flight.
Once you’ve added a checked suitcase, cabin bag, seat selection and other extras, the first fare could cost considerably more.
When you know you’ll need luggage, compare airlines based on the final package you actually require.
For example:
Flight + cabin baggage + checked baggage
is a much more useful comparison than:
Headline flight price
This is particularly important when comparing low-cost and full-service airlines with different baggage inclusions.
Our guide on whether to book flights now or wait explains why looking at the complete fare and your particular route is more useful than relying on supposed universal booking tricks.
Common Baggage Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced travellers can get caught out by baggage rules.
Common mistakes include assuming every airline uses the same cabin-bag dimensions, confusing a small personal item with a full-size cabin bag, forgetting to weigh luggage for the return flight and assuming baggage allowances can always be pooled.
Another mistake is relying on an old article or social-media post for airline fees.
Baggage policies and prices change.
If you’re trying to avoid excess baggage fees, use the airline’s current website or app to check the rules applying to your booking.
Should You Pay for More Baggage?
Sometimes paying for additional baggage is the sensible choice.
Travelling light isn’t a competition.
If you genuinely need more luggage, purchasing the appropriate allowance in advance can be considerably less stressful than spending hours trying to remove essential belongings.
The goal isn’t to avoid paying for baggage at all costs.
It’s to avoid excess baggage fees that could have been prevented with better planning.
Compare the price of a larger allowance with the inconvenience of packing less and choose whichever makes sense for your trip.
TravelHype Verdict: Check, Weigh and Book Ahead
The best way to avoid excess baggage fees is to deal with your luggage before reaching the airport.
Check exactly what your ticket includes, measure your cabin bag, weigh your checked luggage and leave yourself a little spare capacity for the journey home.
If you’re already over the allowance, see whether you can purchase additional baggage online rather than waiting until airport check-in.
Use cabin baggage intelligently, but check your airline’s size and weight limits as well as the security restrictions at every airport you’ll travel through.
And remember that baggage policies change. Always verify current allowances and fees directly with your airline before departure.
For more preparation advice, read our holiday preparation checklist and airport hacks guide.
When you’re ready to plan your trip, you can find flights, search for hotels and compare car hire with TravelHype.
Comment (0)