Monday, January 28, 2008

Luggage allowance

26/12/2007, LTU's online ticket reservation system not having informed me as to how much luggage I'm allowed to travel with, I called their service desk and got told I could check-in one anorexic bag of maximum 20kg. With a Top Bonus Service Card, costing only 40€/year, I would however be allowed a meager 10kg extra.

31/12/2007, My flight ticket seems to say I'm allowed 30kg, and that without having applied for the Top Bonus Service Card?

14/01/2008, A second call confirms that I can indeed check-in 30kg and have up to 8kg of hand-luggage, because I'll be gone more than 29 days. While that's good news, it's still not quite good enough yet. Technical diving gear weighs a lot, e.g. I had 43kg last time and want to bring even more this time!

Internet research indicating I could get a special allowance for dive gear, I sent two emails to LTU's service desk, requesting precise information regarding resp. check-in allowance and packing rules for dive lights. Hoping to get clear written answers to two simple questions, ten days later I got a rather confusing reply about my gear having been registered, together with a new but unchanged bill?

28/01/2008, Another call, another answer. This time I'm told I can check-in a healthy 30kg of normal luggage and an additional 30kg of dive equipment, besides 6kg of hand-luggage. Now we're talking :o) Heavy dive lights however must now be carried disassembled in the hand-luggage. Not only that, they must be declared before hand, separately from the dive gear. I even had to say how much they weigh and how big they are. So now my problem is that I've got more than 6kg of hand-luggage (2 lights @ 2kg/pc + 2 cameras @ 0.5kg/pc + 1 laptop @ 2.5kg). But if I read the rules correctly I think it should be possible to board with 8kg of hand-luggage when carrying a laptop, not counting small stuff like a photo bag?

— LTU luggage allowance
Every passenger has a baggage allowance of 20 kg (or even 30 kg for journeys exceeding 29 days) together with one piece of hand luggage (EU-rules) (max. 55x40x20 cm) weighing up to 6 kg (8 kg for Laptop) which is not included in the baggage allowance, as well as small items needed during the flight (photo bags, something to read, etc.). All other baggage is subject to the excess baggage rates. ...
— LTU special luggage allowance
... Scuba diving equipment up to 30 kg, belt w/o weights, tanks emptied. Please pack diving equipment separately. Light sources need to be disassembled and transported in hand luggage. ...