Save on Excess Baggage With Lightweight Luggage

A friend of mine is taking his family overseas in a few weeks and it has been a bit of a while since they have travelled far afield. One thing that he was concerned about was how much he would have to pay on excess baggage. For various reasons he will probably go over his baggage allowance and look into paying for excess baggage or sending off some of the items as unaccompanied luggage.

What I noticed after discussing this issue with him was that he had already put himself at a disadvantage with the luggage he intended on using. He was going to use, for lack of a better phrase, ‘old school’ suitcases which were not ideal simply because they weigh quite a bit. What we did was weigh all of the suitcases that each family member was going to use and what we found was that they weighed about 6.5 Kg (approx. 14.33 lbs) on average. This meant that each suitcase alone was taking up just under one third of the checked baggage allowance of 23 Kg (approx. 50.71 lbs) per person on the airline he and his family are travelling on.

What I suggested to him before he started looking into excess and accompanied baggage was to think about investing in lightweight luggage. We took a look at my luggage of choice, Samsonite which is very lightweight, durable and comes in all shapes, colours and sizes. The biggest piece that I use when travelling long-haul weighs about 3.5 Kg which if my friend were using would give him about 3kg-4Kg extra per person to play with. In the best case scenario, this would give them a total of about 14 Kg (approx. 30.86 lbs) more weight. In airline baggage terms, that can translate to a huge saving in excess baggage charges.

So, the next time you travel and are concerned about the weight of your baggage, take a look at the luggage you are using and see if you could save yourself on excess baggage costs by investing in a new luggage.