armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 12:38 pm I'd like to know the airlines' practice at Phnom Penh airport check-in. They both state 7kg maximum weight for cabin baggage. Is this enforced rigorously?

And do they require evidence of a return or onward booking at check-in?

Generally they will ask you to put it on and weigh it and tag it, but some staff don't bother.
To Thailand they insist on a return/onward ticket or a flash of a few hundred bucks.

Freightdog wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 3:35 pm Airline baggage allowance is a bloody minefield. Especially if travelling along shared routes.

Airline A employs Airline B to connect between SIN and PNH, for the route LGW-DXB-SIN-PNH.
With Airline A, I have 60kg luggage, plus cabin bag and computer. With Airline B, I’m lucky if they’ll let me board with more than boxer shorts and a small toothbrush.

Airline BA codeshares with Airline AA. If it’s operated by BA, I can carry 22kg checked, plus 22KG cabin, plus a 22kg personal item.
If it’s operated by AA, I can carry 25Kg checked, and maybe the aforementioned small toothbrush.

It’s about time that IATA got the industry in a death grip on its gonads, and brought some clarity to the process instead of fucking with passengers’ patience.

I blame Michael O'Leary of Ryanair fame. He started it all and others looked on and said, "how can they get away with that?" As soon as they realised Ryanair were getting away with it, they followed suit. It has got worse every year.

Wait until they figure out how to charge for overall passenger weight - yes, YOU and your luggage - but there are lots of obstacles to overcome.

Americans will sue any airline that tries that (in the U.S.), indeed some already have when they were refused boarding as too fat to fly*. But the ordinary slim public might support it, after all, who wants to be sat next to a 150kg person on a 17" wide seat for 4 hours?

Southwest Airlines is ahead of the game: Its “Customers of Size” policy requires passengers who do not fit between the armrests to purchase another seat.

Samoan Airlines** did it, but that was due to safety as their planes were very small and they have a serious weight problem there.

The weight of its planes’ payload is more than a question of savings. One aircraft Samoa Air flies is the Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, with room for two pilots and nine passengers. Empty, it weighs 3,675 pounds. Its maximum takeoff weight is just 6,600 pounds.

That means that if everyone on a full flight weighed 270 pounds (including their luggage), the plane could not safely take off. In a region with a severe obesity problem (74.6% of American Samoa is obese; 93.5% is overweight), that limit can easily be reached. So a pricing system that clearly and directly benefits lightweight passengers is reasonable.

European LC carriers might demur on this idea at first, they know the backlash will be significant. However, an Asian airlines could do something along these lines.

Given Asia's acceptance of discrimination on racial grounds, they could be quite comfortable with the idea of giving everyone and basic allowance - for example, 70KG luggage and bodyweight - and they get the basic fare.

Everyone over 70KG pays $X per kilo above that limit. Families and couples could be aggregated so would never pay any excess. They know that Asians would largely be unaffected, but westerners would be screwed, especially solo travelers without a 45kg companion to offset their 90kg frame.

If you bullshit about your weight when booking and they find out, you pay the $X per kilo excess plus $Y per kilo as a penalty. It wouldn't take much to install a scale in front of the check-in desk. Imagine the walk of shame back to the Fat Surcharge Payment desk

If you think they couldn't get away with it, that's what they all said about Ryanair in 1985.

* https://financialpost.com/business-insi ... ir-tickets
** https://www.businessinsider.com/samoa-a ... ght-2013-4