Hand Luggage: Comparison Air Asia Vs. Bangkok Air And

[Lotusbluete]

Hallo, I plan a flight from BKK to Europe in May and will need a feeder flight from Phuket to Bangkok.

My question: Who is according to your experience more lenient in carrying the hand luggage, Air Asia or Bangkok Airways on domestic and Air Berlin or Emirates on international route?

To be quite clear: I do NOT ask for reliability of airline or excess luggage. All that is clear for me. I just want to know how restrictive all airlines are with respect to strictly one piece and the weight of the HAND luggage. What was your recent experience?

[barka]

All you have to do is check there websites,they will tell you all

BKK Airways can check you in Phuket, and forward your bags etc, direct to your destination,eg, London,Munich etc..Air Asia wont do this and will charge extra for lugage etc..

[sscsamui]

Air Asia Suck and will stick it to you Any and Every way they can.....

[LivinginKata]

Air Asia Suck and will stick it to you Any and Every way they can.....

Not quite true. For sure you have to pick your way carefully through their on-line reservation system and avoid all their 'optional' charges such as insurance, baggage check-in, and seat allocation. I must admit it's quite a challenge to just pay the basic fare ....

[NamKangMan]

I've flown with AirAsia on many occassions. (many visa runs over several years) I have never once been asked to weigh my hand luggage or to place the hand lugguge through the metal "size tester." In my experience, they do not care about the hand luggage.

I have never flown with Air Berlin but have flown Bangkok Air and Emirites on a few occassions. I have never been asked to weigh or "size" my hand luggage with either airline.

I know your OP specifically states "hand luggage" but I will expand my post, maybe for the benefit of others, and include a few ideas for yourself on how to get around excess luggage, both carry-on and check-in luggage.

The negative Airasia comments you will see on this thread is for the check in luggage. Yes, they are ruthless for this. If you are one kilo over the 15kilo, you will be charged. If you know you are going to be over (luggage weighed before going to airport) buy some "extra luggage" when you buy your ticket over the internet, or add it to the ticket prior to flight day, you will pay half the price of what you will pay if you get charged at the airport upon checking in. Do not think for one moment they will not care if you are 16kilo when your limit is 15kilo - you will be charged for the 1kilo.

When you look at it, it's pretty crazy. There is nothing stopping you from having hand luggage that, whilst small in size, can weigh 20kilos, because they never weigh it, but you are charged if you are 1kilo over the check in luggage weight.

I've seen all sorts of funny things to get around the excess weight charge. People wearing layers and layers of clothing and then filling up all their pockets with items. People throwing out bottles of shampoo, toothpaste, books and other easily replaced items. One guy threw out old T-Shirts, shorts etc. I've seen a guy buy two tickets, just for himself, so he could check in two bags and have two carry-on bags. This was with Airasia, so, the extra ticket, on special, was probably cheaper than the extra baggage charge. People filling up laptop and suit bags, but they do not have a laptop or suit in the bag (these are allowed as a second carry-on with some airlines) People wearing a huge "bum-bag" - they must not classify them as carry-on but as clothing.

If you are worried about your carry-on weight and/or size - wear clothes with big deep pockets and fill them up. Then, after check-in, put it all back into your carry-on, or wear a big "bum bag."

Edited February 4, 2012 by NamKangMan

[MissChris]

Depends on the size of the overhead lockers. I was told recently that a person's wheelie bag would fit one company's but not another. Didn't take notice at the time, but think AirAsia have fairly small space.

Singapore Airlines have been brilliant, allowing me my voluminous handbag (often wonder what's at the bottom or in the side pockets) plus a pretty big wheelie thingo as well. My handbag contained my notebook with case.

I'm dressing up again when I fly with them - got upgraded to Business Class on Silk Air.

I find all this baggage weight a bit ridiculous when some passengers weigh 50kg & some are approaching 150kg.

[jdean]

The last time I flew Air Asia they weighted my hand luggage, fortunately it was under their limit but I do not know what happens if you are over.

[KaronSteve]

Having recently flown Bangkok to Penang with Air Asia and seen the size and weight of "hand" luggage being boarded it seemed pretty obvious that Air Asia does not want to pay baggage handling charges to the airport authorities or couldn't give a dam_n.

Never mind the dimensions and weights you see posted as one couple took up an entire overhead locker with 2 pieces of hand luggage!

Maybe this route orientated and Air Asia PKT - BKK will skin you but why not as everyone in Phuket tries to.

[siam2007]

AIR BERLIN is the worst big Airline in the world when it comes to HAND LUGGAGE (probably they are the worst in other things as well, but that's another story). they only allow 5 KG of hand luggage, or, if you have a laptop, 8 KG alltogether.

So this means, if you carry a full-size laptop with you plus chargers, a laptop case a.s.o. then you can actually NOT HAVE ANY OTHER hand-luggage ! Because the laptop and the chargers/case will already weigh about 5 KG or even more, then if you have a another TROLLEY, the trolley alone will have a weight of at least 3 KG without ANYTHING stored in it. so you already reached the 8 KG without carrying any ACTUAL hand-luggage.

and yes, they are VERY VERY STRICT when it comes to both hand-luggage as well as checked-in luggage.

Emirates gives you 30 KG checked-in Luggage without any extra fee nowadays, I do not know about their policy regarding hand-luggage. such things can differ from airport to airport. For example: LUFTHANSA never in my life asked me to weigh my carry-on, but in KUL last year they even wanted to weigh my small business-case (which was near to 7 KG as I had to carry a lot of papers and files with me).

BANGKOR AIR is very very generous with both checked-in luggage as well as carry -on luggage.

If you sign up for their FF-program, you AUTOMATICALLY have 30 KG allowance from that moment on.

plus, in most cases, they will be even cheaper than Air Asia from HKT to BKK.

as for Air Asia, their check-in staff only asked me once to have my carry-on weight-checked, and that was in Colombo / Sri Lanka, which was no wonder as it is a true Banana-Republic anyway. in no other of my approx. 120 flights on AK, FD or QZ I was ever asked to show/present my carry-on luggage.

I hope I could help you a little, but in many cases it is just a lottery game.....

Edited February 5, 2012 by siam2007

[kirmizi]

Air Asia weighed my carry on in Hong Kong and it was 4 kgs over their 7 kg limit. This was at check in and I told her I would remove water etc before security. She let me go and they never checked it again. I removed about half a kilo of water before security so I was still way over.

It's difficult for airlines to deal with this issue unless they plan to weigh your bags at the gate. People can always stash stuff with a friend until after check in so weighing it there is not effective. If they weigh it at the gate, they may have some ticked off or even stranded passengers as it's probably too late to check something in at that point. I've seen scales at the Air Asia gate but never seen them used.

[Lotusbluete]

First of all I would like to thank all posters for their valuable input.

Yes, I am aware that f.ex. Air Asia on their domestic routes (HKT - BKK) charge THB 535 for check-in excess luggage up to 30 kg (if you buy it prior to check-in). And Bangkok Air charges THB 70/kg, i.e. THB 700 for the extra 10 kg.

Again thanks to all.

[Zpete]

Used Air Asia since it began. DON"T carry, ya carry on stuff, to checkin counter.

Learnt that years ago, goes for all airlines.