Overweight luggage scam at Sharm airport

by **loobysue** on Sun Jul 20, 2008 06:02 am

we fell foul of this in turkey last year, we were under the 20kg each bag going out, we never bought a thing to bring back and left ALL our shampoos, conditioners etc etc and trust me we tooks loads, yet we were overweight, they charged us £36, this year we are off to sharm and i am going to make sure i am well under in my 20kg and will take my full 5kg hand luggage, even going to take mates digital fish scale to weigh it in airport if needed

by **Honey Bunny** on Sun Jul 20, 2008 08:37 am

Yes I would take the scales Looby, and Chez I heard Ryan Air are one of very few airlines who dont let folk pool their luggage together ?
I dont understand this idea at all, as a family of five we never take five cases its too much. I know they are normally supposed to go off weight of cases but by case sharing you are freeing up space for them too. Ryan Air always seem to have different conditions from everyone else?

by **chez658** on Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:15 pm

I was aware before we went we couldnt pool our weight so we all had a case each(which is inconvenient).The point we were trying to get across was if she put the first case through properly, the weight should have gone back to nought for the second case. All 5 cases were under the 15kg each. We were informed by one of the staff on return that they get a percentage of any excess luggage put through.

That wouldnt surprise me!

by **Honey Bunny** on Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:21 pm

Sorry misread the "claiming we couldnt share the weight" part!
Thats even worse then , weighing a case when the previous case is still on the belt!

by **wfcmoog** on Mon Jul 21, 2008 14:18 pm

I had this problem in India once. I knew that I wasn't over the limit as I travel fairly light, but they were saying i was 3 kg over or something, at something ridiculous like £30 per kg. As I was wearing just shorts a vest and flip-flops i said "no problem" and opened my case, about to put on 3 kg worth of shoes and clothes. As soon as they realised they weren't going to make any money, they said it was fine and let my case go through as it was.

by **loobysue** on Wed Jul 23, 2008 09:37 am

just found a pair of scales on ebay for £4.50, will buy them as its cheaper than getting caught out, they will always come in use no matter where i go after,

by **Sophie1983** on Mon Aug 04, 2008 08:57 am

I work for a specialist Egypt travel agency with a website specialising in Egypt Holidays and I would always always always recommend asking your booking agent what your luggage allowance is.

Many flight operators have now dropped the basic allowance to 15kgs, not 20kgs. Unless you ask your agent, they may not include the extra 5kgs of baggage allowance within your holiday price. With Thomson, Thomas Cook and Excel flights this is now the case, as far as I am aware, only Monarch and First Choice still give 20kgs per person as a basic allowance on most Sharm flights.

To increase your baggage to 20kgs now costs £15 - £20pp.

It's not just Sharm where this happens, I've seen this happen at many different destinations, especially those served by Ryanair where people have paid extra for extra bags, not realising that the 15kgs baggage allowance is then not increased, it's just split over those 2 bags!

Always check with your travel agent! And if you book with a good one, we'll tell you these things anyway! ;o)

by **loobysue** on Tue Aug 05, 2008 09:07 am

My travel agent told me three weeks ago my allowance was 20kg hold luggage and 5kg hand luggage and I am flying Thomsonfly from manchester on the 28th august, this better not change when i get the tickets, case is already over 15kg with 3 weeks to go

by **cojo01** on Sun Aug 17, 2008 18:26 pm

we were never told we couldnt put the sheisha pipes in hand luggage.apparently a friend who goes to sharm every year said she has never had a problem or heard of this before.after checking the cases in and going through the next security part my mums hand luggage was pulled to 1 side and the security guy took the pipe off us.It must have been the day for it as by his desk were piles of them.he did say we could put it the case which obviously he knew we couldnt as we had checked in.Is this the norm or will a new sheisha pipe shop be opening in sharm in the near future???

check in was confusing , our suitcase was 20kg on the way out but i had left all heavy toilettries, shoes and suncreams at hotel on the way back.strangely the scales read 35kg on return.wasnt asked for any extra cash though.

by **Tymeglobe** on Mon Aug 25, 2008 22:51 pm

Heres an update to the rip of 50Kilo excess weight I was ripped off for in Sharm..
I contested the overweight baggage that Thomas Cook Airlines charged me (350.00GBP) and demanded that they provide me with "Callibration & maintenance" documentation ... and ...what a surprise, the airline cant produce the documents so the ball has swung back in my favour and I have demanded full reimbursement or I will take them to court for the crazy charge levied on me for bags that were noit overweight.

All weighing devices national or international have to be calibrated on a regular basis and authorised documentation to the validity of the scale has to be provided.

Its worth remembering this if an attempt is made to charge you for excess baggage. If they cant prove the scale weighed correctly at the time that you used it to check in then their case is a lost cause and you win.

the scam here is that the check in desk hopes that you will pay in cash for any excess weight they claim you have and issue an authentic looking receipt for the money which is a fake ...little wonder the guys chin hit the flooor when I paid by my visa card which meant he couldnt scam me and the airline got the money not him.