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having to pay for overweight luggage at
the airport can cost travelers big time
which is why in today's video i'll be
sharing my favorite tips and hacks
including my absolute favorite one at
the end so you never have to pay for an
overweight bag at the airport again
[Music]
there are two times that you may have
your luggage weighed at the airport and
be asked to pay an additional fee the
first time is when you arrive at the
airport and you check in with an agent
to receive your ticket and drop any bags
that you need to check the second time
would be when you go to board the plane
with your carry-on luggage and if your
bags are going to be weighed it's
probably going to happen when you first
check in with this agent before you go
through airport security they have
scales right beside their desks the
agent is always going to weigh any bag
that is being checked and if your
checked bag or suitcase is overweight
you will need to pay an additional fee
this fee can sometimes be as high as 75
us dollars you can see the airline
weight limits for checked and carry-on
bags on their website the first tip to
avoid having to pay for an overweight
bag would be to arrive at the airport
early at least three hours before the
flight is set to depart the agent knows
the maximum weight in luggage that will
be allowed on the plane if you're one of
the first to check in chances are that
they are well under that maximum weight
limit and they may be more lenient if
your bag is a little over the allowance
per passenger on the other hand if you
check in late they may know that the
plane is already filling up and already
reaching that maximum luggage weight at
this point you could be just a pound
over and be asked to pay in the event
that your bags are overweight by
arriving early you're also going to have
a little bit of extra time to try the
following tips before paying any baggage
fees consider moving to the side and
redistributing weight between your
luggage if it's your checked bag that's
overweight then take things out and move
them into your carry-on if it's your
carry-on that's overweight take some
things out of there and move them into
the bag that you are intending to check
something else you can do if your
luggage is overweight at the airport
would be to take things out of your
suitcase or your bag and load yourself
up with them instead an example would be
taking your beach towel out of your bag
and putting it around your neck or
taking another coat and adding another
layer filling your pockets with things
there's a lot of room to get creative
here whatever you need to do to get the
luggage within the airline's weight
limit i've had situations in the past
where i've moved to the side and started
rearranging things or loading myself up
with things and then when i went back to
the agent my bag was still slightly over
the weight limit but they just kind of
admired the effort and let me get away
with it and then while it's not ideal
you may also want to consider throwing
something away for example it may be
cheaper to throw away a big bottle of
shampoo that you have in your checked
bag and then buy a new shampoo when you
arrive at your destination than it would
be to pay the 75 overweight checked bag
fee if you are traveling with friends
and family you have even more options to
avoid an additional charge for your
luggage you can use all of the tips that
i've mentioned so far such as
redistributing things from your bag into
their bag or loading them up with some
of your items like that towel around
your neck or filling their pockets you
can also have someone that you're
traveling with stand to the side with
your carry-on luggage while you go into
the check-in counter they can't weigh
your carry-on bag if they don't know you
have it sneaky i mentioned at the
beginning of this video that you are
most likely going to have your bags
weighed when you arrive at the airport
and check in with an airline
representative so it would make sense
that a great way to avoid having your
luggage weight at all would be to
completely bypass this in-person
check-in if you fly with just carry on
luggage and check in for your flight
online during the 24-hour online
check-in window you can usually receive
your boarding pass by email before you
even head to the airport if you arrive
at the airport with carry-on luggage
only and your boarding pass over your
email you do not need to go to the
check-in agent at all you can head
straight to the security gates and as a
side note the security agents are not
going to care how much stuff you are
planning to bring with you as a carry-on
they do not care if your bag is
overweight and they will not weigh your
bag it is only the airline that is going
to care which is why the next time you
may get into trouble after going through
this security gate is when you go to
board the plane and let us know down in
the comments if you have ever flown with
just carry-on luggage and not checked a
bag i try to do this for all of my trips
but it is definitely not easy so as i
mentioned while you can avoid the
check-in counter by choosing not to
check a bag you are still at risk of
having your carry-on luggage weighed as
you go to board the airplane the next
tip is to pack your carry-on luggage in
both a backpack
so i'll usually bring
this one in addition to a carry-on
approved suitcase by intending to board
the plane with both a backpack and a
carry-on approved suitcase you now have
another option where you can
redistribute things if you needed to
this gives you the opportunity to take
things from your carry-on approved
suitcase and move them into your
backpack if your suitcase is deemed
overweight i've taken well over 100
flights and i have never had my backpack
weighed you probably won't either so
this is a great opportunity to take
things from the carry-on suitcase and
move them to your backpack if you need
to lower the weight of the suitcase and
then if all else fails my absolute
favorite way and one of my favorite
travel hacks to get extra things onto
the airplane would be to get an extra
carry-on for free in the form of
a plastic bag i will either bring a
plastic bag with me like a subway bag or
a chipotle bag or i will buy my lunch
somewhere at the airport and then i will
keep the bag and i will fill it with the
extra items from my suitcase the heavy
items to lower the weight of my carry-on
having an extra plastic or paper bag
that you fill with items is just going
to look like something that you
purchased at the airport so you can
usually have a backpack a carry-on
suitcase and then a plastic bag with
your
lunch
or whatever items you decide to fill it
with and usually will have no trouble
bringing that onto the airplane as a
sneaky third carry-on and then to state
the obvious the absolute best way to not
have to pay for an overweight checked
bag or to not have to pay to check your
carry-on bag because it's overweight
would be just to know the weight limits
before you head to the airport you can
see them on the airline's website and
then follow them it's not always easy to
comply with the airline's weight limits
so definitely stay tuned for next week's
video where i'll cover some of my
favorite tips and hacks to pack light
safe travels and i hope you'll subscribe
so we can see you back here for more
travel videos soon bye
