Jetstar new baggage policy- 7KG and not a gram more

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#2260835 19-Jun-2019 12:28

empacher48:
The largest recorded was 36.2kg.

Really, who wants to carry anymore than a small backpack and a handbag or camera with them on board?

Guilty, your honour.

Coming back from Europe (many years ago), I moved the heavy stuff (incl. a pair of ski boots, camera and lenses) out of my checked luggage to my carry-on. At check-in, I had my toe under the lip of the scales and was casually holding up 10kg. (You can't do this for very long!) Then in Singapore I bought a car radio.

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#2260838 19-Jun-2019 12:34

empacher48:

Dratsab:

Fuel reserves have mandated minimums. Here's a link to part 91 of the CAA rules. Check sub rule 305 on pages 71/72. Whilst overweight baggage may have potential to cause these reserves to be slightly underestimated, in a small country like NZ it shouldn't (not necessarily won't) make too much difference.

EDIT: Oops - forgot mention that this is for VFR. IFR fuel requirements (sub rule 403) are on page 77.

And also only applies to NZ registered and operating aircraft, in the case of Jetstar (which are registered in Australia) have to comply with CASA requirements. They are quite different in regards to the fuel required. Also Part 91 is part of the story for NZ registered aircraft as it applies to all aircraft you also have to look in Part 135 for the fuel requirements for commercial flights under 5700kg, Part 125 for commercial flights for aircraft greater than 5700kg and less than 31 seats and Part 121 for larger aircraft. Each rule part does mean different fuel requirements.

But as we are talking about an Australian registered aircraft, their rules apply even over here in regards to holding for INTER and TEMPO forecasts, alternate requirements and fuel that must be carried.

Also if you are taking off out of say Wellington heading for Auckland with fog, a full load of passengers, carrying your two required weather alternates (ie, fuel to go to Auckland, fuel to return to Wellington and then from Wellington to Christchurch, minimum reserves plus weather holding, taxi, take off, approach, landing, missed approach and APU burn) It can some days be in excess for 10T of fuel.

Add on 186 passengers, plus bags out of Wellington and you will be very close to your RTOW. But hey what do I know, I only do load control and fly the A320.

hey someone who can answer my question!

I've always wondered how the planes know how much passengers' bags weigh.

when I check in they seem to weigh all the bags at once. they may be secretly memorising the weight of each bag but I have not managed to see that happening.

so when they want to make the plane's weight equal front and back, do they lump all my family's 7 bags together as 107 kgs?

empacher48

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#2260842 19-Jun-2019 12:43

Batman:

hey someone who can answer my question!

I've always wondered how the planes know how much passengers' bags weigh.

when I check in they seem to weigh all the bags at once. they may be secretly memorising the weight of each bag but I have not managed to see that happening.

so when they want to make the plane's weight equal front and back, do they lump all my family's 7 bags together as 107 kgs?

For smaller aircraft, like the turboprops, at check in the bags are all weighed and are in the system to give an idea how the load plan is going to work (ie, approximately how many bags go into each hold). For larger aircraft each bag is allocated a luggage container to go underneath.

For the turboprops, each baggage cart is weighed on its entirety before to gets loaded into the aircraft so a final accurate weight is known before it is loaded on to the aircraft (they know the empty weight of the cart so can subtract that off the total weight to know the weight of the bags loaded into each hold). So we know that hold 1 will have XXXXkg, hold 2 will have YYYYkg and hold 3 have ZZZZkg.

For larger aircraft with the cargo cans, as your bag tag has a barcode, the weight recorded at check in is coded with the barcode. As it's loaded into the can, the can has its own ID number and the weight from the barcodes are allocated to it. So the final weight of the container is known and then loaded into the right station in the hold. So we'll know there are 7 cans of bags, can ABC1111 weighs XXXkg, can ABC112 weighs YYYkg etc etc.

That's how it works for us, other airlines have different ways of achieving the same outcome.

edited: speeling

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#2260846 19-Jun-2019 12:48

Interesting. So each tag has its own weight attributed by way of math (I now suspect the computer keeps the weight addition as a separate figure).

But then the desk attendant prints out all the tags and to what I'm seeing, randomly puts the labels on the bags. I know that because many times I've been given the labels to put on the bags myself, in the Premium check in lounge!

Technofreak

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#2260848 19-Jun-2019 12:53

empacher48:

For the turboprops, each baggage cart is weighed on its entirety before to gets loaded into the aircraft so a final accurate weight is known before it is loaded on to the aircraft (they know the empty weight of the cart so can subtract that off the total weight to know the weight of the bags loaded into each hold).

Also the weight total from check in is compared to the weight total from the baggage cart as a quick/dirty way of cross checking the correct number of bags have been loaded onto the aircraft.

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#2260852 19-Jun-2019 12:56

I find the whole 7Kg limit interesting on International flights when people board with an extra 5Kg+ of duty free

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#2260867 19-Jun-2019 13:39

mrdrifter: Having traveled reasonably often for both work and recreation over the last couple of years, I don't know why so many people cram so much into their carry-on baggage. Travelling to Europe for 3 weeks, my carry-on with laptop, charger, change of clothes, noise cancelling headphones, battery pack, snacks etc... was only 6.8Kg. The US in February was 6.5Kg Heading to Australia with the family earlier this year was 6Kg, this is coming from a genuine boy scout who is prepared for most eventualities. Day trips for work around the country, or even overnight ~ 4 - 5.5 kg in general, depends on if I want to fit my rain jacket or umbrella. Once it gets to a 55 litre tramping pack, bedroll and a front pack, (as I saw on Qantas on the way to Aus), things are getting a bit carried away. Cabin baggage is supposed to be what you require for the trip itself to get you from point A to B with a bit of leeway. Personally even suitcase carry-on bothers me, but I carry a streamlined backpack that fits perfectly on it's side overhead and could fit 2 of them in the space of a carry-on roller case.

Totally agree. We have done many flights to Europe and N America in recent years and I never put anything in the overhead locker. I have a small shoulder bag that has travel docs, iPad, phone, charging adapter, NC headphones, toothbrush etc and it lives down by my feet or under the seat in front. Have never got anywhere near 7 kg.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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#2261056 19-Jun-2019 19:25

empacher48: Our surveys show the average weight of hand baggage in our 2018 survey was 6.89kg per passenger. The largest recorded was 36.2kg.

That would be my parents. Sorry about that.

Some years ago when they came by to visit, they had more carry-on luggage (by weight) than I had checked luggage.

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#2261145 19-Jun-2019 21:49

A couple of years back prior to an AKL-WLG flight, Air NZ weighted my bag and found it was ~10kg! Admitted my mistake and I offloaded all the things I didn't need and got the weight down to 7.1kg and could go no further. Went back to the desk hoping they'd waive the 100g and was told no, I must pay $40. I ended up paying the $40.

As a result I don't really buy into the theory that Air NZ is more lenient. They can be just as strict as Jetstar IMHO. I've flown a fairly 50:50 mixture of NZ:JQ flights over the years and I've had both check my carry on from time to time. I do try and book NZ where possible but JQ is good enough if the price is right.

allstarnz

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#2261187 20-Jun-2019 06:25

sbiddle:

geekbhaji: Anywhere else in the world , any other airline enforcing such thing?

I am only aware of main carryon bag limit of 7kg. Other small personal item is not weighed.
It is confusing international visitors as well.

The standard baggage allowance for carry on luggage across the entire world (excluding the US) is basically somewhere in the vicinity of 7kg - 10kg. The US is the main place where limits are higher.

I don't see how there is confusion when most people would be used to such limits, and those limits are made very clear both at the point of buying the ticket and on the ticket itself.

Enforcement varies in the region and the type of airline - in Europe it's pretty normal to have casual enforcement. If you're flying on a LCC in Europe you should expect this to be strictly enforced.

Yes, in Europe I have seen this enforced by a lot of airlines on occasion. Norwegian, Wow, RyanAir and a few others. All 'low cost' airlines. You'll often find them before security weighing/eyeballing your bag and slapping a tag on it. This isn't unique to Jetstar.

tripper1000

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#2261303 20-Jun-2019 10:05

sbiddle:

tripper1000:

As I understand it, the reason for the 7Kg limit that is almost universally common across airlines is because that is the design limit of the overhead lockers (all to do with certification etc). Technically you run foul of CAA/FAA if passengers exceed this limit.

Lockers all have a maximum weight certification sign in them - if you look you'll see it. From memory the inside of an A320 locker says 95lb

The 7kg limit is nowhere near this limit - which is why everybody takes a full size carry on in the US where there are essentially no weight limits (but you're really going to struggle getting more than 30lb or so in a permitted size carry on!) and even then you'll only fit 4 bags that size per overload locker. If all 4 were that weight it would technically be overweight.

I believe you have misinterpreted the weight limit you saw. This is not your personal limit as a passenger, but the limit of the locker. If you consider that locker in a typical A320 configuration spans 2 rows of 3 seats (in cattle class) the locker serves on average 6 passengers at 7kg of carry on each.

6 x 7kg = 42 kg

42kg = 92.4 lbs which is pretty blimin close to the 95 lbs you observed.

95 lbs per locker is a limit of 7.197 kg per passenger = hence the 7kg carry on limit.

Given Jet stars denser seating pitch than premium airlines, the same quantity of lockers are serving more passengers, so there is an increased need to watch the weight of carry on.

tripper1000

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#2261307 20-Jun-2019 10:15

From a CAA/FAA and aircraft design standpoint, it is technically allowable for passengers to bring >7kg into the cabin provided the locker weight limit is not exceeded. You will note that during the safety briefings you are told to stow stuff under the seat in front of you - the floor has a much higher loading limit than the overhead lockers so the American airlines will be achieving compliance through this strategy.

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#2261313 20-Jun-2019 10:27

tripper1000:

sbiddle:

tripper1000:

As I understand it, the reason for the 7Kg limit that is almost universally common across airlines is because that is the design limit of the overhead lockers (all to do with certification etc). Technically you run foul of CAA/FAA if passengers exceed this limit.

Lockers all have a maximum weight certification sign in them - if you look you'll see it. From memory the inside of an A320 locker says 95lb

The 7kg limit is nowhere near this limit - which is why everybody takes a full size carry on in the US where there are essentially no weight limits (but you're really going to struggle getting more than 30lb or so in a permitted size carry on!) and even then you'll only fit 4 bags that size per overload locker. If all 4 were that weight it would technically be overweight.

I believe you have misinterpreted the weight limit you saw. This is not your personal limit as a passenger, but the limit of the locker. If you consider that locker in a typical A320 configuration spans 2 rows of 3 seats (in cattle class) the locker serves on average 6 passengers at 7kg of carry on each.

6 x 7kg = 42 kg

42kg = 92.4 lbs which is pretty blimin close to the 95 lbs you observed.

95 lbs per locker is a limit of 7.197 kg per passenger = hence the 7kg carry on limit.

Given Jet stars denser seating pitch than premium airlines, the same quantity of lockers are serving more passengers, so there is an increased need to watch the weight of carry on.

I haven't misinterpreted it - you've just explained exactly what I wrote. 😀

Your logic probably explains where the 7kg limit comes from (and it's not actually something I'd thought about previously) but my point was that a typical overhead bin in the US on an older aircraft will only fit 4 x rollaboard bags (and typically everybody has a rollaboard) in an overhead bin. There is actually nowhere near the capacity on an aircraft to fit a permitted carry on bag for every passenger, hence one of the problems with boarding in the US is that significant numbers of bags end up being checked at the plane door because they simply won't fit.

Newer overhead bins have significantly greater capacity, and on Air NZ's A320neo and A321neo aircraft the new bin space is huge in comparison.

tripper1000

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#2261352 20-Jun-2019 10:57

I haven't misinterpreted it - you've just explained exactly what I wrote.

Apologies, I see that now. I must have read it too fast the first time.

Technofreak

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#2261497 20-Jun-2019 14:20

sbiddle:

There is actually nowhere near the capacity on an aircraft to fit a permitted carry on bag for every passenger, hence one of the problems with boarding in the US is that significant numbers of bags end up being checked at the plane door because they simply won't fit.

And what a circus it is too. Seen it happen. The guy in the seat next to me said, you pay $25 to check in your bags in the terminal but if you try to bring them on board and there's not enough room they get checked in for free. No wonder everyone tries to bring them on board.

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