EasyJet's baggage terms explained

[CJ]

I thought I understood Easy-Jet's baggage conditions. You pay from £8 to £18 (depending on the flight) for a piece of hold luggage and get 20kg allowance, but if you're bringing oversized sports equipment (like a bike) you pay £27 and get only 12kg, which seems fair enough because it's allowed to be bigger. Pay for both and you can check in up to 32kg. And that's actually quite a good deal, especially since weight allowances can be pooled, not just per passenger but amongst groups of passengers travelling together. So if your panniers (bundled together to make one item) are only 10kg, but your bike in a heavy box weighs 22kg, that's fine. A couple with two lightly packed bikes at 15kg each and all their panniers in one 14kg stuffsack, will need to pay for only one item of hold luggage between them.

If a passenger wants to bring a second piece of hold luggage that isn't sports equipment however, they pay another fee but don't get any more kilograms at all! The only way they can put 32kg into the hold is by paying for excess baggage at £7 per kilo! A passenger with two items, one of which is a bike, totalling 32kg pays £35 to £45. Whereas a passenger with two suitcases totalling 32kg pays £100 to £120!

It gets even better. Refer to this page on EasyJet's website and scroll down to the table. According to that if you pay for just one item of sports equipment, you can have the whole 32kg allowance without paying for anything else at all! So if you're touring really light and can get all of your clobber into hand luggage, a saddlebag, rackbag, whatever, so long as it measures less than 56 x 45 x 25cm and doesn't weigh more than you are physically able to lift into an overhead locker: all you'll need to pay for is the bike and it won't matter what that weighs either - up to 32kg.

This seemed so generous I could hardly believe it, and apparently contradicts the text on that page:

Payment of the non-refundable sports equipment fee entitles you to an additional weight allowance of 12kgs

. So I pursued a query with EasyJet; and I got this reply from Customer Relations:

Yes, if you wish to carry only one sports equipment and no hold luggage then you will get only 32 kgs for standard weight allowance. A single item cannot weigh more than 32 kgs in total. If you wish to carry one hold baggage and sports equipment together then your weight allowance for 32 kgs is distributed among the hold baggage and sports equipment.

All the same, having once encountered a bit of bother checking in at Gibraltar with bikes that when packed weighed a bit more than 12kg each - even though we had each also paid for a 20kg item of hold luggage but only checked in like 10kg of panniers - I recommend printing out that EasyJet page and the other one with more information about bicycles, maybe also the hand luggage page, and have them handy at check-in just in case.

There are a couple of snags with the lightweight touring option, where you check-in and pay for only the packed bike. Bike tools are not allowed in hand luggage, and only the designated item of sporting equipment, i.e. a bike, is allowed in the bike bag. However I think you can argue that bike tools are part of the bike, provided they are securely attached to it. There might also be a problem with cycling helmets. Motorcycling helmets, if carried into the passenger cabin, count as hand luggage, and cycling helmets may be viewed similarly. So that's your hand luggage allowance used up already on just the helmet! You probably don't want to pack the helmet in with the bike in case it gets damaged, so in that case it may be worth checking in an item of hold luggage, especically as that may cost as little as £8 if booked in advance (but £25 if you leave it until check-in, rising to £40 if your excessive hand luggage is challenged at the gate).

Good news for electrically-assisted cyclists (the enquiry that got me started off on this) is that EasyJet will carry these bikes - provided they weigh under 32kg when suitably packed and provided the battery is removed and separately packed in an item of hold luggage. I am pleased to see that following my enquiry this helpful information has been added to their bicycles page.

[andrew_s]

Added to the Camping Too Good to Lose, link available at the bottom of the campsite review index.
(for lack of anywhere else to save a link)

[foxyrider]

Thanks for that info - i've always found EJ more helpful than some other low cost carriers!

[RickH]

Motorcycling helmets, if carried into the passenger cabin, count as hand luggage, and cycling helmets may be viewed similarly. So that's your hand luggage allowance used up already on just the helmet!

You may not get away with it for a motorbike helmet but you are usually allowed a jacket and a hat as take on, but I've not spotted anything specific either way on Easyjet's website. You could argue the case I would imagine - wear it if necessary!

[nmnm]

Good work on the electric bike ammendment. I ride a "me-bike" but in Nice airport the airport staff stopped me to ask what an e-bike was. Bit ominous, I thought.

Interesting to note, easyjet used to have a line about having nothing else in the box but the bike, iirc. Seems to be gone now.

[swscotland bentrider]

Last year we flew Easyjet to Amsterdam. We made some queries and below is the gist of the reply.

"I have phoned Easyjet again, at great expense, and been advised that each persons total baggage allowance is 52 Kilos - bike maximum 32 hold bag 20.

Unfortunately when I ask them to e-mail me all I get is an incident number.

It would seem, that as a good will gesture, Easyjet are more lenient with cyclists and allow a greater baggage allowance than 32 kilos.

I will take a copy of the incident numbers and he name and extension number of the girl I spoke to today."

[RickH]

Interesting to note, easyjet used to have a line about having nothing else in the box but the bike, iirc. Seems to be gone now.

I'm afraid it is still there -

Bicycles are permitted for carriage provided that specific criteria is met:

• The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag
• Only one bicycle per box/bag is permitted
• No other items can be carried in the bicycle box/bag (i.e. clothing)
• The handlebars must be flush with the frame.
• Pedals must be removed or flush against the frame

Bicycles with hydraulic suspensions or brake systems will be accepted.

(from here - my bold)

Rick

[nirakaro]

I can see why EJ might put in the ‘no other items in the box’ line, but in reality, check-in staff have no opportunity to look inside it (especially it it’s all sealed up with parcel tape), and the security people who x-ray it have no interest in enforcing the airline’s rules. I put the bike tools, the helmet and the tent in the box with the bike, and had no problems.
And yes, +1 for Easyjet being pretty helpful.

[foxyrider]

Also done the kit in with bike thing - no problems

[Sweep]

Yes that "no other things in the bike box" thing never made any sense to me since their rules made it clear that you were simply buying and extra fixed wodge of weight -so there was no fiddle/advantage involved in putting weight there apart from convenience.

On another smaller point I flew with Easyjet to italy very recently, though without a bike. I have always taken a medium sized bum-bag for my documents, large cycling glasses case etc. Never been a problem until my flight back from Italy when they made me put it inside my hand backage to check that it didn't push it over the dimensions - they checked this at the final check in gate. I always fly with a jacket with lots of pockets, even if it is hot at one end, for this very reason. So I simply put everything in my pockets, also voluntering the info that if this wasn't sufficient I would resort to orifices. The empty bum bag then went in the hand luggage. Once on the plane, for conveneince, I put everything back in the bum bacg and wasn't thrown off the plane.

Note - I am in favour of decent rules and understand that they have to be careful about folks taking the P - I have seen many selfish folk in the past getting on the plane with clearly oversized bags but I felt they, or their subcontracted handlers, were being a bit over zealous.

Generally I find easyjet excellent.

[nirakaro]

Hmmm ... how do say 'resort to orifices' in Italian? Useful phrase!

[MartinBrice]

It is very unfair indeed to restrict the amount of weight allowed in hold luggage but allow great big fat heavy people on without demanding a surcharge from them. IMHO.

[CJ]

It is very unfair indeed to restrict the amount of weight allowed in hold luggage but allow great big fat heavy people on without demanding a surcharge from them. IMHO.

Welcome to Samoa Air and...

Welcome to the fairest system for payment of carriage of anything by air. The world is now aware that charging by weight is the fairest way of paying for carriage. Whether its people, baggage, freight or anything which we might want tot take or consign by air.

At Samoa Air we will do our best to ensure that every passenger is afforded the same level of comfort and travel throughout their flying expereince. We want to bring back Air Travel as an enjoyable expereince, where you, and your baggage will always travel together. No more excess fee's are charged and no more discrimination, because as we know: a kilo is a kilo is a kilo.

But in Samoa they do have more of a problem, as 80% of people over 15 years of age are obese.

EDIT: They also seem to have a bit of problem with spelling. That quote is a straight cut and paste from their website (since when they've apparently corrected one "expereince" but left the other and the "tot" alone). But I'll forgive it all for that killer final line: "a kilo is a kilo is a kilo".

[CJ]

I have phoned Easyjet again, at great expense, and been advised that each persons total baggage allowance is 52 Kilos - bike maximum 32 hold bag 20. Unfortunately when I ask them to e-mail me all I get is an incident number. It would seem, that as a good will gesture, Easyjet are more lenient with cyclists and allow a greater baggage allowance than 32 kilos. I will take a copy of the incident numbers and he name and extension number of the girl I spoke to today.

The only way you'll check in more than 32kg each without paying for excess baggage is if a person can check in (and pays for) not one but two items of sports equipment, in addition to a piece of normal luggage, then that person gets 44kg. But there's no way anyone brings more than 50kg total - EDIT unless another person on the same booking is bringing substantially less, in which case baggage pooling may be useful.

The sports equipment charge of £27 buys 12kg and permission to exceed the usual size restrictions (which costs the airline extra in handling charges at the airports). As a special favour, EasyJet also gives an extra 20kg, that you would normally have to pay another fee for, when that's the only thing you check in. But their generosity has limits. If you do also check in a piece of normal luggage, you pay the usual fee for that and don't get even more kilos added to your total. In that sense, it's just the same as when a normal passenger pays for a second suitcase, except that they are stuck at 20kg rather than 32kg. That's tough on people who travel to do something big and heavy (e.g. play the harp) that can't pretend to be sport.

[RickH]

That's tough on people who travel to do something big and heavy (e.g. play the harp) that can't pretend to be sport.

You could claim to be travelling to the Harp Throwing World Championships!

Rick.