Hang baggage and travelling with a baby

[SabsFabulous]

Hi, we're going to be flying to Tunisia with Thomas Cook Airways with our DD for her 1st birthday next week. Its the first time we're going abroad with her so I want to make sure I'm fully prepared!

Can anyone tell me if I can take DD's baby changing bag as a separate hand baggage bag?

Also can you remind me, can I take hand baggage plus a handbag? We have 5K allowance

TIA

I would say not with Thomas cook but am happy to be corrected. You do with BA and they have a check-in allowance but no other airlines I know of.

There was a thing on Watchdog last week about Airline scams relating to handluggage. I seem to remember that BA and Thomas Cook were the two airlines mentioned who didn't charge for excess hand luggage. But you need to check.

reading your OP I had a fantastic image of you saving money by taking your baby as hand luggage - you would have to make sure she fitted into that little frame thing they have to check size!

Have a great holiday :)

Sorry not OP, thread title - Doh!

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Butterfly Thanks for the link. I agree, their website isnt the best. I'll give them a call on Monday.

ginger at my misleading thread title. She weighs over 9kgs so over the limit!

Damn you could have saved £££s

Have a fab trip

if your hand luggage is 5kg....it is 5kg in total...ie bag plus handbag. That 5kg will have to be all the stuff for LO as they dont have an allowance.It also has to be a certain size as they have a conatiner to measure cabin luggage and if it is oversize they can make you buy another bag.

Thanks alypaly I spent all day yesterday trying to ring and was kept on hold for half an hour on an 0844 number without getting through to anyone. Also tried to call a 0871 number today and yesterday and havent had a definate response.

I was told that I can have 10kg for DD that I can check-in, but wasnt told this when I booked. I rang the company I booked the holiday with and they said I would need to check with the airline

Its such a pain as all airlines vary. The normal rule is you get a smaller baggage allowance (ie 10k) for an infant and are normally allowed to have a changing bag as their hand luggage.

BA are good, you can have one item of hand luggage (can be pretty big and no weight limit - as long as you can lift it above your head into overhead lockers) AND a handbag or laptop bag. Don't think other airlines are quite so generous.

It should say on your tickets what your allowance is

have you been given your tickets in abooklet format. It normally says in the small print. And now if your bag is over 23kg they will definitely make you buy a 2nd bag to put hold luggage in as the bag handlers will not lift anything over 23kg

i agree with mumoverseas.....it should be on your ticket

have found their info pageflythomascook.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/329 it has info on children under 2years. HTH

Why don't you just make up a composite handbag/changing bag for the journey? Maybe a large backpack. Then you'll just have one item and can't go wrong.

Or if you're travelling with a dp/dh, do what I do, and load him up with all the baby junk!

BTW, sometimes it's the airport setting the rules, not the airline. For example, I think Gatwick stick pretty rigidly to the "one item of hand luggage" rule, because they're the ones scanning it all.

Thanks to everyone for responding.

We're flying out tomorrow and as we booked it last minute (last week) we're picking up our tickets at the airport.

The Thomas Cook website says different things to the Gatwick airport website regarding the size of hand luggage so I am a bit

Wish us luck - as I'm so stressed about it all