New rules about luggage or DH talking rot?

[TastesLikePanda]

DH is insistant that there is a new rule about luggage on planes and I cannot find any evidence of this at all... is he making stuff up or is it common knowledge that I have missed out on hearing?

Basically, he said that your luggage is weighed on the outbound flight and it must weigh a similar amount on your inbound flight - to stop people taking an empty suitcase on holiday then buying loads of cheaper clothes and bringing them back.

I think it sounds like bollocks am pretty sure it would not be practical for an airline to do this but I am interested if anyone else has heard this?

Yes, it was on the radio earlier today - Jeremy Vine show. Announced today, comes in tomorrow. £40 per item extra on top of excess I believe

reeeeeeeally?

If true can't you just fill up your case with magazines or something, chuck them when you arrive & then buy the equivalent in weight of new stuff??

sounds odd.. what if you take lots of presents and give them away? or travel home for christmas and recieve heavier presents than you give? or if (like me pre-kindle) you buy books all holiday and bring them home cause you can't throw them away...

i can't see how this can be enforceable. how similar is 'similar'? and how long does it apply for - a week's trip? a month? three months? longer?

Why do they want to do this? Do they not want people to shop on their holidays?

Sure this wasn't on the news last week, ilove? Last Friday, maybe?

When we go to Florida we hardly take any clothes because we know we will buy souvenier (sp?) tshirts when we are there and wear them. And what about if you fly on two different airlines as we have done to get cheap flights in the past?

I do the same fluffles, take books then buy books and magazines because I have to read loads on holiday!

It all sounds so... unlikely.

I'll double-check this. So I can fill up the cases with 23kg of books and magazines, dump them on arrival and buy clothes.

What a dumb rule. Don't they realise that's what people will do?

I just googled this and found...this thread and nothing else! Nothing on any news site.

Come on guys it's obviously an April Fool's!

But a lovely friend of ours who is on holiday atm was talking about this several weeks ago. So it would have to be pretty elaborate.

He went on holiday with a case full of argos catalogues junk.

They have always registered the weight of bags. I was stopped by customs at Manchester airport because my bag was heavy compared to my 'normal' bag weight on previous flights. The reason was very simple, the airline started charging for a second bag so I used a bag that could have encased a sumo wrestler. All rather stupid as easier to throw two 25lbs on a plane than one huge one that weighs 50lbs (max amount you can take on plane from the US at the moment without being charged). From the UK it is a lower limit but I leave lots of gifts behind for family.

What about countries where clothes are more expensive than they are here?

This reminds me of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The last time I went to USA we took only hand luggage and came back with hand luggage and a mahooosive suitcase each!
Might not be able to get away with that now if this turns out to be right!

OKO - thats why everyone leaving the US takes huge suitcases with them. Our bags were lost for two days and it had to be the two days where I needed a suit, ball dress, make up, hair stuff and suitable shoes. My brother was passing out of Sandhurst. Luckily DH has a great employer who covers all international employees. We had GBP600 to go out and replace everything and managed to do it for GBP800 or so which wasn't bad considering we had about an hour and a half to shop.

Seriously, it was on Jeremy Vine on R2. Try the listen again or look on the website?

Surely if I'm still within my allowance there shouldn't be a problem though? Or am I just being dim?