If you ever want to go to Europe, the first thing I'd recommend you do is check your baggage weight limit. I think ANY flights to Europe will allow you to check in baggages weighing a TOTAL of 20kg (yep, that's the total of the two bags you're allowed to checkin). To make things more confusing, I think you're allowed a maximum limit of 32kg for one bag. So basically, if one of your bags weighs over 32kg, you'll have to repack. In any case, you'll have to pay an excess fee because your bag(s) is over the 20kg limit.
So why do I find this interesting, you ask? Well, I was taking a friend to the airport last night and came across this baggage issue. Ok, so my friend had two HUGE suitcases that were a pain to move around and I knew they would be over the weight limit… when we arrived at the airport and weighed the bags, they came out to be a total of 90kg!!! If you do the math, that means they were 70kg overweight. So when the counter person told us about the 20kg weight limit, we weren't shocked… what shocked us was the fact that the charge came out to be about USD$100… OH, wait a minute, let me move that one decimal place over… yep, that's right, the charge for the excess weight of 70kg was $1000. *ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!
So kids, remember, don't overpack when you're heading to Europe… what I want to know is do they increase this limit in the winter when you'll have the same amount of clothes, but they'll be much heavier because they'll be pants, coats, and all that heavy winter gear?
(ps… probably not the best to have pictures of my friends overstuffed suitcases with his underwear hanging out in this story, so I've spared you the images and included a couple of less riske photos.)
Considering what my bag looked like when i came home from Canada…i really shouldn’t criticize.