Question re overweight luggage on return flight where P&O handle the luggage.

On our P&O fly-cruise last year, on the last night of the cruise, we put our luggage outside our cabin and the next time we saw it was at the airport when we got home, that is, we did not have to check the luggage in at the airport.

This got me wondering, what happens in these circumstances if your luggage exceeds the weight limit?

If you personally check in luggage and it's too heavy you are given options - either pay the airlines a huge fine, redistribute the overweight item to other bags in the party or remove heavy items you don't want in the hold (that may perchance fit in your pockets). But where the bags are transported directly by the cruise line, you won't be there to take a decision on overweight bags.

So, does anyone know what happens in these circumstances?

As the luggage is sealed in the aircraft container at the port (Presume Barbados) by customs nobody can interfere with it until it arrives at it's destination.

I have never in all the years I have traveled to and from known of the luggage being weighed before being bonded.

As the luggage is sealed in the aircraft container at the port (Presume Barbados) by customs nobody can interfere with it until it arrives at it's destination.

I have never in all the years I have traveled to and from known of the luggage being weighed before being bonded.

Thanks for the reply.

We flew from Malta. And will do again in a couple of months. Though this time we are sailing from Southampton and flying back from Malta.

I guess as long as you don't take the mickey they won't fine you for being a little over limit.

On our P&O fly-cruise last year, on the last night of the cruise, we put our luggage outside our cabin and the next time we saw it was at the airport when we got home, that is, we did not have to check the luggage in at the airport.

 

This got me wondering, what happens in these circumstances if your luggage exceeds the weight limit?

 

If you personally check in luggage and it's too heavy you are given options - either pay the airlines a huge fine, redistribute the overweight item to other bags in the party or remove heavy items you don't want in the hold (that may perchance fit in your pockets). But where the bags are transported directly by the cruise line, you won't be there to take a decision on overweight bags.

 

So, does anyone know what happens in these circumstances?

They dont weigh it on return journey

We are going to Malta in October and P&O have booked us on a Thomas Cook plane, (where they have chartered a block of seats rather than the whole plane), so we have to pick luggage up from the carousel at the airport. I assume therefore that people flying back on P&O's TC flights that are not fully chartered will have to check luggage in at the airport as well and will have it weighed. The details for this seasons Malta flights say that only Thomson flights are full plane charters, when the luggage goes straight to the ship. Seems they are booking people on other airlines as well (e.g.jet2).

The part chartered TC flight passengers can still book seats on cruise personaliser (as well as the Thomson full charter flights), but for other airlines it has to be done direct with the airlines I think.

So looks like there are a lot of differences nowadays and may be worth speaking to P&O flights to check your flight situation.

We are going to Malta in October and P&O have booked us on a Thomas Cook plane, (where they have chartered a block of seats rather than the whole plane), so we have to pick luggage up from the carousel at the airport. I assume therefore that people flying back on P&O's TC flights that are not fully chartered will have to check luggage in at the airport as well and will have it weighed. The details for this seasons Malta flights say that only Thomson flights are full plane charters, when the luggage goes straight to the ship. Seems they are booking people on other airlines as well (e.g.jet2).

 

The part chartered TC flight passengers can still book seats on cruise personaliser (as well as the Thomson full charter flights), but for other airlines it has to be done direct with the airlines I think.

 

So looks like there are a lot of differences nowadays and may be worth speaking to P&O flights to check your flight situation.

Last year we flew Thomas Cook to Malta. On the outbound flight we checked the baggage in, picked it up in Malta and took it to the bus that transferred us the ship.

For the journey home, we did not check the luggage in ourselves. The labels normally put on your case by the check in agent after it's been weighed were delivered to our cabin for us to put on ourselves.

We then put our luggage outside our cabin on the last nig:eek:ht. That was the last we saw them until the baggage claim at the end of our flight.

Hence my original question. What happens if the bags are a little overweight on the home leg? My total distrust of sneaky airlines makes me think that if a bag is just over the limit by a kilogram they will autoautomatic add the £30 fine, "for my convenience"

Opinion so far seems to be that it goes from the ship straight to the hold of the plane. I've asked my travel agent (a large net based one) but they don't know.

We are flying out to Oceana but sailing back into Southampton, so the return does not apply to us, so I may well be wrong - your experience last year would certainly seem to indicate that if you are booked on TC again and last years flight was a part charter. I was surprised how they were using so many different flights as we have only flown on dedicate charters previously.

Sounds like there are a number of different arrangements, but the people you need to speak to are the flight department of P&O, so you may wish to ring to check ring them to check. I think I rang customer service and was put through to the flight department. I would not expect an agent to know about flight arrangements re baggage, but the flight department seemed to know all the different eventualities for each flight.

Happy holiday,

Barbara

We had an email from P&O this morning saying we can book flight seats etc. for our one way 4th October flight out to Oceana by logging into the Thomas Cook site using our P&O booking reference. So not via cruise personaliser 14 weeks before as I was told by P&O. We have book extra legroom emergency extra seats for £25pp (booking standard seats would have cost £13pp).

There is also an option to book extra luggage allowance, which you may be interested about. £18 for 5kgs and £30 for 10kgs.

We are flying out to Oceana but sailing back into Southampton, so the return does not apply to us, so I may well be wrong - your experience last year would certainly seem to indicate that if you are booked on TC again and last years flight was a part charter. I was surprised how they were using so many different flights as we have only flown on dedicate charters previously.

 

Sounds like there are a number of different arrangements, but the people you need to speak to are the flight department of P&O, so you may wish to ring to check ring them to check. I think I rang customer service and was put through to the flight department. I would not expect an agent to know about flight arrangements re baggage, but the flight department seemed to know all the different eventualities for each flight.

 

Happy holiday,

 

Barbara

I think P&O had the middle section of the plane for their passengers. I looked at the online option to pay a fine to pick a seat where you wanted, and you could only choose from a block of about 12 or so rows in the middle.

All I can get from P&O is the official weight limit given by Thomas Cook. I don't think I'll get an official definitive answer to my original question.

Thanks for the Happy Holiday wish, and may yours be enjoyable too.

I think P&O had the middle section of the plane for their passengers. I looked at the online option to pay a fine to pick a seat where you wanted, and you could only choose from a block of about 12 or so rows in the middle.

 

Not in our case. We had the full plane to choose from and they were mainly empty seats on the plane we are on in Oct. We have been into the seats available for that flight on the TC site and also looked at the plane configuration for that flight on a site which I may not be allowed to mention, but sounds like they scan the skys. It is a small plane. You did have to use the scroll bar to the RHS of the plan of the seats, which you may have missed - if so I think you can go back into it and change as we had been able to do that for our TC Cuban flights for next week.

There were a couple of rows unavailable at the front as they are economy plus ones which have extra benefits for a slightly higher price.

You can pay for some extra luggage allowance at the same time a booking seats is available. £18 for 5 kgs and £30 for 10 kgs if you want to be on the safe side. Our luggage allowance is 23 kgs if I remember correctly, which is more than standard TC economy. Do not have time to check that - need to pack for Cuba.

Not in our case. We had the full plane to choose from and they were mainly empty seats on the plane we are on in Oct. We have been into the seats available for that flight on the TC site and also looked at the plane configuration for that flight on a site which I may not be allowed to mention, but sounds like they scan the skys. It is a small plane. You did have to use the scroll bar to the RHS of the plan of the seats, which you may have missed - if so I think you can go back into it and change as we had been able to do that for our TC Cuban flights for next week.

 

There were a couple of rows unavailable at the front as they are economy plus ones which have extra benefits for a slightly higher price.

 

You can pay for some extra luggage allowance at the same time a booking seats is available. £18 for 5 kgs and £30 for 10 kgs if you want to be on the safe side. Our luggage allowance is 23 kgs if I remember correctly, which is more than standard TC economy. Do not have time to check that - need to pack for Cuba.

Some aircraft are 100% charted by P&O - those are the ones where once you've waved goodbye to you luggage at the airport check in, you'll next see it outside your cabin on the boat.

The flight from Bristol had about a third allocated to P&O, the rest to general holiday makers. So we had to pick up our luggage at the airport and take it to the shuttle busses to the ship. No great hardship.

I'm not worried at being able to pack enough for the holiday under the 23kg limit - which you have correctly stated is 3kg more than their usual limit. I just don't trust airlines not to take the mick at every opportunity. They took away being able to sit together without having to pay a fine, they took away a lot of the standard luggage allowance, they took away leg room, they took away induced meals, I'm sure they'd take away free lavvies if the could and replaced it all with additional fines. I can just seem them going, "Your case is 50 grams over, have a £30 fine, plus £78 processing fee, plus £8 fee because we can no longer charge you extra for using a Credit Card, plus £13.24 just because we can fee.