Air France baggage weight limits

I suppose what you are saying is that your baggage is over weight and you are looking for reassurance that you can get away with it? My experience on Air France is, YES; except for those rare instances when it is NO.

Sorry, that didn't sound very nice. My apologies. No one can tell you for sure. If I were a pound over so I could stuff a few things in my pocket if need be, maybe I would try. Otherwise I would worry about being that guy at the front of the line holding everyone else up as I was having to check my bags. I tend to worry about how I impact those around me too much. But that's just me. There is no good answer to this one.

I've found that airlines are generally stricter about size limits than weight limits. After all, it's easier to visually notice a possibly oversized bag than a possibly overweight bag. That being said, we (or rather our niece) did get caught with an overweight bag on Air France many years ago, and it had to be checked. I guess it looked heavy (and was).

James E, I didn't think there was anything wrong with your first reply.

In fact I may nominate it for the Quote of the Week.

It is really succinct and to the point; and what's more I agree with it.

The little elephant in the room is - do Air France actually operate the flight in question?

My experience - never having (I don't think) flown Air France, one of the few majors I've never flown - is that it usually boils down to the person you choose to check in with or show your boarding pass to at various stages of the process. If they are the don't care a hoot type you're probably good until you get to the next member of staff. If they are sticklers, yup everything will go on the scale and either offenders will be charged or the bag will go downstairs and the offenders charged. You're never safe until you are past the flight attendant or gate staff actually putting people on the plane. And if the overhead compartments are full the bag still goes downstairs.

As Clint once said, "Are you feeling lucky?"

Every time I have flown Air France from Miami, they have weighed both my backpack and hand carry-on. And, yes, they do enforce the weight limit though they did allow me a 2 lb. overage. Oddly, when flying back to the US, my carry-ons were never weighed. I ran into same problem with Alitalia in Florence. As a result, I arrived home January 1st, my bag arrived on January 6th. If you think you'll go over the weight limit, try carrying as much as possible on your person.

http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/dirtyharry/lucky.mp3

The first answer is to the point and I too would nominate it for quote of the week. I have seen them weigh the bags of all passengers and and seen the bags of some passengers on a flight weighed but not others. I had thought that there was no rhyme or reason to it but now having read through this thread, I realize that all the times the bags have been weighed were flights booked through Air France that were actually operated by other airlines and were heading to Paris.

I flew Air France from CDG to Budapest in May and they were not interested in the weight of my purse and carry-on tote. I was very interested to know what my checked bag weighed--ahem, did a bit of shopping in Paris and expected to do more in Budapest--and was able to weigh it myself at a scale off to the side.

You're never safe until you are past the flight attendant or gate staff actually putting people on the plane.

Very true. This April I flew Icelandair from Boston, and I knew that while my carry-on bag was fine weight-wise, size-wise it was close. I had just handed my boarding pass to the gate agent and was about to enter the boarding ramp when another airline employee pulled me over and told me to get my bag measured. As I thought, it was close, and the employee checking the size of the bags said it's fine, but the employee who had pulled me over overruled her. The result -- my bag was gate-checked; I next saw it 5 days later in southwestern France.

...I airlines are generally stricter about size limits than weight limits......

Unfortunately that has not been our experience. I have stood in more than one check-in line where every bag was checked for weight and sometimes tagged as being acceptable for carry-on. Once flying from Prague on Delta, all carry on bags were weighted and tagged at check-in. Saw a family deliberately hide one of their carry on bags so that it was not weighed or tagged. At the boarding gate, an attendant checked to see that each carry on bag was tagged. The family was boarding ahead of us, the untagged bag led to a loud argument about the "tag must have fallen off." When we passed them, heard them being told to return to the check-in desk to have the bag tagged. Never did see them on the plane.

I think it is good practice to comply with the rules even if infrequently enforced.

I've had my carry on bags weighed at CDG for my last 2 Air France flights. One to Venice and the other to Florence.

In both cases I was overweight. The first time they let me through and the second time they weighed my bags with my traveling companion's bags and together we were fine. It's my darned lap top - or maybe the extra pair of shoes, that have nearly put me in trouble.

Appreciate all of the feedback. Packing for the trip has been adjusted so that it won't be an issue. We are used to having our checked baggage weighed, but carry-on weight restrictions were new to us. I too would not want to negatively impact fellow travelers by holding up the boarding process.

Honestly, it's new to me. I be only seen some spot checks when it looked excessive, and have been checked once myself on Virgin Air on the way to S. Africa (I failed and had to stuff pockrts)

US carriers often care most about size rather than weight. I find the European carriers are most concerned with weight and they're getting more strict. I think it's always best/safest to assume they will hold you to both size and weight requirements. Leave your home carrying a bag that meets both and save yourself the worry.

When you get to your flight one of two things will happen. One, they'll be checking closely and you can take satisfaction knowing that you were prepared. Two, they don't check and you can take satisfaction knowing your entire trip will be easier because you packed lighter.

The weigh-in at CDG was in the security line - so no holding up of other passengers.

Travelbug79, you inspired me to double check my flights for next week. One of the legs was on KLM so I thought it a good idea. Same restrictions as Air France. A quick check with the luggage scale showed me 5 pounds over weight. It was gifts I was taking to friends that put me over.

I swapped out my favorite hard sided carry-on and a canvas messenger bag for a tattered old Rick Steves combo bag, cut a camera lens and a few other unnecessary trinkets and I made the limit with 2 pounds to spare.

Can't thank you enough.

I keep wanting not to use that RS bag, but somehow it always ends up making the most sense.