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Turkish Airlines carry-on luggage size limits

I am looking to purchase a piece of carry-on luggage for my trip from the US to the UK on Lufthansa, from the UK to Turkey on Turkish Airlines, and from Turkey to the USA on Air Canada. The carry-on luggage will be used to transport cameras, electronics...that i do not want to pack in my check-in luggage. Most of the the carry-one luggage that are for sale are 22 x 14 x 9 inches which is acceptable to most airlines. However, Turkish Airlines places a length limit of 21.8 inches or 21 and 21;/32 inches depending upon the source of information. Will they really quibble over 1/3rd or 1/8th of an inch? I am not sure of the luggage that I am targeting, Osprey Porter 46 or Eagle Creek Digi Hauler, have compression straps that allow one to shorten the length.

Posted by
4154 posts

This is the link to what Turkish Airlines says: http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-int/travel-information/baggage/cabin-baggage. I'd take that 55 x 40 x 23 cm size to be correct. CalculateMe says that is in inches 21.65 x 15.74 x 9.05. And the weight limit is 8kg or 17.63 pounds.

Based on some other posts here, I think Lufthansa has the same limits (http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Carry-on-baggage).

Perhaps you could consider a smaller carry on bag just to be safe. There has been much discussion here about getting luggage that will squish if placed in a measuring device, as well as about agents using tape measures.

Posted by
9110 posts

Turk Air has become buttheads in the last couple of years -- but they don't measure, they make you stick it in the basket -- which I've had to do about half the time.

Unless Osprey has come up with something different, my compression straps are lateral and would do nothing for the length. However, it's frameless and has plenty of slop at the upper handle end and you could squish it in if it isn't jam stuffed.

I don't know anything about the other one.

Posted by
1194 posts

I have an LL Bean Quickload Convertible Travel pack in black. It is full carry on sized. I was wearing it in backpack mode when I asked the Turkish Air gate agent if they wanted to weigh / measure my bag. Her response was" "oh don't worry about it - I know something that small can't be overweight". This was at JFK airport. I had no problems coming back either. I left from Nairobi.

Things in my favor:
Bag was black and looked smaller than it was
Bag was on my back in backpack mode but I was dangling it off of one shoulder
Bag was fully soft sided

FWIW the bag was barely under the weight limit - we're talking ounces here. I found that Lufthansa put up the most fuss on weight/size requirements.

Posted by
449 posts

Hi all:

Thanks for the responses received so far. Just so I understand: if I bring my own set of web compression straps and squeeze the length of the bag by a half inch or more this should be acceptable, right?

Posted by
9110 posts

Yep.
But I've never had to go for a weight check.