Carry-on Luggage when using an airline partner

My experience has been that European airlines do weigh carryons.

They might weigh your carry-on bags if the plane is very full or just depending on their policies at AMS. I have flown a number of European airlines within Europe, and other than easyJet, I don't think any of them have weighed my carry-ons. (I travel with a carry-on bag and a big camera bag, don't check luggage either.) Once in a while I've been hassled due to the size of one of the bags.

In any event...don't worry about it. At worst, SAS will gate-check the bag for you. I'd guess they won't bother you, unless your bag is obviously very overweight.

If you want to check your bag otherwise before boarding, you'll have to exit the secure area and go back to departures, then re-enter the secure area.

I also always fly United connecting to one of their partners and have never been asked or hassled about my carry on on many many trips. I just did this at Xmas connecting to LH at Munich and there were no questions raised. I really wouldn’t worry about it.

We flew SAS five times for intra-European flights in August/September 2022. They seemed to weigh carry on bags selectively. We were fine with backpacks but some people with wheeled suitcases had their bags both weighed and measured in Oslo and Copenhagen.

I always carry on my bag--a 21" ultra light Travel Pro with swivel wheels. And i keep it under 10 kg or 22 lbs. The problem is my 21" bag is actually 22" and it won't fit in budget airlines' rack. But it will fit just fine in any overhead rack of any Boeing or Airbus plane.

The only time I've been stopped is by Norwegian Air Shuttle in Oslo--by a flight attendant wanting to make an example of someone. I had to gate check it. But that was one time out a couple of dozen European flights over the years.

Eight to ten kilograms is not really difficult to hit. Heavier items tend to be shoes/boots, liquids, and electronics. You might try weighing your stuff and evaluating the more massive items for practicality, necessity, duplication, and possible replacement with lighter items.

I always pack for the airline with the most restrictive rules; that way I know my bag won't be kicked out and I be forced to pay luggage fees. It can be painful but the upside is that it forces you to pack as lightly as possible.

If you can't, you can always check the bag, which I have also done.

Wear your heaviest shoes and clothes. Maybe put heavy electronics in personal item.

I agonized over this last summer with a Delta flight to Paris and an Air France flight onward to Milan. I had several people here say they'd had their bags weighed or attempted to be weighed and/or put in the bag sizer on the ongoing flight so I felt to make myself comfortable I needed to meet the AF guidelines. They are a bit more generous than SAS and have a 12 kg limit with a 55cm/35cm/25cm measurement.

I purchased the lightest bag that looked like it would work for me (Osprey Ozone 4.5#), weighed EVERY packing cube and pouch I own along with every piece of clothing that went in the bag. Bought lighter weight capris, took a lightweight pr of extra shoes instead of my usual athletic shoes, subbed in ziplock bags for my toiletry bag and got my bag weight down to 16.1# when I walked out the door. I had my electronics in my personal item which was one of the lightest bags I own along with my PPE.

I did not want to check because while CDG did not have the luggage issues last summer that AMS and LHR did I did not want to risk not having my bag at the end. It all worked out well, I could easily manage getting the lightweight bag into the overhead (I'm old) and on and off trains. My clothes worked out fine.

How much does your suitcase weigh? Do you have one of the portable luggage scales? How about a digital kitchen scale? You can probably get down to close to that amount depending on how heavy your suitcase is to start with.

BTW, I LOVE packing discussions! Yes...it's a sickness but there you have it!

"BTW, I LOVE packing discussions! Yes...it's a sickness but there you have it!"

Pam: me too!

In my experience, European airport check in staff will nearly always weigh your carry on bag.
They may also size it too, so you have to be absolutely rigid about going with the carryon bag that fits the smallest categories of all the airlines you are flying.
Weight and measurements.
Remember that measurements on airlines definitely mean including the wheels, not just the bag.

Have a look through the past posts on the Forum for wonderful tips on how to reduce the weight of your bag...they are very enlightening.
I bought a portable handheld luggage scale before my last trip and couldn't believe the difference in weight of some very similar items of clothing!

S J....this is definitely the forum for the packing enthusiast, haha!

And yes, shocking the weight of some clothing. 2 Tee shirts that look the same may weigh radically different amounts. I was shocked at the weight of some of my packing cubes. Although it was just fractions of an ounce, my small purple Eagle Creek packing cubes weigh more than the white ones. Is the dye heavy? Do they have to use a slightly different fabric for the dye to "take"? Yes, that can lead you down a rabbit hole, lol!!

If you decide to try to carry it on and SAS flags it, they could charge you extra depending on your type of ticket.

Whether or not they actually do check the weight depend on so many factors and what happened to others in the past is irrelevant.

If you decide to check it at your home airport, it will be tagged trough to Oslo so you won't have to retrieve it in Amsterdam. (Make sure they do this.) While you go through passport control at AMS, customs is at your final destination.

I guess it is best to assume that the various airlines may check and may enforce their carry-on baggage limits.

Sometimes, it gets pretty crazy. Back in November we flew on Lufthansa from Vancouver to Barcelona.

Lufthansa has an 8 kg carry-on weight limit. On the other hand, their partner Air Canada has no weight limit at all. AC's only stipulation is that you have to be able to lift your bag on your own. So, you could bring a 50 lb bag if you want, as long as it meets the dimensions limit.

About a week before our departure, Lufthansa notified us that our flight was changed and we would fly on Eurowings (their subsidiary). And it turned out that people who had booked on Air Canada were also switched to the same flight. So at the gate, we could see some people with ultra-light carry-ons and some people who look like they were hauling bricks.

Because of a cancelled Delta flight to Lisbon last summer (PIT-BOS-LIS), I was rebooked on British Airways (PIT-LHR-LIS). The second leg of my flight was on TAP. Their carry on rules are more restrictive than Delta’s and BA’s. They weighed my carry on at the gate (the only bag I was traveling with besides a personal item) and checked it at the gate. I wasn’t charged.