Air France

Air France is now (July/August, 2006) enforcing some kind of weight restrictions on suitcases. Both leaving for Europe and returning from Europe, I was told the suitcase was over the weight limits and required to pay $25 (to Europe) and E25 (from Europe) in overweight charges.

The Carlton suitcase contained only my SatRDay (original model) and the trailer parts. The only accessories were a small bell and mirror. When I arrived home, I weighted it on my home scale and got 54 1/2 pounds. The Air France website says the allowance per piece is 32 kilograms (70.5 pounds).

If I had known weight was going to be an issue, I would have printed out the page from the website, and weighted the suitcase before I left (so I knew what my understanding of the facts were), and asked for a supervisor. A word to the wise....

There are size restrictions on the website, but people in line were checking in soft-sided "steamer trunks" with no problem, as far as I could tell, so it appeared to me the size restrictions were being ignored, while the weight restrictions were being over-zealously enforced.