February 23rd - The Thorny Question Of Cabin Baggage
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2022
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Before booking the tickets for your next flight, one thing you may want to consider is the many benefits of cabin baggage. If decanting your body wash into 100ml bottles doesn't faze you, then it's worth checking the amount of cabin baggage allowed by your airline as it may be more generous than you expect. Be warned that bags are going missing in airports, so restricting yourself to cabin baggage could protect your belongings from the risk of being rummaged through by baggage handlers or stolen from the luggage carousel. Plus, freeing yourself from the baggage check-in queue could have a big impact on the overall cost of your tickets, and give you more options should any problems arise with your flight.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape, looking forward to one or actually away and having the time of your life, as I am right now in Australia. |
| 0:20.6 | Perhaps of interest to you is cabin baggage, |
| 0:25.5 | and in particular how much you are allowed. |
| 0:28.9 | That's important for several reasons. |
| 0:31.4 | First of all, it can generally have a direct impact |
| 0:35.7 | on the amount you pay for your flight. |
| 0:39.1 | If you can keep all your belongings into cabin baggage, |
| 0:43.6 | then certainly EasyJet, Jet 2, Ryanair will not charge you any extra. |
| 0:50.1 | But as soon as you stray beyond really quite a small backpack yes they will be |
| 0:56.0 | demanding more money even British Airways and Virgin Atlantic for many long |
| 1:03.8 | haul flights will sell you the cheapest fare only if you are taking cabin |
| 1:09.8 | baggage only of course the corollary is that it's going |
| 1:12.9 | to cost you a lot of money, typically upwards of £50 to check in a case. So today I want to talk |
| 1:20.2 | about why it is a really good idea to travel only with cabin baggage. Well, first of all, it makes missing bags most unlikely |
| 1:32.8 | if you're at a giant hub like Dubai or Atlanta and let's suppose your plane has been |
| 1:39.9 | rather late getting in then you are going to be thinking, hang on, how can my plane, |
| 1:47.0 | how can my luggage possibly make the next plane? I'm having to run through this transit hall |
| 1:52.3 | in order to get to the gate. And that is typically when a lot of bags go missing. And goodness |
| 1:58.7 | me, bags are going missing at the moment particularly it seems |
| 2:03.6 | anecdotally from the British Airways operation at he throw terminal 5 so cabin baggage only it's more |
| 2:12.7 | likely to stay with you it's less likely to be rummaged through by baggage handlers as well and far less |
| 2:21.5 | likely to go astray in general and cause you problems. There's another advantage which is that |
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