Carry-on baggage allowances: Why some airlines allow much more than others

The airline industry is in chaos as it struggles to resume operations in the wake of the pandemic. One of the casualties has been passengers' checked baggage.

A shortage of baggage handlers, last-minute schedule changes and cancellations have combined to create a flightmare as thousands of passengers all over the world have found themselves waiting at the carousel for bags that fail to arrive.

Parting company with your checked baggage, especially if you're on a cruise or somewhere else not easily reached, is bad enough, but for some it's a whole lot worse. Crucial medications have gone missing. Lufthansa lost musical instruments needed for a British school's end-of-year concert. Qantas temporarily lost the checked luggage of one unlucky passenger with her mother's ashes inside on a flight from London to Sydney. They were reunited four days after her flight landed, but not before the airline copped a flogging on social media.

The carry-on solution

"Take everything you need in your carry-on," some say. Really? The general limit for carry-on luggage for an economy passenger is one bag with a maximum weight of seven kilograms plus one small personal item? I can fit toiletries, a fresh shirt and trousers, a jumper, socks and jocks, a sarong, a few essential electronic bits and that's about it into a carry-on without busting the weight limit, yet I still have only a half-filled carry-on case.

So here's a simple solution. Why don't our baggage-challenged airlines increase those stingy weight limits? At least until normal service resumes. What could go wrong? Because there are some airlines that do not impose a weight limit for carry-on bags.

American Airlines makes no mention of a weight limit for carry-ons on its website. As long as it complies with the size limit of 56 x 36 x 23 centimetres you're good to go. Same applies to United Airlines, although the dimensions are slightly smaller at 56 x 35 x 22 centimetres. Delta (56 x 35 x 23 centimetres) even spells it out, saying on its website "No maximum weight applies to carry-on baggage," except in Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai airports. Hawaiian Airlines is one of the few US legacy carriers that applies a weight limit - 11 kilograms.

Even US low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has no weight limit for carry-ons, but this is an airline that perfected the art of charging for every little extra and there's a fee for it. JetBlue, the other major US budget carrier, also has no weight limit, though here too you need to be travelling on something better than their basic fare for the privilege of toting a carry-on.

British Airways is one non-US carrier with a surprisingly generous cabin bag allowance – 23 kilograms, and just as lavish dimensions at 56 x 45 x 25 centimetres. The airline's website also includes the caveat "you must be able to lift your bags into the overhead locker by yourself." Tried dead lifting a 23 kilograms bag over your head and into a high cupboard lately? Not as easy as you might think, and no airline is going to risk injury to its cabin crew so don't expect any help.