1. Travel with only one purse style carry-on and pack some kind of bag that you can use as a backup. Check the rest.
2. When they say your bags are 25 pounds overweight and proudly tell you it's going to be an additional $150...
3. Shreak! I added some explicitness for extra drama ;)
4. Publicly rip apart your bags and find the HEAVIEST smallest stuff!
Note: You'll get sweaty, and tears might come! This is natural, don't be alarmed.
5. Create a new carry-on from the backup bag you packed.
6. Load it up and now you carry that on the plane. The weight rarely matters.
If I had found my money on time yesterday, I would have paid $150 for that extra 25pounds (which was mostly tape...gaffer tape, hockey tape, duct tape, lol.)
So when Elsie picked me up, I went and bought a $20 bag at Walmart and repacked my bags by the public scale. It was science class at 3am. And I was SOOOOO proud of myself that I resorted it and got my 2 checked bags down to 49.5lbs each.
On the negative side, I'm carrying around 35 pounds on a spagetti strap handle bag and my hand is going to fall off. AND i chose to throw out all my hair products in order to keep my bags underweight. But it'll be about $40 to replace, and it woulda been $150 to keep just because of that. It was really hard to waste them though. It took me quite a while to have the courage to just "throw them away".
Enjoy and plan ahead. But if you ever need this info, you'll thank me :]
I'm sitting in Chicago right now, time for breakfast and I'll be home in FOUR hours!
Weeeeee!!!
LA :]
Glad you are on your way girl.
ReplyDeleteThat happened to me when I was flying to England from NYC when I finished college. I had a trunk, and a suitcase and a carry on and purse and a guitar and they said my luggage was over weight..so I loaded all my books in my carry on.
It's not too bad once you get on the plane huh!
Mwwwwwwwwa xx
lol, ah over packing sucks!!! when i went to malta a few years ago we were about 50kg overweight coming back but we looked so shocked that the kind man at customs let us off - thank goodness for nice maltese customs men. glad you had fun at elsie's, still loving your blog. have a good week, vic xx
ReplyDeleteGreat tutorial, lol! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you missed your flight but so glad it turned out well! Hope you get home safely and enjoy a nice homecoming!!!!
Hugs & Love,
xoxo -j
crap! What a hard journey home! I'm glad I didn't try send you that chipboard - it was 45 lbs! Lol. Call me when you have time! You can skype me if you want - it'll be like we're "in the future" ;-)
ReplyDeleteAwh, sounds like you had a rough day/night! I hate travelling by plane for that exact reason - in fact, I try not to ever check baggage at all anymore, if I can help it!
ReplyDeleteHope you have a wonderful rest of your travels back home and can't wait to hear more about your RVA trip!
Oh noooo! throwing out hair products sucks...but I understand. Cant wait to hear all about your travels. You missed your flight? I must have missed that part in your post.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Home Leigh-Ann!!! Hope you had a fun trip.
ReplyDeleteawww well that bites!
ReplyDeletesorry to hear you were having a tough time :-(
i worry about overweight bags..I DON'T travel light...dicovered it much cheaper to pay the fee for an extra bag than it is to pay the overweight fee on one bag..so there you have it--two is cheaper than one...go figure eh.
Packing sucks!! LOL, glad you figured out an easy solution can you imagine not being prepared or slightly less, LOL.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hear about your trip.
oh girl... it's amazing how you can make drama into such a funny story! Love you! Sorry you got delayed... I know how badly you are/were missing your Keithcake!
ReplyDeleteYikes! I did that once, too.
ReplyDeleteI packed for a year out in central England and had to repack it all in front of my dad and male friends that came to send me off. Of course when I unzipped it, it was so full that all of my carefully packed underwear came tumbling out first.
I then missed my connecting flight because I had to haul the luggage and checked bags from one airline to another. Slept in a hotel, made it there the next day. British cars are mostly small, though, and I was nervous that it wouldn't all fit.
Eight months later, I brought everything and then some back home and missed the same connecting flight in L.A. I called my dad at midnight sobbing because I was so exhausted and he and my brother got in the car and drove three hours to pick me up rather than tell me to just suck it up and catch another plane in the morning.
I'll always remember that!
I'm glad you'll be home soon. What an adventure, eh?
Glad you're home Leigh-Ann, I think you're home. Hope there were no more HOLD UPS!
ReplyDeleteRachel's story is funny, I'd hate to have my underwear for everyone and their dog to see, nevermind you dad and friends.
Welcome home!!! :)
Love Momma
Hehehe.. we use Southwest Air and you're allowed one personal item and one carry-on. So, if you make the personal item a BIG purse, you can bring one of those small on-wheels suitcases as your carry on. Eeep! SO sneaky. Hope you got home safely. <3
ReplyDeleteyou poor thing! what a hassle to have to go through, i'm so sorry. i'm glad you made it work though (however troublesome that proved to be) and i hope you had a safe trip home :]
ReplyDeleteWhen i came back to italy from New york i had 2 big trolleys and a backpack+small trolley to bring on the plane with me. Tha ladty at alitalia check in told me that my luggage was 60kg and i should pay 150 dollars.i simply said"i'm sorry but i don't have that money(and i really didn't)she said ok wait.Came back with some papers and she maid me pay only 25 dollars and i took with me all the stuff i buyed in one month of pure new york shopping!
ReplyDeleteawww, ain't flying a bitch? hahaha, i've got some stories that could curl your hair :) but for now, i'll just say...have fun with keith!!! i know what you're gonna be doing :) hehehe
ReplyDeleteglad you are on your way/ home already...not sure which one :)
big hugs! kins
Oh flying, how frustrating!!! I like the idea of shreaking and jumping up and down hehe
ReplyDeletehi crush! how was the rest of your trip? i was EXHAUSTED by the time i got home! miss you like nuts already :D
ReplyDeleteand i looove rachel's stories... she tells some good ones! xo!
oh i feel your airport pain!!!! we just got back from a trip where we had to sit in the Ft. Lauderdale airport for 6... SIX hours!!!! can you even imagine what one can see in 6 hours in an airport??.... yikes!!!
ReplyDelete~misschell
http://chinamommy04.blogspot.com/
Welcome home!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are over-packers. Okay, I'm an over-packer, and my husband is along for the ride. :)
ReplyDeleteLast time we flew, we saw hand-held luggage scales in SkyMall for $40. You can get the same thing (just not electronic) for $5 at Wal-Mart. It's called a fish scale. Ours only goes up to 50 lbs, but as long as you're under that, you're good. It's helped us a lot. It's so nice to know your bags aren't overweight before you even get to the airport.
The only time we ever lost our son (who was under 2YO at the time) was in the Orlando airport when our bags were overweight and we were distracted by trying to figure out what we'd do about it. It was awful!
Here's a link to what I'm talking about... http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_13327?cm_mmc=froogle-_-100-11-4-_--1-_-38-489-071-00&hvarAID=froogle&mr:trackingCode=151C018C-6519-DE11-B0EA-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA
ReplyDelete