Do you feel stressed?

Packing to go on holiday is always a stressful experience - especially if you are traveling with children. With the astronomical penalty charges of excess luggage, you stand at the check in desk fraught with anxiety, wondering whether you will get away with your load. I have been there many a time, especially after having a little "shopping spree" in the UK!

Jam packed overhead lockers

Many opt to just go with hand luggage - fine if you are going on a short break or with no children, but virtually impossible otherwise. But with this comes problems too as there is not enough overhead locker room to accommodate every passengers hand luggage. The consequence is that some has to be placed into the hold - generally there is no charge for this, but often the bag will not have a lock.

Luggage inspections

But unfortunately, whether a case is locked or not does not render it safe. Many incidents are being reported where items have gone missing from locked luggage which has been checked in. Customs officials are within their rights to search "suspect bags" even without the owners permission or presence, especially if there is a suspicion of illegal or dangerous materials - but procedures are not being followed according to a report by John Vine, the Chief Inspector of Boarders and Immigration. He has found that "record keeping was so sloppy at Edinburgh, Luton and Manchester airports that in half the reports there was no record of who had authorised the search". Often confidential material was was examined and discussed between staff which Mr Vine stated was "cause for concern".

Many opt for hand luggage - but will it go in or under?

Many passengers have often suspected that their luggage has been opened by rogue luggage handlers - there have been several TV documentaries about it, resulting in arrests, of groups found to operating in organised syndicates - selling stolen items on. The predicament comes for many travelers of what to do with valuable equipment. Last year this plight became reality for photography student Callum Sampson, who travelled on Ryanair to Stanstead, as reported by The Mail. His camera kit, worth five thousand pounds had been taken. Airline "T&C´s" state that all valuables should not be checked in but kept on them in their hand luggage, but unfortunately for Mr Sampson, his hand luggage was already to capacity with other equally expensive equipment. To add further misery he did not have travel insurance and both the airline and luggage handling company are denying wrongdoing on their parts. However, it should be noted that even if he did have insurance, the maximum amount payable is nowhere near that value. Generally it is between 300 - 500 pounds depending on your policy. It may be possible to increase this but obviously there would be a hefty premium and strict conditions attached. You really need to check the small print in your policy as every company is different. The same applies to health insurance cover.

Hand luggage

New Ryanair policy

Ryanair have now caved in to public pressure are are now allowing a second piece of "small" hand luggage - BUT be warned, the dimensions are 35 x 20 x 20cm, which I find a really odd size. They also stipulate in their T&C´s that only 90  pieces of hand luggage can be stowed in the overhead lockers and the remainder will be carried free of charge in the hold. So although all seating is now allocated my advice is that you will still need to be near the front of the queue if you want to guarantee your space for your carry on bags. However, Ryanair and Monarch are one of the few "low cost" carriers that DO allow a second piece of hand luggage. Both Easyjet and Jet2 only allow one piece and surprisingly, EASYJET has the smallest dimension at 50x40x20 and not Ryanair as many would have though.

Boarding passes

They certainly are trying to make amends to their past image of being a very customer unfriendly airline ... good on them. Personally I love Ryanair and as long as you adhere to their policy, which lets face it is widely publicised you should be ok. One of the other changes to their policy is the printing of boarding passes - they have certainly reduced the charge if you forget to print yours off. However, with the introduction of allocated seating it has become a little more complicated for those that do not wish to pay, but await one being allocated free of charge. You will only be able to print off your boarding pass 7 days before departure. Subsequently, this means if you are on an 8 day holiday or more you will have to print your pass off somewhere in the resort. There have been instances of places in Benidorm that are charging 4 euros per boarding pass - worth checking if your hotel will do it free of charge first.

A warning for those traveling from LUTON airport, they only allow 1 piece of hand luggage through the security gate regardless of the individual airlines policy - for example, Monarch allow 2 pieces on all their flights but the regulation at Luton they say is "out of their control".

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