According to a survey carried out by a national holiday company, British holiday makers are finding going on holiday increasingly stressful! Unsurprisingly the main cause of this stress is the journey itself! Gone are the days when your annual holiday was a pleasure and delight... when you go to the airport nowadays, its all tension and anxiety thanks mainly to the likes of the low cost carriers!

Many are now pushed to the limit with the stringent luggage restrictions and worry whether they will be  
charged for excess weight... often costing more than the value of the actual items. Many times I have witnessed open cases at the check in queues and passengers shuffling items between cases. If all airlines had the same allowance it would go some way to alleviate the problem, but obviously this would be too easy. I bet that excess luggage charges make up a healthy percentage of the bottom line profit margin for some of them.

Hand luggage policies are also a huge contentious issue. Once upon a time a handbag or even duty free bag was not classed as hand luggage - in fact the duty free issue is a much debated matter, especially with Ryanair! EU rules state that the purchase of Duty Free goods is not to be counted as part of the passengers hand luggage allowance, but Mr O´Leary has decided otherwise. And then its not consistent either as you can travel from certain UK airports with Duty Free bags in addition to your hand luggage. I have flown on virtually all the airlines between Alicante and London Gatwick. It often depends on who you have at the boarding gate in my opinion and whether they are having a good day.

My preferred hand luggage !

Take two examples. Flight with Monarch last Summer. Going out my handbag (which my husband would classify as a shopping bag big enough for a weekly shop, but then men always exaggerate) was allowed in addition to my pull along case. However, coming back from Gatwick a different story. I had to go to the check in desks as I never pay extra for seating even though I was traveling with hand luggage only. The check in staff saw that I had my "handbag" in addition to my case but didn´t say a word. At the gate an announcement was made that only ONE piece of luggage per person would be allowed on board per person and any extra would be put into the hold and charged at the excess rate, which was 50 GBP! Pure panic set in, not only to me but three quarters of the passengers... cases flew open and articles were being re-arranged. I eventually managed to empty the contents of my handbag into the case and squash the bag down enough to be able to close the case. Got through ok but then when I got on board pulled the bag back out and fished all my bits back in.... pointless. It all ended up going on the same plane and weighed the same, whether it went in as hold or hand luggage, but I suppose the airline made less.

Did it fit .... NO!

Second scenario.... my favourite airline Ryanair - but I jest not as you will read. Coming back from Gatwick I had hand luggage only, packed into a checked laundry bag, like what you see the "looky looky men" have at the markets. I have gone up market now and have a pretty pink designed one which I purchased from Ale Hop! Although my weight was probably just around the 15kg allowance, the beauty being that the bag weighed nothing so I had 15kg´s of M&S/Tesco shopping, the size was somewhat bigger than the cage. Normally I can squash it in, but it was so compacted that there was no room for manoeuvre this time. At the boarding gate the check in boy pointed this out as I was trying to shove it into the rack and acting rather surprised that it wouldn´t fit in like it did coming out! "Madam has obviously been shopping" he quipped and informed me that it would have to be checked into the hold. The zip then came off in my hand and handle ripped off and I panicked.... how was I going to place it into the hold. I left the bag with him and went back to the main terminal to try and find a large bag to place it in and the cleaners, bless them came up trumps. They gave me some bin liners and I was driven back to the desk in a buggy by a very kind gentleman who was there to assist passengers that needed help. The check in staff helped me place my broken bag into the plastic bin liners and even sellotaped it up for me... then best of all, checked it in at NO charge!

With such inconsistent policies, even among the same airline it is very difficult for passengers to gauge what will happen at the check in or boarding gate - hence understandable why its getting so stressful. Who remembers the days when it was a pleasure to travel. You would board with an allocated seat rather than have a fists and handbags at dawn stampede for seats, be offered a complimentary newspaper (Monarch), beverage - choice of alcohol too (BA) and meal or snack... yes even to Alicante on a two hour flight! Now you pay more than those days and are offered less - thats progress.

Earlier this year I saw the check in desk for a flight back to Moscow, and what the passengers then took on as hand luggage! Any UK airline would have had heart palpitations at the amount of bags each woman was carrying....