Here's our passenger's guide to the ups and downs of scheduled air travel on larger planes. It will get you from the curb, through security, onto the plane and finally to the baggage claim area.
Curbside
At some airports, a skycap can check in your bags, check up on your identification and check off security questions about who packed your luggage. In return, you'll get some baggage-claim tags, which you check to make sure they are right.
Oh no! Your checked baggage goes above and beyond -- and we mean in a bad way: too many, too hefty or just too darn awkward.
The way it is: Size counts. So does weight, shape and quantity. Bust an airline's free limits -- and every airline is different -- and you pay extra.
Math time: Luggage gets measured in linear inches -- that's the sum of the height, length and width of a bag -- and pounds. For example, American allows three pieces checked free if you have no carry-on bag, or two pieces checked free with one carry-on or one piece checked free with two carry-ons. American's size limits are 62 linear inches for the first, 55 linear inches for the second and 45 linear inches for the third, with a weight limit of 70 pounds a bag. That's only one airline's limits for domestic flights on big jets. Travel internationally, on another airline or on a small commuter plane, and the limits may change. Fly first or business class, and you might get a bigger baggage allowance.
OK. You brought all of these suitcases because you feel secure traveling with half of your household goods. They could, for example, cost you: on US Airways, $50 each for the first three oversize, overweight or over-number bags; on AirTran, $20 for each piece that exceeds its three-bag limit.
Now, suppose you're into bowling, golfing, skiing or fishing. Some airlines, like American, will let you check your gear, appropriately contained, for any single one of those sports in place of one free piece of checked luggage. Some other airlines, like Southwest, will let you check it for free in addition to your checked luggage allowance. If you want to take your surfboard or your bicycle along, that's an extra $25-$45 each way on most carriers.
Airlines usually have a deadline for checked baggage, and it can vary from one carrier to the next and one airport to the next. If you should miss your baggage check-in deadline, a carrier might check your bag anyway but refuse to accept any responsibility for where it goes, or when.
