Comparison of airline baggage restrictions

Following on from my recent post about flying with camera gear, I thought I would look at various airline baggage restrictions (allowance seems too positive a description in most cases).  Click through to see a comparison of several airlines.

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Please note that this information is gathered from the airline websites on 5th October 2009 and is presented here for illustration and comparison purposes only.  I had to convert some fees from Euros and USD to GBP.  If you plan to travel, you should contact the airline to find out their current restrictions and charges.

I have used the restrictions and charges for Economy travel, without any special frequent flier discounts.  I also used the fees associated with early payment – some airlines charge more if you pay at the airport.  All the fees are per flight so if you make a return journey, you need to double the fee.

I haven’t included other fees associated with flying, such as booking, check-in, airport tax etc. Be careful with these, on one well known budget airline, a £10 fare became nearly £100 after I added a bag and the ‘extras’ such as checking-in to the flight, paying by credit card etc…

The comparison tables below show the airline website, number of bags you can check, maximum weight you can check, number of hand luggage bags and maximum size, maximum weight of the hand luggage and any charges for bags and excess baggage.

To start, I picked some of the better known budget airlines operating from the UK. 

Airline	Checked luggage	Checked allowance	Hand luggage	Max weight	Baggage charges
Aer Arann	Limit not specified	15kg	1 (20x28x43 cm)	7kg	£6.50 per kg for excess
airBaltic	0	20kg first bag then 32kg per bag. Fee applies	1 (50x40x23 cm)	8kg	First bag £9, then £13 per bag.  £9 per kg if bag too heavy
airberlin	Limit not specified	20kg	1 (55x40x23 cm)	6kg (8kg for laptops)	£9 to £18 per kg depending on destination
Air Southwest	2	20kg	1 (53x34x22 cm) You can also carry a laptop from some airports	7kg	£6 per kg for excess
blue1	Limit not specified	20kg	1 (55x40x23 cm)	8kg	£5.50 to £10 per kg depending on route
bmi baby	0	18kg Fee applies	1 (55x40x23 cm)	10 kg	£13 to £15 per bag.  Plus £10 per kg if over 18kgs.  £30 for over-sized hand luggage (per item).
easyJet	0	20kg Fee applies	1 (55x40x20 cm)	No Limit	Fee for luggage, depending on route then £10 per kg over limit.
flybe	Limit not specified	20kg	1 (55x35x23 cm)	10 kg	£10/kg for first 3kg, £15/kg for 4-6kg, £20/kg for over 6kg
Thomas Cook	0	20kg Fee applies	1 (43x28x23 cm)	5kg	£8-£20 for 20kg appears to be a hard limit.
Jet2	0	22kg Fee applies	1 (50x38x26 cm)	10kg	Fee for up to 3 bags based on route. £8 per kg over allowance.
monarch	0	20kg (max 20kg including hand luggage on charter flight) Fee applies	1 (56x45x25 cm)	10kg (5kg on charter flight)	£10 - £16 per bag based on route. £9 per kg over allowance.
Ryanair	0	30kg Fee applies	1 (55x40x20 cm)	10kg	1st bag (max 15kg) £15, 2nd bag (max 15kg) £35. (these are £35 and £70 if you pay at airport!). Excess charge of £20/kg.
Thomson	0	20kg Fee applies	1 (55x40x20 cm)	5kg	From £6.50 per bag, varies based on route. Excess fees not documented.

And here is a sample of ‘traditional’ airlines.

Airline	Checked luggage	Checked allowance	Hand luggage	Max weight	Baggage charges
American Airlines	1	23kg	1 (56x45x25 cm) plus laptop bag, handbag or briefcase	No limit	2nd bag £31. Overweight bags £31 per bag
Air France	Limit not specified	20kg	1 (56x35x25 cm) plus laptop bag, handbag or briefcase	12kg	Approx £13 per kg overweight.  Note that the allowance and charges vary based on route.
British Airways	1 (2 for flights to USA)	23kg (46kg flights USA)	1 (56x45x25 cm) plus laptop bag, handbag or briefcase	No limit	£25 per oversize bag (up to 23kg)
KLM	1 (or 2 if based on piece concept)	20kg plus golf bag not exceeding 20kg (or 46kg if based on piece concept)	1 (56x35x25 cm) plus laptop bag, handbag or briefcase	12kg	£4.50 - £27 per kg depending on route.  Under piece concept, £137 for extra bag or £45 for excess weight.
Lufthansa	No limit (long haul has a 2 bag limit)	20kgs (long haul is 46kg)	1 (55x40x20 cm)	8kg	£4.50 - £37 per kg depending on route.
Virgin Atlantic	2	46kg	1 (56x36x23 cm)	6kg	£35 per bag over 23kg. £90 per extra bag

Quite a variety of baggage rules and charges.  Notice how the hand baggage size varies!  Something to watch out for.  Some airlines were very specific about bringing a coat, umbrellas etc.  Most of the budget airlines were very specific about hand baggage rules.

Looking through these tables, it seems that flying with camera gear is now pretty hard and will almost always incur excess fees.  Maybe the approach is to carry your over-size camera bag to the aircraft door and hand it over to be put in the hold by hand.  Not ideal but better than it going through the nightmare of normal baggage handling.

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Flying with camera gear

A recent thread on Birdforum started by Marcus Conway has got me thinking about travelling with my photography gear now that I am back in the UK.

As I mentioned a couple of years ago, I don’t tend to travel very light!  It seems from the comments on that thread that I have been lucky, I guess travelling with larger airlines and avoiding the budget carriers where possible has helped me avoid problems.  Click through to read more.

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I also use bags that are within the legal hand baggage requirements specified by the UK Government.  These guidelines seem to be used by many airlines but I always check before travelling.

My large backpack is the Lowepro Photo Trekker AWII and it takes my Canon 500 f4 IS, a couple of pro-size Canon bodies and several other lenses.  The straps do make fitting the bag in the testing cage a little bit difficult, but there is no problem getting it in an overhead onboard.

About a year ago, I got bored of carrying my heavy backpack and purchased a THINKTANK Airport International V 2.0.  This rolling bag is designed to meet most airline hand baggage size limits and still takes nearly as much stuff as the backpack but is easier to travel with plus has great carrying and security features.  This is the best built and designed bag I have ever owned.

I also have a Peli 1620 Protector Case – I remove most of the foam and it fits my Photo Trekker full of gear.  Great if I have too much gear for either of the other bags and can stomach the excess baggage fees.  I then carry a smaller Lowepro Mini Trekker AW with one body and minimum lenses I need (e.g. a Canon 400 f5.6 and Canon 17-40 f4).

None of this covers the weight involved with all this gear and restrictions the airlines put in place.  This is something I plan to look into further and will post up my findings soon.

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Configure default develop settings in Adobe Lightroom

In a previous post I gave the basic instructions to create your own custom colour profiles for your camera using Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor.

This is great but its a real pain having to go to the extra panel and clicking a couple of times to select your specific camera profile.

Adobe Lightroom has an excellent feature that allows you to configure the default develop settings that it applies when you import photos.

Find out more by clicking through.

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The default settings allow you to apply your own post-processing style to every RAW photo without having to fiddle with any sliders.  Its kind of like applying a preset to every photo but with bells on.

If you have more than one camera you can configure the defaults by camera model, serial number and even down to ISO setting on individual photos.  So Adobe Lightroom applies develop settings based on which camera was used for each photo as it is imported.

As well as using this feature to speed up post-processing of my own photos I have used it to streamline the workflow for teams of photographers working an event.

By creating custom profiles for each camera and tweaking the default settings per camera and photographer, we could remove the editing burden on the majority of images – Adobe Lightroom did the hard work as the photos imported.

So, how do you do it?

Its easy.  First thing, decide on how granular you want control.

Do you want to configure settings for every ISO or just by camera make?

I set-up my personal Adobe Lightroom by serial number but if you only have one camera then by camera model is probably good enough.

In Adobe Lightroom, open the Preferences dialog and select the Presets tab.  The top section is “Default Develop Settings” and this is where you tell Adobe Lightroom how you want your default settings applied (hint: its the 3rd and 4th checkboxes…).

Now, you need to select a photo from your catalog that is a typical example of your photography – that is, it reflects how you tend to expose a scene, contains areas of shadow and highlight and has some colours.

Go to the Develop module in Adobe Lightroom and process the image to a point you feel would suit the majority of your photography – these are the develop settings that you are going to apply to every photo that you import.  Whilst it won’t be perfect every time, you want settings that get you close most of the time.

Remember – your goal is only to reduce your post-processing time. You still have presets for specific circumstances, effects etc.

Once you have it set-up stay in the Develop module, open the Develop menu, click “Set Default Settings…” and then press “Update to Current Settings”.

Thats it, all you have to do.

Remember that it only applies these settings to new photos you import (not photos already in you catalog) and it applies the settings before any import presets you specify.

Questions or feedback? Let me know in the comments!

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Create a custom colour profile for your camera

Adobe have made it simple to get good colours in your images during RAW conversion by including camera calibration profiles in Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) and Adobe Lightroom 2.

Initially Adobe released a selection of beta camera profiles that you installed with the existing ACR 3.3 and 4.4 profiles.  More recent releases of ACR and Lightroom have included the complete profile sets - you can use them straight away.

So, what is special about these profiles?

Firstly, Adobe’s profiles match the picture styles that are available with JPEG creation in many cameras.  This allows you to get closer to the vibrant look of the preview JPEG without having to fiddle too much with settings during RAW conversion.

Secondly, they released a little software tool that lets you create your own camera profiles using a standard 24 colour chart (like the x-rite ColorChecker).

You can create custom profiles for each of your cameras to get consistent colours from your workflow regardless of the camera body you use.  You can also create specific profiles for specific conditions, such as awkward lighting.

Click through for instructions on creating your own camera specific colour profiles.

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First step is to get yourself a copy of Adobe’s DNG Profile Editor, the most recent release is still in beta but freely available from the Adobe Labs website.

Secondly you need to buy or borrow a standard 24-patch ColorChecker chart.

Thirdly you need to take a photo of the chart, evenly lit (just use that big light in the sky, the sun).  Keep the chart a decent size in the frame!

When creating the photo, watch our for subtle reflections from nearby bright surfaces – these can mess up the calibration profile.

As the name suggests, the DNG Profile Editor needs a DNG file to work it’s magic, so convert the chart photo using your favourite convertor.  Don’t worry, you only need to convert your photo of the colour chart to DNG - you can continue using your camera’s proprietary format for your photos.

Once you have the DNG file, open it in the Adobe DNG Profile Editor.

On the top right, click the ‘Chart’ tab and position the four circles into the centre of the outer four colour boxes.

Make sure you have selected ‘Both color tables’ and then click ‘Create Color Table’.

Once it is finished, use file->Export <name of your camera> to save your newly created profile.  Give the profile a unique name – if you have multiple bodies of the same type, use the serial number.  Also, if the profile was for a specific scenario, make sure you are explicit in the profile name – you don’t want to load a profile for blue lights when the image was created in sunlight.

The editor should save them to the correct place but if you are unsure…

• Mac: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles

• XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

• Vista: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles

You will need to restart Photoshop ACR or Lightroom to see the profile added to the calibration list.

Tomorrow I will show you how I set-up Lightroom 2 to use these profiles automatically.

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How to set-up a drop at drop.io for use with your clients

I recently released an export plug-in for Adobe Lightroom that allows you to upload your photos to drop.io, allowing you to collaborate with your clients and share photos with your family and friends.

I chose drop.io to deliver images to my clients because of the easy to use interface and ability to configure the look and feel of the drop (file sharing location).

Here are the steps I take to set-up a new drop for client use (click to read more).

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First step – go to http://drop.io and decide on a name for your drop.

In the big text box, type the name of the drop you to create.  I normally use <my name>_<client name>, for example “rusticolus_acmebooks”.

The text box should look something like this:

Notice that it has a green background – this means that the name is valid and available for you to use.  If there is a problem, the box turns red and the reason is stated below the box.

Skip over the other options for now and click the big green “Create A Drop” button.

This next bit is important – you want to have full control of your drop.

Specify a password and valid email address.  If you don’t do this, you can’t make the drop private or configure the look and feel.

Once you have sorted out the administrator access, click on the settings link in the top right corner.

Now you have a drop, the first thing to do is sort out your client’s access.

From the settings page, click Guest password, it is in the Access control section.  This is the password you send to your client to access the drop, so make it usable but secure.

Now click on Guest Permissions.

By default Guests have full access to the files in the drop.  You should change this depending on the client and your intention with the images.  Here are a couple of examples:

• Hi-res image delivery: comment, reorder, chat and download
• Interactive proof sheet: comment, reorder and chat.

The next step is to customise the drop to match your own branding.  Go to Customize and work your way down the options.  Remember that this controls how your drop will look to your client, so don’t get too carried away!

• Design: If you have a good background for your twitter account, this may work here too.
• Logo: This is displayed on the top of the right hand sidebar.
• Sidebar: Only show the widgets that you want to use with your client – less is more!
• Description: a brief description of what photos you are displaying or about you and your company
• Navigation: I prefer to use the simplified navigation – once again, less is more.
• Default view: I leave this as Media

And thats it!  You are now ready to upload files to your drop and share with your client.

In a lot of cases, 100Mb storage isn’t enough space to deliver those hi-res images, so don’t forget that you can buy a premium code to upgrade your drop to 1Gb of storage for only $10 – a tiny price to provide the extra value to your clients.

If you use Adobe Lightroom then you can upload your photos directly to the drop using the Photo-drop Lr export plug-in.  Not only does it upload photos to existing drops, it can create new drops and set the access controls with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Visit www.photo-drop.com and download the free trial now.

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