Packing Ourselves...

So with 3 days to go before take-off we still hadn't done any trial packing.

When you fly to the UK in Zoo Class you're allowed a whopping 20kg each for checked luggage, and your hand luggage must not weigh more than 7 kilos. However, things like big coats, camera bags and laptops are not included in that, so we figured we could go in laden down like mules with all that stuff hanging off our arms and get a few more kilos of junk over to the UK.

We'd also heard from Amanda (Bec's sister) that you could probably get away with as much as 25kg in your checked luggage without too much hassle. The absolute maximum is 32kg, because otherwise the baggage handlers get hernias. "Fair enough," we thought, "we shouldn't be anywhere near that much anyway".

Hmmm.

Our first attempt at packing resulted in:
John's Suitcase: 28kg
Bec's Suitcase: 33kg
John's Carry-on: 11kg
Bec's Carry-on: 13kg
Plus
2x Big Black Coats, 1x Camera bag, 1x document bag, 1x handbag.

Right then. Lots of heartbreaking elimination later, we arrived at the airport with:
John's Suitcase: 26kg
Bec's Suitcase: 30kg
John's Carry-on: 12kg
Bec's Carry-on: 13kg
Plus
2x Big Black Coats, 1x Camera bag, 1x document bag, 1x handbag.

As we put the luggage onto the scales at the check-in counter, John was discreetly lifting the bags to try and get them to 25kg or less. But it turned out to be unnecessary - the check-in chick didn't even look at the weight!

The dude inside the big silver doors was not so nice however. He took one look at Bec's carry-on bag (which is one of those rollable ones with the retractable handles that is exactly the maximum allowable size) and put it on the scales. His jaw dropped when he saw 13 kilos registered, but quickly recovered, giving Bec quite the scolding before sending us back to check-in to get her bag put in the cargo hold. Luckily, we got the same zero-care-factor chick and we were OK.

I swear the mighty Boeing 747-400 struggled just a touch getting off the Tulla runway!