No relief: Pack lighter or be prepared to pay the airlines extra

When could shipping your checked luggage on an airline rack up an extra $1,100 in excess baggage fees?

When you're a group of Garfield High School students from Seattle on a charitable mission to Tanzania with donated computers that exceed the new economy-class weight limits for checked bags.

Members of Garfield's Global Technology Academy and their computer-science teacher, Kjell Rye, scrambled for a way out of this predicament last week after discovering that Northwest Airlines lowered its weight limit on checked bags from 70 to 50 pounds. As a result, the 44 Rubbermaid totes they packed with 88 refurbished computers were going to cost an extra $25 each.

For the student-run and funded group that's completed 23 trips over the past eight years to install computers in schools in developing countries, the news was a big blow. Each student carries whatever clothes needed for two weeks in a small backpack just so the computers can be shipped as checked luggage.

"We have traveled with NW/KLM six times to Africa for our projects, four times just last year, and 70 pounds has always been the requirement," Rye said.

Two weeks ago, while researching a trip the group plans to take to Turkey in July, a student discovered the change that Northwest says took effect in September.

Among a myriad of cost-saving measures to offset higher fuel costs and other financial problems, the airline, along with most others, lowered the limit on checked bags to 50 pounds per bag (two per passenger) for international economy class, with a $25 fee for bags between 51 and 70 pounds.

"We could have very well came to the airport with all our gear, and that would have been a disaster because we would have not been able to get on the plane," Rye said.

Raising an extra $1,100 was out of the question, so the students, due to leave for Africa on Saturday, scrambled last week, first finding smaller tubs that weighed less, then unpacking and repacking the computers, and disassembling some to redistribute the weight. Even with that, they had to leave 20 computers behind.

"We were upset and worried because we had been planning this trip for so long and had put so much work and energy into make sure everything was going to run smoothly," said project manager Sophie DePillis, 16, a Garfield junior.

In the past, Northwest would have waived the fee, said spokesman Dean Breest, but with fuel costs rising and the airline facing other financial problems, that's no longer the case. Northwest, along with Delta and United, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

"We still get a lot of requests," Breest said, mainly from aid groups shipping medical supplies to Third World countries, "but we've had to curtail that process for the present."

The Garfield students are working on coming up with solutions for future trips. Boeing may agree to carry a load of computers to Turkey on a new plane it is delivering to Turkish Airlines, Rye said.

In the meantime, if you're planning to fly over spring break or later this summer, don't be caught by surprise.

Here's what to do

• Before packing, check with your airline on size and weight restrictions and excess baggage fees. Airlines post this information on their Web sites. You may have to search to find it, then wade through the fine print.

Northwest lists the information under "Travel tools." Delta lists it under "Traveling & Check-in." Alaska Airlines posts its baggage policies under headers titled "Day of Flight" and "Know Before You Go."

The general rule for avoiding fees on domestic and international flights is take no more than two checked bags per coach-class passenger, each weighing no more than 50 pounds; one carry-on, no heavier than 40 pounds; and one purse or laptop. Most airlines allow first- and business-class passengers to take checked bags weighing up to 70 pounds.

British Airways, so far, still allows economy-class passengers to take two 70-pound checked bags.

• Don't assume airlines apply the same policies to all destinations. The rules can be different, depending on competitors' policies. This is why United allows coach passengers two checked bags, weighing up to 70 pounds, on flights to Brazil, Japan and the Philippines. Northwest also allows 70 pounds on flights to the Philippines.

Some airlines change the rules for peak travel periods. United, for example, will not accept oversized or overweight bags on flights into Mexico City between Nov. 1 and Jan. 1.

• Some foreign airlines have more restrictive limits for checked and/or carry-on bags. Keep this in mind if you're flying overseas on a major U.S. carrier, then using a foreign airline to fly between cities.

Dublin-based Ryan Air, for instance, limits carry-ons to 22 pounds and checked bags to 44 pounds each. Excess weight costs $9.30 per kilo (2.2 pounds). Ryan Air also recently started charging all passengers $4.25 per checked bag.

• Lock or no lock: Despite signs posted at some airline check-in counters instructing passengers to leave their luggage unlocked, there is no Transportation Security Administration rule to that effect.

The choice is yours: Leave your bag unlocked and risk having it pilfered. Use a lock, and take the chance that a security inspector might break it, or lessen that chance by using a TSA-approved lock that inspectors can open with a tool rather than break.

For an updated list of the items allowed in and prohibited in carry-on and checked bags, see www.tsa.gov.

Carol Pucci's Travelwise column runs Sundays in the Travel section. Comments are welcome.

Contact her at 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com