SkyScanner - flights with no luggage allowance

[BevS97]

£100 moves you form economy light to economy classic which also includes a seat selection.

We stuck with economy light. You can then pay for bags at the airport for £45 each way

flywith.virginatlantic/g...l-baggage.html

[alexisemma31]

Originally Posted by BevS97

£100 moves you form economy light to economy classic which also includes a seat selection.

We stuck with economy light. You can then pay for bags at the airport for £45 each way

flywith.virginatlantic/g...l-baggage.html

See more...

I just selected 'add luggage' and it automatically added £400 onto the cost so I'm not sure if that moved the seats up a class, I certainly didn't request that.

[Bellasmummy]

Originally Posted by BevS97

I use Skyscanner to find the cheapest dates / routes and then look on that airlines website for the different price options.

Personally we decided to go with the cheaper option and take hand luggage and we managed fine but you can add a single bag rather than upgrading everyone. Usually around £45-65 a bag.

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This is what we’ve done too. We’ve got 2 week long trips and booked hand luggage only, we’ll probably pay for 1 bag going out and 2 coming back as we like to shop.

For our longer trip in August though we used Skyscanner to watch for price drops and grabbed a great price for WTP which includes luggage.

I use Skyscanner as a tool to watch for drops rather than to check real prices.

[BevS97]

Originally Posted by alexisemma31

I just selected 'add luggage' and it automatically added £400 onto the cost so I'm not sure if that moved the seats up a class, I certainly didn't request that.

See more...

I think it will have done. The £45 is if added at the airport.

[cornishfrogboy]

Just a thought.. I had travelled 6 or more times to the US for vacations and would have laughed at the idea of travelling hand baggage only at first. (We are 2 adults and boys who are now 17 and 13). We are now preparing for US vacation 11 at Easter.

As we became more ‘seasoned’ and more aware of what we were actually using, what we were only using because it was there... and what we were not using at all, we became progressively lighter, even though using standard medium sized suitcases and increasingly multi centring through several states. We were weighing in at 13kg average, despite having a 23kg allowance.

We now fly hand baggage only on purpose, probably even if the hold baggage was free with the ticket. If I am to pay on anything at all, then it is to get as near as possible to the air bridge door.

This year, it was Boston, New York, Dayton OH, Cincinatti, Orlando and Naples before departing Miami. . Over 3 weeks. We went hand baggage only , no meals and paid only £25 for seats very close to the exit of the long haul sectors (Norwegian). Two were the exit row and 2 in the row behind.. We made the weight easily.
Imagine what it would have cost for Hold Baggage on all our 4 separate, freestanding flights? (We caught the AMTRAC from Boston to NY and had hire cars (standard as we only had hand baggage) in both Ohio and after 3 days in Universal, Florida, thus avoiding both hire and very high car parking fees). We then only returned to Universal after 1800 when parking is free.

LHR Boston, we were in the first 10 through the airbridge and immigration (automated scan of passport and then the desk), past the reclaim (that hadn’t even started moving) and in a taxi on the airport concourse in about 25 minutes flat.

LaGuardia to Dayton. We were through the airbridge and out the terminal towards car hire in 18 minutes from door opening.

Cincinatti to MCO. We were through the airbridge and in a taxi towards IDrive within 22 minutes.

Miami to LGW took 40 minutes.

Food? My £3.99 BLT WH Smith meal deal with 300ml of fresh orange and a bag of Walkers looked a million miles better than the congealed rubber chicken and plastic cup of cheap red wine that the guy next to me had. He even offered a straight swap (which I refused ). He gave up on the chicken, ate the roll and drank the 60ml or so of plonk.

Washing of clothing . We washed and tumbled all clothes on day 6 or so in Dayton in the Hotel washing room. (We had selected our clothing carefully in order to tumble). It cost $3 plus powder and took an hour whilst we had breakfast.
Around day 11 we reached our villa.. with full washing and drying facilities.

My point is this. There are numerous advantages to going lean and saving money. We did not economise on what we took. I had a DSLR with 2 x Lenses, 3 x IPads, A waterproof camera, Satnav, most toiletries other than the wife’s Shampoo etc. Coats and fleeces we wore as Boston and NY area long way North. As the temp was 37, they were a wasted effort.

Whilst Handbaggage only is not for everyone, it can work really, really well for others and should never be sneered at. .. nor scrapping inflight meals and cheap (to the airlines) Alcohol. It is horses for courses and clearly I value my vacation over my flight. As regards bringing home pressies, we pretty much don’t, but a single hold-all (and paying for it to go in the hold) would cover it. (We would have bought all pressies etc before that last flight).

[BevS97]

Economy light on virgin even includes the meal. We did it last summer. The only disadvantage was we were in the last boarding group every time and didn’t always sit together (but we were near). Neither of these things bother us so it wasn’t worth paying extra to upgrade for us.

[kempydee]

I got giddy thinking I’d finally found some decent prices from Manchester on Skyscanner...then clicked through and added luggage. It took the price up another £400.
Went on the Virgin website and it looked at the same flights - and yes it was £450 extra on there.
So I guess I will still use it to get an idea and then check the airline separately.