Having just arrived in Australia off of a Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane, I was hit with an interesting surprise when checking-in for my domestic flight to Melbourne.
After getting off my flight from LAX, and going through customs (more on that later…), I checked-in at the domestic transfer window, queuing in the Business lane since I was booked up front.
Figuring it would be a simple print of the boarding pass and I’d be on my way, the agent asked that I place my carry-on luggage onto the scale. I told her I wouldn’t be checking any luggage, though she still insisted that I place both my suitcase and briefcase onto the scale. Reluctantly, I complied, and was hit with shocking news. My suitcase weighed in at 15kg, and the normal, allowable limit for all Qantas domestic and international flights (departing from Australia) are 7kg, nearly half of what I had already packed.
I mentioned that I had never seen such restrictions when flying before, and she said this was something very specific to Australia, given that they are very safety minded and want to prevent injuries with falling baggage out of the overhead lockers.
She tagged my bag with a priority tag since I was in Business and a oneworld Emerald, and I was allowed to continue on, taking the domestic transfer bus to the domestic terminal. I wasn’t too thrilled with checking my bag, but to be honest, there wasn’t much I could do given the situation.
It’s a lesson to be learned for next time – the US and other countries apparently have some very lenient restrictions when taking on carry on bags. In Australia, they not only have the restrictions, but thoroughly check them. Good to know.
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Some times Middle East airlines also do that. I had personal experience with Emirates from SFO in business class and Etihad from ORD in economy.
That must be new, I flew Qantas link between Darwin, Ayers Rock and Cairns last year and had no problem with my mid size backpack and 14kg carryon. They’re turning into a budget airline
Oh… Flying Quantas intra-Australia in a month. Any idea if there is a charge for luggage in coach. Was planning to carry on, but sounds like we won’t be doing that.
No charge for checking baggage…1 piece I think.
I’ve run into this routinely in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe (BA out of Istanbul and Madrid, for example). Air New Zealand had such stringent rules that I was even forced to repack my checked bags.
Also when flying internationally into Australia you are not allowed to have any liquids whatsoever in your carry on.
Usually you have to get rid of your water inside your water bottle before security but you can refill it afterwards and take it with you on the plane.
When l flew with EK EXB-PER they checked EVERY single bag at the gate again for any liquids and everyone had to get rid of it with no expection. I asked why and they said its an Aussie regulation and there is nothing they can do about it.
We ran into this rule when flying various airlines within South East Asia.