Hey guys, I’m about to fly Virgin Atlantic from the US to Amsterdam via London. I booked a ticket in economy light but see you’re only allowed a single carry-on bag of comically small proportions. I was hoping to bring my 60L backpacking backpack, but am not in a position to pay the $75 fee to check it if they make me. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this, and if the airline really enforces these rules. Thanks!
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Airlines often do enforce this as they make lots of money from these fees.
British people are incredibly creative at avoiding them though, with mad inventions like coats that are actually suitcases. You can of course use your own method like wearing all your clothes, stuffing a pillowcase with clothes and disguising it as a pillow etc…
I did once get around Ryanair’s by draping my coat over my bag so they couldn’t see it. Have some fun but be prepared to get caught if you outright sneak like I did.
Can you upgrade to economy classic? There’s a significantly higher chance that the cost of a checked bag will be greater or equal to the upgrade. And you get to pick a seat without paying extra for it
If your bag is bigger than the hand luggage allowance you will be made to check it in, and they will make you pay for it
The bag limit isn’t comically small, it’s the standard 23cm x 36cm x 56cm that you get on almost every airline.
It’s not the smaller ‘it must fit under your seat’ limit enforced by some airlines now.
It all comes down to the mood of the gate staff when departing. Some are stricter than others.
Flew with them today. You can take a standard carry-on bag and 1 personal item. So typically a small backpack and a wheeled small suitcase.
I’d suggest investing in a hard suitcase that is the max size l, it will last you years and is perfect for avoiding to pay for checked bags if you travel light. Also means you don’t have to wait at the baggage carousel.
I haven’t, but I did hear that their security is tighter than a Virgin’s until you get to their upper deck.
The light fare doesn’t make any difference to cabin bag allowance. You get the normal economy amount which is a fairly standard size.
60L is way bigger than a normal amount, which are around 45L, the the shape of a backpack make this even more obvious. It would also be hard to get that bag close to full without exceeding the 10kg limit. So you could Maybe compress it a bit and they may not notice.