Monarch - baggage allowance? baggage as a whole

[markbsac]

we flew to sharm with them they stung us excess apparently because explorers were stopping useing them £8.00 a kilo anything over 25 kilo....so i took my stab jacket out and said i will wear this on the plane..he said ok away u go but you will need to put your bag in the oversize baggage hold...so when i got there i just put my stab back in the bag and away it went....lol..well funny

[Narced at sea level]

Does it all depend on the travel agent ??? - a year or two ago Tony Backhurst got a 30kg standard luggage allowance for everyone booking trips through them regardless of airline or destination - and made quite a song and dance about it- then all of the other specialist dive travel agents got the same deal

Since then I've never had the slightest whiff of a problem - closest I got was a flight to the maldives when my dive bag came in at 30kg dead on - check in staff questioned it and I simply produced my booking confirmation from TBST which confirmed the luggage allowance.

If you are heading to a recognised dive destination, with an airline that the dive travel agents use (Monarchav, Excel, Atlanta etc) simply point this out - find the info from the TBST website to back this up (if its still there).

there are a few little tricks you can use though:

1. Check in EARLY - if the first few people are a little overweight its no problem - if a succession of people have been and you are at the back of the queue, then its more difficult to get away with it.

2. buy a paper from the airline - get carrier bag for it - stick the paper at the front - then secrete a number of heavy items in it that'll go back in your hand luggage after its checked.

3. hang a coat or two on your luggae trolley - hang a bag or two behind them and hope the check in staff don't spot them - they never do.