How to deal with inaccurate luggage weighing scales at an airport?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 22 Jul, 2023
- |
One obvious solution is to take luggage with a comfortable margin under the (theoretical) maximum. If you know that “23 kg” really means “about 20”, there is no need to agonize about scale accuracy or to weight everything three times and you can travel without worry.
Incidentally, luggage allowance does vary quite a bit. Would you have chosen another airline or paid a higher fare to get 23 instead of 20? Do you absolutely need 20 kg of luggage or is there something you could have left home? If not, it’s not completely rational to get worked up because the limit was supposed to be 23 and turns out to be a bit lower.
To save $100 fee take out an article or piece of clothing that weights 1/2 lb and either put in your carry on bag or wear it. Then get bag reweighed.
This is fast so you can still make your flight, avoids the fee and doesn’t waste time arguing over the scale accuracy. I have done this several times at check in without problem. The key is putting your bag on the scale early in the check in process so you can see the weight while the gate agent is working on your ticket.
Some airports such as LHR have public scales and repacking areas to make this task easier. I use a digital scale and usually double check the weight at the public scale.
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So this had been bugging me as it’d never occurred to me before not to trust their scales, but your question makes perfect sense, especially as you’ve checked all your scales. So I did some digging.
CBS Local in Boston did an investigative spot check with an inspector – (all airports are meant to be tested and standardised) and found 30% of them to be inaccurate/broken – although only 2 pounds out at the max. LAX had a pass rate of 94%, while Ontario was 73%.
It says something that the inspector himself says he travels with his own set of scales:
Hobica actually travels with his own personal scale to make sure he’s
not overcharged because of a faulty scale.
So that’s one possible solution – to travel with your own set.
Lifehacker quotes Hipmunk who quotes a Wall Street Journal article saying that between 6 and 77% of airport scales are inaccurate by at least a pound.
Another of the Lifehacker articles suggests that digital luggage scales might be a ‘travel essential‘.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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