Etihad cabin baggage in Y

[bpcmemorial]

So I have an upcoming Y flight from Sydney to France, ticketed with Air France, but the first leg SYD-AUH is with Etihad.

Air France/KLM has a 12kg cabin baggage allowance, for one bag and one personal item, but I believe I'll be subject to the Etihad allowance as the principal carrier, which the Etihad website says for Y is "7kg. One bag only. All laptops, purses and documents must be placed inside your bag. Charges apply if your baggage exceeds your allowance." Which is going to present me with a bit of a problem since I have to take two laptops and a giant iPad. None of which are going to fit in my jacket pockets.

- am I right about being subject to the Etihad rules not the Air France rules?
- has anyone flown with Etihad from Oz recently who might be able to confirm or share their experience?
- if there is a charge, does anyone know what it might be?

 

[TMP]

I can't share a direct experience from exactly your case, however, yes, the Etihad rules would apply. BUT have you seen what people are getting away with in cabin baggage these days? I'm sure if you try and streamline your tech bags you'll be fine.

 

[IrishPete]

So I have an upcoming Y flight from Sydney to France, ticketed with Air France, but the first leg SYD-AUH is with Etihad.

Air France/KLM has a 12kg cabin baggage allowance, for one bag and one personal item, but I believe I'll be subject to the Etihad allowance as the principal carrier, which the Etihad website says for Y is "7kg. One bag only. All laptops, purses and documents must be placed inside your bag. Charges apply if your baggage exceeds your allowance." Which is going to present me with a bit of a problem since I have to take two laptops and a giant iPad. None of which are going to fit in my jacket pockets.

- am I right about being subject to the Etihad rules not the Air France rules?
- has anyone flown with Etihad from Oz recently who might be able to confirm or share their experience?
- if there is a charge, does anyone know what it might be?

We had an interesting experience from Dublin to Melbourne last weekend with Etihad.

At check-in in Dublin, they weighed our cabin bag (hard shell, wheeled) and they were a bit over. We were allowed to reduce them to 8.5kg by removing a laptop each. Of course, as soon as they were weighed, back into the bags they went, with my partner's exceeding 10kg (my laptop is smaller).

My partner then bought some gifts in the Duty Free shops, including a small tote bag that she put them in. The same staff member as checked us in, was at the gate and saw this bag and said she had too many bags (she also had a handbag-sized bag and a knitting bag). If we'd placed the bought goods in a duty free plastic bag, I doubt we'd have been stopped.

So, with no sense of irony (and recalling that it was the same staff member as at check-in!) we took all the bought stuff including some books, and crammed them into our carry-ons. I dread to think what weight they now were, but the staff member got called away and someone else dealt with us, and to be honest, I don't think she had the ability to weigh the bags at the gate anyway.

So, a cautionary tale. You may have trouble if over-weight. Computers and tablets and newspapers and books in your hand tend not to be counted, in my experience, but I don't know how many of each you would get away with!

And for other reasons, I checked the cost of excess luggage with Etihad, and it was eye-watering. I don't know if that would apply if they made you check in your cabin bag.

 

[bpcmemorial]

Thank you for that @IrishPete. Was their policy one bag & one personal item, or one bag only?

 

[IrishPete]

Thank you for that @IrishPete. Was their policy one bag & one personal item, or one bag only?

One bag and one personal item The cabin bag was weighed. The personal item wasn't.

 

[bpcmemorial]

Had no problem in the end. My cabin bag ended up 8.something, with a kilo of powerbanks stuffed in my jacket pockets. My checked luggage was only 17kg. Based I'd say on that, the staff member at check-in glanced at my cabin bag, which is a rather nice SwissGear well within the size limits, and tagged it without weighing. I suspect if my checked baggage was at limit he might have weighed the cabin bag.

In any case though turns out that Etihad's policy is that all laptops must be in cabin baggage (which I didn't find on their website but was stated at the check-in counter and on my boarding pass), so I couldn't have put them in my checked bag anyway.

I didn't think it prudent to enquire about what the charge might have been