5 things I hate about Qantas: #3

Reason #3: Overweight or not overweight, that is the question.

Is my bag over-weight or not over-weight? Well, it depends on their mood, not weight scale.

Remember this is Qantas. So as long as you buy your ticket in America, you cannot do online check-in as with other airlines in America. Therefore you have to go through their check-in counters.

On the way back (from Melbourne to L.A.), I “had to” check my carry-on bag because, according to the Qantas agent behind the check-in counter at the Melbourne airport, my red-colored, 19″ standard Swiss Army bag exceeded their weight limit.

I had the SAME bag with me when I flew from L.A. to Melbourne, and the Qantas gate agent behind the check-in counter at the L.A. airport told me my bag “was fine, no problem”.

The only weight difference on the way back is a 2″ stuffed animal — a Koala — that I bought in Melbourne. Hello! Tell me that fluffy Koala is the criminal here!

Koala bear, you have "sinned"! Qantas "upgraded" my everywhere-else-carry-on bag to a must-check-in bag because of you.

By the way, although Europe has much more restricted rules for carry-on luggage, I have never had any problem of breezing through all kinds of countries and airports, let alone being considered carrying an over-limit bag!

Here is the catch: After we were forced to check in our normal carry on bags, we saw plenty people around us with much bigger and heavier bags and they did bring their bags on board!

This blog post is associated with “A380: Nice; Qantas: Not even close.”

See also “5 things I hate about Qantas: #1, #2, #4, and #5.”