The Heavy Bag Slims Down

NO one wants to be caught with his pants down. But last summer, I suffered an almost equal embarrassment: I had to unpack my suitcase's contents, personal items and all, in front of a crowd of curious onlookers.

Skip to next paragraph Enlarge this Image Isabel Klett

Let me explain. I was traveling home with my wife and two children on a Delta Song flight from New York to South Florida. I was unaware that Delta was among several airlines that had lowered the weight limit for each checked bag to 50 pounds from 70 pounds on domestic and international flights. Now, I was getting a quick education in such matters: After hoisting my morbidly obese suitcase on the check-in scale, the Delta agent suggested I shift some of its contents, from clothes to toiletries to that hard-to-find litchi-flavored tea I purchased in Chinatown, to a family member's less-stuffed luggage.

And thus my underwear met the public gaze.

My story is far from an isolated example. While business travelers have already adapted to this latest reality of life in the sky, leisure travelers are still getting with the program, judging from news reports and online accounts. And with the busy summer season upon us, now may be the time to pay heed.

It also may be the time to go luggage shopping. A number of suitcase manufacturers, including Samsonite, Tumi, Delsey and Victorinox, have recently tried to turn the heavy-bag problem to their advantage, unveiling lines of slimmed-down luggage. Heys International is touting its new Xcase-XL series as "the world's lightest weight luggage set," with the midsize 26-inch suitcase weighing in at a mere 7.2 lbs (a three-piece set costs 0). By contrast, a bag that size could easily have weighed more than 15 pounds "in the old days," according to Jon Holloway, who runs the PackingLight.com Web site and store.

But it's not just about the weight of the bag, it's also about what you put into it. One enterprising luggage manufacturer, Ricardo Beverly Hills, has released the Solutions collection, with bags that have a built-in digital scale (about 0 each). But if this need for new luggage has consumers crying foul, the airlines say they're not to blame. The move to lighter baggage limits is largely being driven by rising fuel expenses, they say: the more an airplane and its contents weigh, the more fuel it uses.

"When you're talking about fuel at a barrel, that's a cost," said Chris Kelly, a Delta spokeswoman. "I don't see this as nickel-and-diming."

There's also another price to be paid when it comes to heavy suitcases, the airlines say - the cost of contending with injured baggage handlers. "We felt it was safer" to go to the new weight restrictions, said an American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith. (American was one of the last major carriers to switch to 50 from 70 pounds for each checked item on international flights, changing last fall. Continental Airlines, by contrast, has had a 50-pound limit - on domestic flights - in place since 2003.)

Finally, airlines say, the fees on overweight bags, which typically are to depending on how much they go over the limit, are designed so that only a small percentage of passengers bear the financial burden. It's much the same argument airlines have used with other once-standard services, from meals to curbside check-in, that have become new sources of income in an era when nearly every carrier has been strapped: you can raise fares and give every passenger a sandwich - or you can just make those who really want the sandwich pay for it.

Or, in the case of heavy bags, the "cost is being paid for by people putting the weight on that plane," said Ms. Kelly of Delta.

Of course, not every passenger buys in to that argument. The blogosphere is filled with rants from travelers frustrated about the baggage issue. "I understand they don't want people taking hundreds and hundreds of pounds of bags on flights, wrote Joe Wikert, a publishing executive with John Wiley & Sons, wrote on his blog. "I also realize they've got to set the limit somewhere. But this is nothing more than a scam by the airline industry."

TO be sure, most major airlines still give passengers the opportunity to check two bags for a combined limit of 100 pounds (With my family of four, that translated into as many as eight bags for a combined weight limit of 400 pounds, hence, my ability to shift my briefs from bag to bag.) A few budget carriers are offering more generous allowances: JetBlue allows up to 70 pounds a bag for two bags, while Southwest allows up to three bags at the 50-pound limit.

And as I learned last summer, even if you get caught short (or heavy) at the baggage counter, a helpful agent can make all the difference. Actually, not only did the Delta representative encourage me to shift items, she also allowed me to create an extra "suitcase" on the spot - there wasn't enough space in all the family luggage for my overflow - by handing me a plastic bag for my possessions and then taping it tightly before it went on its way on the conveyor.

But airline officials caution that you can't arrive at the gate expecting such a flexible attitude; if an agent is particularly busy, you might not even be allowed to do a quick shifting. "It's case by case," said Mr. Smith of American Airlines.

Which leaves you the option to pack lighter, or at least to pack a lighter bag. You've got no shortage of choices. EBags, a leading online retailer of luggage, says that it carries about 1,000 bags in the lightweight category, from .99 to ,200. "Five years ago, it would have been a tenth that many," said Peter Cobb, a company co-founder.

The boom has clearly been sparked by the airlines' weight limits. But manufacturers have also have had science on their side, making bags from new lightweight fabrics and other structural materials, including some of the same compounds that go into football helmets and even airplanes. In the process, the battle to be among the lightest on the market has reached a fever pitch. "We're fighting for market share based on ounces," said Ken Hinman, vice president of sales and design for the Hartmann luggage company.

Of course any weight that's shaved off a bag becomes irrelevant once a passenger decides to pack, say, a hair dryer or a couple of hardcover books. And that's why airlines continue to advise travelers to take note of the baggage limits - they're all posted on the carriers' Web sites - or just use some common sense. Sarah Anthony, a Continental Airlines spokeswoman, said, "If it takes a wheelbarrow to push it out the door, chances are it's going to register as an overweight bag."

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