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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
NEW NEW NEW: San Francisco Urban Hikes Collection
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Michael You might have noticed that airlines nowadays seem to keep inventing new sketchy schemes to get their hands on your hard-earned dollars. Most are charging an extra $20 for each piece of checked in luggage one-way now, with the notable exception of Southwest Airlines. If you have to pay, make sure your bags never clock in at more than 50 pounds (23 kg), because it gets really expensive otherwise! Some airlines, like Lufhansa, even weigh your carry-on luggage to make sure it's not over 17 pounds (8kg). At home, there's an easy trick to make sure your luggage doesn't exceed the limits by stepping onto the bathroom scale with your luggage first, then without, and then calculate the difference.
But when traveling back home, while still at the hotel room at the travel destination, there's usually no bathroom scale you can use to weigh your bags, and that's why we always bring along the handy digital luggage scale in Figure 1. With its ergonomically shaped handle, I have no trouble lifting even the heaviest luggage pieces. And the kicker is the little grey belt at the bottom, which comes with a metal buckle at then end that lets you securely fasten it around any common suitcase handle. For quite some time, we had put up with a different, inferior luggage scale by another manufacturer, featuring a beltness metal hook which failed to hold onto anything securely, which meant that I had to always bring along a set of climbing carabiners, which clocked in at half a pound by themselves!
The luggage scale comes under a few different labels, ours is branded "Tarriss", but on amazon.de, I've even seen it under the "Söhnle" name. I suspect it comes from the same Chinese factory anyway, and retailers simply print their names on it. It is built with impeccable quality and precision, and according to our experience matches the airline's scales to the pound. It is lightweight and costs about 15 Dollars.
Oh, and in case you just wanted to give me the snotty "I fly business class and I don't care about luggage weight" response, here's my take on it: Regardless whether you're just using up airline miles, it's a colossal waste of money to fly Business class! And if you're using business travel miles your company paid for on your private travels, it's a shame that this doesn't count as taxable income! Where's Obama for useful initiatives when you need him?
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