My next trip in October includes a number of charter flights, 15kg baggage allowance.
I have flown once before, internally, with this 15kg allowance, which led to a lot of consternation on what equipment to leave out before we left the UK
Clothes? Who needs clothes?
There was no check at the landing strip before take off & there seemed not to be a care in the world about baggage weight.

Has anyone had baggage allowance problems on charter flights?
If so what was the outcome & costs for over weight baggage?

Thanks
Kipper

kipper,
no not at all if you keep it reasonable!
especially in africa we have not encountered any problems at all! neither with chartered planes nor with taxi flights!
i guess the pilot have got experiences which means they lift your baggage anyway when putting that in to the luggage compartment. and if there is not a huge passenger they will let you go away with some kgs on top of the official limit.
but that is not a guarantee at all. you might run in to an idiot which is more "popey than the pope himself" and you might face some trouble. but following our experiences: no problem with a bit over weight
we had a minor incident at wilson in nairobi prior to our air kenya flight to the masai mara: there we were checked and the guy said it was too much. we solved the problem with 100 KSH and went off..............

regarding charter flights: you mean you are the "director" and have chartered the plane which takes you from A to B. in that case it shouldn't be a problem at all. but i would not exceed more than 5kgs plus camera equipment especially considering today's fuel price .

in PNG you and your luggage hopp onto a wheight and so do all passangers and loads. afterwards the pilot calculates the fuel needed for the entire route (which might constist of 5 take offs and landings to cover a distance of approx. 300 kms - our leg from port moresby to mount hagen ). and there you might get into trouble being asked to leave some stuff behind if you have far too much!

bon voyage - many happy landings!

Kipper:

I've never had problems with charter flights. However, I have had problems on the small scheduled fights such as Air Kenya. Because I always take a lot of things with me for friend there, Air Kenya always manages to get an extra $60.00 - $70.00 bucks off me. I've never had them refuse to take my things though.

Pippa:
You got off with it easy for only 100KES. They are now sending everyone with luggage overweight up to the business office on the second floor to make sure they get their extra bucks before letting you get on the flight.

Thanks, we always travel light.
We're on safari not dinner at the Ritz!

One way we reduce our load is by taking old clothes & then discard them as we travel. People are pleased with a gift!
Our! No!...MY! problem is camera gear. "Big Boy's Toy's!" What do I leave out? Telescope? Tripod? Which Camera or lens?
Have I enough batteries? I've left some advice in the photo section for night photography. Do I leave that out?

Your advice has helped settle my mind. Many thanks.

Kipper:

I've never had a problem with weight of camera gear. I have a Quantaray photo backpack and it holds all my gear including multiple lenses, SLR, video camera and tapes, cleaning kit, camera manuals, batteries, etc. , tripod, etc.

Whenever showing up at an airport/airstrip I just leave the bag on my back. No-one bothers to weigh it.

kipper,
we act the same as jan!
kai has loads of camera stuff incl. tripod etc. i myself carry that bag containing the video equipment and kai carries the much heavier photo equipment rucksack. it weights tons but he dances around like nurejew during his best times
kai always stays behind when i do the check in procedure and nobody has ever asked him regarding the weight.
and my handbag always contains our laptop to!
kipper, don't bother with our luggage just make sure it looks easy

jan,
it was last august at wilson (air kenya). we really got away with 100!
thanks for your advise!
by the way: when are you going to satao?