Doc Holiday: Which airline has the best luggage allowance?

Overpacking can be an expensive mistake, but which airline is the best if you have excess baggage?

Escape's Doc Holiday, Dilvin Yasa, answers your travel-related questions.

Can you tell me what the best airline is for excess luggage while travelling through Europe, and also whether luggage storage is available in Greenwich, London?

As a committed over-packer, let me just say, I hear you loud and clear. Unfortunately, it’s a difficult one to answer since baggage allowance ultimately depends on your class of travel, fare type and membership tier (if applicable).

Generally speaking, Emirates, Turkish Airlines and British Airways offer the most generous provisions, also allowing passengers the opportunity to buy significant amounts of extra baggage allowance in advance for a discount.

I wouldn’t necessarily avoid looking at low-cost carriers, either. When I looked at a flight between London and Malta with Ryanair, for example, the fare was a touch over £100 ($195) for a flight including 20kg of checked luggage, while excess luggage was charged at £9 ($17) per additional kilogram up to a maximum of 32kg, if bought in advance (up to two hours before departure). For the same route, Turkish Airlines has a generous 30kg checked luggage provision, with the ability to buy up to a whopping 230kg in excess luggage, but the base fare is priced from £384 ($765). Ultimately, your choice is going to depend on just how much additional weight you’re packing, and the level of comfort you’d like to travel in.

If you need to store luggage in and around Greenwich while you take your tour, you have several multi-day options. Storage at LuggageHero starts from £5.40 ($10.45) per day, while Stasher offers a wealth of secure spaces in the form of hotel storerooms, office spaces and the back rooms of convenience stores (for example) from £4.45 ($8.60) per day. Bounce, too, is another similarly priced option. I wouldn’t leave anything of value behind, but for a suitcase stuffed with dirty laundry and cheap souvenirs, it should be more than adequate.

In regards to Ritalin, check the Smartraveller website, then contact the embassy of each destination you’re thinking about visiting and obtaining their official advice. Picture: iStock.

My child has ADHD but I understand Ritalin is banned in some countries. We would like to holiday in Fiji, Singapore and Japan but we’re unsure how much of a problem it would be?

In a perfect world, there would be a website which lists banned and problematic medications around the globe, as well as providing up-to-date information on how best to get said essential medicines into each country. As this is not yet a thing, your best bet is to check smartraveller.gov.au, then contact the embassy of each destination you’re thinking about visiting and obtaining their official advice. In some cases, they may recommend an alternative medication such as Concerta, if you’re open to that.

In many cases – Fiji included – medications, such as Ritalin, are fine when you’re carrying only enough for personal use during your time in that destination, as well as a letter from your doctor. With Singapore, you can check requirements for your meds through Health Sciences Authority. Japan is a little more complicated, because Ritalin is used locally to treat sleep disorders but is banned for ADHD. 

Although the guidelines state that travellers can bring up to 2.16g of Ritalin into Japan without an import permit, I would err on the side of caution and send an inquiry to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to double-check that you’re not at risk of breaking any local laws.

If you connect to an international mobile network using an Australian SIM card for any activity, you’ll activate a day pass (at your daily roaming rate). Picture: iStock.

If I use an eSIM but click on my email, would I still be liable for my Telstra international roaming charge?

The world of SIMs and eSIMs can be a complicated one, and when I emailed the lovely folks at Telstra to discuss the finer points of the topic, they were incredibly generous with their time, sending me the equivalent of a finely crafted novella.

Regardless of your Australian provider, if you connect to an international mobile network using an Australian SIM card for any activity, you’ll activate a day pass (at your daily roaming rate). You only incur this charge when you activate your service, so if you turn on your phone, or take it off flight mode every couple of days, you won’t pay for it on the “turned off” days. If you’re only activating the phone once every few days and using those days to make all your calls, posts and searches, this could be a cost-effective way of staying connected.

For eSIMS, I recommend activation once you’ve connected to the hotel wi-fi at your destination. Leave your eSIM for when you’re out and about, and just connect to hotel wi-fi whenever you need to check emails, make WhatsApp calls or browse online. In answer to your question, though, if you click on an email while you’re using your eSIM, you won’t get hit with your roaming charge, but it’s helpful to know that, unlike roaming, all activity eats into the data you’ve bought. Remember, too, that public wi-fi is not so secure, so avoid doing anything like internet banking.

Originally published as Doc Holiday: Which airline has the best luggage allowance?