sometimes things work out or there are still really nice people out there

Airline travel these days is quite challenging. Most airlines have put stringent limits on baggage for economy class with extra charges on anything over 20 kgs. I, nfortunately, can remember when you showed up with anything and it went with you. Now, it's not only a challenge to pack but when you are packing for temperature extremes, it's almost impossible to get it under 20kgs. So traveling for 4 months means I have 2 suitcases with me. I've done quite well with one suitcase holding my scuba gear and warm weather clothes and the other suitcase with the cold weather and every day usage things. Messed up when I forgot to check baggage allowances on the European airlines that have the super cheap flights. I've got three flights with these problems. One already took care of itself, Sky Europe, which has gone belly up and I had to rebook on Lufthansa so that one's ok. Tomorrow is Iceland Air which has a price tag of 10 British pounds per extra kilo so I still need to repack to get the bare minimum in one suitcase and leave the rest at Heathrow left luggage which is only 8 British pounds a day. Air Berlin is the other problem child. checking their website after I realized I was in the era of too much luggage no matter what I did, it says that you must notify them of overweight luggage before you come to the airport. So I called and she asked me what it was and I said scuba gear meaning the mask fins and snorkel and then the wet suit. Wow, that changed my whole composition of the allowable luggage! Now I suddenly had 30 kgs free baggage with only 25 Euros being necessary for the overweight sports gear. I love it that Germans are sports loving people who apparently do a heck of a lot of scuba diving. So after spending 15 minutes on the phone at a cheap 40pence per minute, I now have permission to bring the extra suitcase with my scuba gear and it won't cost me 120 Euros to get it to Berlin. I must remember to STOP buying the cheap tickets.