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I am looking for a flight search engine that includes a luggage calculator in the price. I recently booked a trip and had the choice between two carriers at the time, and not feeling very stupid I chose the cheaper one.

The crux is that after I had paid I found out that the more expensive airline had vastly different rules for baggage. In fact it allowed twice the amount of baggage without extra charge.

After having found the price for extra luggage very extreme I had already decided I will send the extra baggage as separate freight, because the speed is not important. But of course had I known this from the start I could have saved myself a lot of work and money.

I am aware that this information can be found on respective carrier website, but even within a single company it can differ from route to route. Would be handy if I didn't have to try and calculate it all myself.

So my question is simply, is there any flight search engine/price comparison site where I can also enter my total baggage needs to have it included in the price comparison between carriers?

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  • Checked or carry-on? International intercontinental, short-range, domestic (which routes)? Only for 0-1 checked bags? (fees for 2nd checked bag can be higher)? Do you need to see the weight limit for checked bag? (these can vary a lot, by carrier, ticket class and route). Also for 1 carry-on baggage? (yes some low-budget airlines charge for that too, and/or impose severe size and weight limits, depending on class of ticket)
    – smci
    Dec 8, 2019 at 2:06

5 Answers 5

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Beat That Flight does this (disclaimer: I run it)

Example: LAX to SFO

on the left of the screen, you can select without baggage, or with luggage and carry-on.

enter image description here

Older answer: Sort of. You could use FlightFox which allows you to specify your terms (date, cities, etc) and one of the options is whether or not you have baggage. It's up to the experts on the site then to find you the cheapest WITH baggage.

I did this recently for several flights around NZ/Aus, where there are airlines like Virgin or Jetstar, all of whom charge extra for baggage, so look cheap at first. Each of the experts that submitted flights to me all correctly took this into account, and specified that they'd done so. So it seems pretty reliable. Of course, being done by humans and not computer, caveat emptor and all that, you should still double check yourself.

note - around this time I actually joined Flightfox as an expert 'flight hunter'.

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    Well then, FlightFox it is! I need to remember to remember to post a new answer to this in the future when someone does include this feature in a regular search engine heh :D
    – Alendri
    Oct 3, 2012 at 18:52
  • Did you use to work for FlightFox?
    – Andrew Grimm
    Aug 6, 2017 at 23:12
  • @AndrewGrimm ages ago, yes, as one of their 'experts'. Take this to Travel Chat though if you want to ask more :)
    – Mark Mayo
    Aug 7, 2017 at 6:19
  • you have to pay for FlightFox where you book with them or not.
    – user128315
    May 15, 2022 at 15:53
  • How to do a one-way flight on Beat That Flight?
    – Tom Hale
    Jul 26, 2022 at 3:04
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This question is five years old, so the "state of the art" may have advanced significantly for lots of engines, but I've noticed that at least Kayak allows you to specify how much baggage you have. Unfortunately, it doesn't mention in-flight meals, which is another way they can slug you.

Example link to a query

Note: As of 2019 this feature works on Kayak.com, but not on some of their other international sites.

enter image description here

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  • Fee Calculator shows only Payment fees, not Baggage fees, for me.
    – gerrit
    Nov 14, 2017 at 19:19
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    @gerrit this no longer works on the Australian website, but works on the .com version. Weirdly in July 2017 it worked on the Australian site, but not on the American one :)
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Apr 4, 2019 at 19:08
  • I'm trying the .com version right now, from Korea. While it looks like it works, when I actually get to the site and select my luggage needs and enter stuff into all the compulsory fields, I finally find out the actual price is still about double the price the Kayak told me it found )-:
    – hippietrail
    Aug 15, 2019 at 12:19
  • I've noticed that sometimes when you change the bags setting, Kayak fails to update the price. Another irritation to watch out for is that when you change dates or airports or times, or sort criteria, Kayak clears the bags settings back to zero.
    – WGroleau
    May 15, 2022 at 16:17
  • Note that it says Baggage per passenger, so you can't have 2 adults and 1 checked bag. For that, see the answer for kiwi.com.
    – Tom Hale
    Jul 26, 2022 at 3:05
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Kiwi.com (formerly skypicker.com) allow filtering searches by bags:

  1. Click on these icons above the destination:

Click here

  1. Then you'll see:

Bag search

This is one of the only options that allows you to have say 2 adults and 1 checked bag. Kayak (for example) only allows searching "Baggage per passenger".

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Momondo.com allows searching for bags, but it's per-passenger: you can't do 2 people with one checked bag.

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+100

Maybe not exactly what you asked for, but makes searching a little easier: on Fareboom when you go into details of a specific result, you can click and have it show something like: Free Baggage: 20 kg

Doesn't allow to enter your luggage mass in the search form, but at least you don't have to visit each carrier website to find out.

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    Fareboom was new to me, so I tried it. The form asks for "city or country" but if I put in Spain to USA, the pop-up is "please select a valid airport or city." Put in two airports, maximum radius, and month of June, and I get "those airports don't qualify for the whole month option."
    – WGroleau
    May 11, 2016 at 11:39
  • @WGroleau: so just select sample cities like MAD-JFK or whatever, as a guideline, to see the numbers.
    – smci
    Dec 8, 2019 at 0:57
  • No thanks. Some of the others are starting to figure in rates with bags.
    – WGroleau
    Dec 9, 2019 at 0:05

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