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Please only answer if you have personal recent experience.
I am going to Israel from JFK on ELAL economy in a few weeks. I am trying to find out if I am allowed to carry on a personal item in addition to a carry on of 17lbs. Most airlines let you carryon a personal item. ELAL has no information about this on their website. I called information number on 2 different days and got two different answers. One person said I could not carry on a person item. The other person told me I could carry on a small bag like a camera bag, laptop bag or briefcase as long as it weighed less then 8 pounds. But they said they were not going to weigh it. This is in addition to my carry on that can be 17 pounds.
Please tell me of your experiences and also when you flew. Did they weigh your carryon bag?
Thank you
I flew from JFK to Tel Aviv on Elal in January of this year. I had a small rolling carry-on and a knapsack and I had no issue taking them both on the plane. Neither bag was weighed at any time.
sometimes they will weigh sometimes they won’t. whatever personal item you bring, make sure it doesn’t look!! bulky or heavy.
Why does it matter if they weigh it?
Midwood Yid, you are allowed one personal item such as a rolling suitcase, purse or laptop bag. Depends on who checks you in determines if they weigh it or not.
RebYidd23, a carry on can be upto 10 or 12 pounds. If its more they will make you check it in. If u already have a checked in bag you will have t pay. Sometimes these rolling carry ons are so heavy that they take up most of the allowed weight.
I have traveled to Israel many, many times in the last few years. More times than not, they have weighed my carry-on, so get the LIGHTEST piece of luggage you can. I personally use a nylon tote bag that weighs next to nothing and schlep it myself. They also will let you carry a small pocketbook AND/OR a laptop bag or a backpack, provided it is not too large and does not look too heavy, otherwise they WILL weigh it and take it away.
Personally, I always wear a coat with huge pockets and put the heavy stuff I need on the plane, in my pockets.
Remember, there is now a second security check at the gate and you will have to re-open your carry on bags at that time.
However, I have often seen women carrying a shaitel box or a man carrying a hat box in addition to the normal carryon items, and they seem to get away with it.
Just a piece of information, if you want/need your carryon above your head, you need to board EARLY, since everyone has so much stuff, plus winter coats & hats now, that have to be stored, otherwise the stewardesses will put your luggage whereever there is room, and you could be the last one off the plane (a serious problem with connecting flights)
Your carry on cannot weigh more than 8 kilo. On my way there from EWR I had to check it in as a second bag. On the way back, I had to shuffle some seforim from the carry on to the suitcase to satisfy the carry on weight cap of 8 kilo. This was Jan 28 to Feb 4 of this year. Todah
I’ve never heard of an airline that won’t allow a personal item (mine — which I’ve taken on El Al and other airlines — is my tallis bag, which in addition to tallis and tefillin contains seforim and an iPad). If it’s a normal size, I doubt if there would be a problem, but if your personal item is as big as everyone else’s carry on, or if you’re struggling to carry it because of its weight…
Incidentally, Delta has no weight limit on your carry on. I’ve had another airline weigh my carry on just to make sure it wasn’t way over weight (it was maybe 20% over, but that was OK with them).
From NY they weighed the carry-on and said it was overweight and I should put some stuff in the luggage that was going under the plane. Since I wanted those heavy books, I shtipped them into the laptop bag (which is not weighed) which was then bulging with books sticking out all over. After passing through I put the books back into the carry-on.
I just traveled El Al- I don’t believe they weighed my carryon. I took a duffel bag, a small backpack and a purse and had absolutely no problems.
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