Baggage Allowance on Flights to India | The Complete Australian Guide
On the Australia to India route, baggage is not a footnote. It is frequently the line that decides which fare is genuinely cheaper, and it is the one thing the comparison sites are worst at showing you. Here is how it actually works.
The number that decides the fare
Two fares to Delhi, a modest gap between them. The cheaper one gives you 23kg. The dearer one gives you 30kg plus the meal you were going to buy anyway. For a family of four, that is 28 kilograms of difference, which is an entire extra suitcase, which costs more to add at the airport than the entire fare gap.
This is not an edge case on the Australia to India route. It is the normal case, and it is the single most common reason the fare that looks cheapest online is not the fare you should buy. The comparison sites are structurally bad at this: they sort by the number in the box, and the allowance is a footnote in a fare rule nobody clicks through to read.
We do it the other way around. On family bookings we shortlist by allowance first and price second, and every quote we send states your entitlement in writing before you pay anything. Ask us what your allowance actually is and you will have the real number within 2 business hours.
Weight concept versus piece concept
This is the distinction that catches people, and almost nobody knows it exists until the moment it costs them money.
Weight concept gives you a total: say 30kg, spread across your bags roughly as you please. Two bags of 15kg, or one of 20kg and one of 10kg, and the airline mostly cares about the sum. It is the system many Asian and Middle Eastern carriers use, and it is forgiving.
Piece concept gives you a number of bags, each with its own cap: say two bags at 23kg each. Your total might be 40kg, well under the 46kg you are entitled to, but if one of those bags is 25kg you have a problem, because the cap is per bag, not per person. It is the system many carriers based in Australia, Europe and North America use.
Both systems are on this route, sometimes on the same itinerary if it involves two airlines. That is the genuinely nasty case: your allowance can change mid-journey, and the leg with the tighter rule is the one that governs your packing. When your itinerary crosses systems, we tell you the binding number, which is always the smallest one.
There is a second wrinkle worth knowing. On many weight-concept airlines, families travelling together can pool their allowance, so the child who packed a swimsuit subsidises the adult who packed a wedding. It is common but it is not universal, so we confirm it rather than assume it.
What the airlines typically give you
Allowances vary by airline, by fare bucket and by cabin, and they change without much fanfare. So treat this as the shape of the market rather than a promise, and let us confirm your specific number in writing.
| Cabin | Typical range on this route | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Economy, cheapest fare buckets | Around 23kg to 25kg | The fares the comparison sites surface first. Often the false economy. |
| Economy, standard and flexible fares | Around 30kg, occasionally 35kg | The sweet spot for most family travel. Frequently only slightly dearer. |
| Premium economy | Around 28kg to 35kg | Plus a better seat. See our premium economy guide. |
| Business | Commonly 40kg or more | Plus priority handling, which matters at a busy Indian airport at 2am. |
The Air India profile and our other airline pages carry the carrier-specific detail. What no page can do honestly is publish a number that will still be true in six months, which is why the only allowance that counts is the one written into your quote.
Hand luggage, and where it gets enforced
Australians are used to relaxed cabin-baggage enforcement. Indian airports are not relaxed about it. The cabin bag limit on this route is usually lower than people expect, it is weighed, and it is weighed again at the gate.
Two practical consequences. First, do not plan to move the overflow into your cabin bag at check-in; that trick works in Australia and reliably fails on the return. Second, security screening in India removes things that Australian screening waves through. Power banks and spare lithium batteries must be in the cabin, never in the hold, and they get looked at. Certain satellite communication devices are prohibited in India outright, and drones face real restrictions. If you are carrying anything unusual, ask us before you pack it rather than after it is confiscated.
The wedding suitcase problem
Here is the trip that breaks every generic baggage rule ever written.
You are flying to a wedding. Outbound, the cases are full of gifts, formalwear and things people asked you to bring. Returning, they are full of sweets, fabric, jewellery and things nobody asked you to bring but which are now your responsibility. The bags go out heavy and come back heavier, and the fare you booked six months ago on the strength of a headline price gives you 23kg.
What we do with this, every wedding season:
- Ask honestly what is going in the bags, both directions. Nobody has ever regretted overestimating this.
- Shortlist by allowance. A fare that is modestly dearer with 10kg more included wins almost every time, and it wins before the excess counter is even involved.
- Buy the excess at booking if the return will be heavy. Prepaid excess costs a fraction of counter excess. This is not a small difference; it is the largest single saving available to a heavy traveller.
- Consider the cabin. On genuinely heavy trips, the business class allowance plus priority handling occasionally makes the upgrade cheaper than the alternative once excess is counted.
- Consider not flying it at all. Unaccompanied baggage and sea cargo exist. For a permanent move or a genuinely large shift of belongings, they beat airline excess comfortably, and they take weeks rather than hours.
Tell us what you are carrying and we will build the shortlist around it.
The order of operations for excess
If you know you will exceed your allowance, the price of that extra weight varies enormously depending on when you buy it:
- At booking, as part of the fare: cheapest, and sometimes free if the right fare bucket is chosen instead.
- Online, before departure: still a fraction of the airport rate. Most airlines let you add it up to a day or so out.
- At the airport counter: the most expensive kilograms in commercial aviation, bought under time pressure with a queue behind you.
The most common version of this mistake is the return leg. Travellers plan the outbound carefully, arrive in India, accumulate, and then discover the excess rate at a counter in Delhi at three in the morning. If there is any chance the return is heavy, arrange it before you leave Australia.
Getting it in writing, and why that matters
Every quote we send states the checked allowance, the cabin allowance and the binding number if your itinerary crosses two airlines with two systems. Not a link to a fare rule. The actual number, in the quote, before you pay.
That is a small thing that turns out to be a large thing, because baggage disputes happen at the worst possible moment: at a counter, with a flight leaving, with your family watching, in a country where you would rather not be arguing. Knowing your number before you pack removes the entire category of problem.
If you are comparing fares right now and the allowances are not visible, that is your answer about the fare, not about the airline. Send us the dates and we will price it properly, with the allowance stated, in Australian dollars, within 2 business hours. Or call 1800 865 126 and describe the suitcases; we have heard worse.