Vietnam Airlines to charge for oversized carry-on baggage at boarding gates

The acceptance and collection of fees for overweight or oversized carry-on baggage will follow specific regulations designed to ensure operational safety and service quality, according to the airline’s recent announcement.

In certain cases, excess carry-on items may be stored in the aircraft’s cargo hold or in the overhead compartments.

However, the airline will not accept any excess baggage if doing so affects the flight’s departure schedule.

Passengers will only be permitted to exceed the standard weight allowance by up to 10 kilograms if they can carry and arrange their own baggage.

Those requiring staff assistance will not be allowed to bring excess carry-on items.

Fees for excess carry-on baggage will be collected directly at the boarding gate.

Specifically, items that exceed the weight limit by up to 10 kilograms or surpass the number of allowed pieces by one item (up to 10 kilograms) will incur a fee equivalent to one checked baggage item purchased at the airport.

If the baggage exceeds standard size limits, passengers will be charged a fee equal to that for an oversized checked item.

For baggage that exceeds both weight and size limits, the fee will equal that of a bulky checked item at the airport.

According to Vietnam Airlines’ website, the fee for an additional checked bag on domestic flights starts from VND600,000 (US$22.7).

On international routes, fees vary by itinerary and are calculated in U.S. dollars.

For instance, on major domestic routes such as Ho Chi Minh City-Hanoi, one 23-kilogram piece of checked baggage costs about VND600,000, so passengers carrying excess hand baggage or one extra item will be charged VND600,000 per piece at the boarding gate.

Payment can be made by credit card, debit card, or in cash, depending on the payment facilities available at each airport.