Can I Weigh My Luggage at the Post Office?

When you have booked your flight, made your hotel reservations, and finished your vacation planning the only thing left to do is pack your luggage. Most people do not think to add the price of their luggage into their vacation budgets. This oversight can be very costly.

The majority of airlines have a carry-on weight limit of about 25 lbs. The weight limit for normal luggage is usually 50 lbs. If your luggage weighs more than 50 lbs. the price of flying it to your destination goes up tremendously.

The Average Checked Bag Prices

  • The first checked bag is going to cost you around $30 if it weighs 50 lbs. or less and is  62” or less.
  • The second checked bag will cost you $40 if it weighs 50 lbs. or less and is 62” or less.
  • The third checked bag will cost you $150 if it weighs less than 50 lbs. and is 62” or less.
  • The fourth checked bag will cost you $200 if it weighs less than 50 lbs. and is 62” or less.
  • A bag that weighs between 51 lbs. and 70 lbs. will cost you $150 to check and it must still be 62” or less. This is the price for the 1st overweight bag, if you have more than one the price increases just like it does for baggage that weighs fifty pounds or less.
  • A bag that weighs between 71 lbs. and 100 lbs. will cost you $200 to check and it still has to measure 62” or less.
  • If your luggage measures larger than 62” it will cost you $200 to check your bag.

In order to make sure that baggage fees don’t take all of your money, you need to weigh your baggage before you go to the airport.

A lot of people ask if they can weigh their luggage at the Post Office prior to going to the airport. The reason that the post office ships parcels so they have scales to weigh those items with.

The United States Postal Service does ship parcels, and they do have scales to weigh packages with, but the sad news for airline travelers is that the scales at the post office are not equipped to weigh the heavier packages. You might be able to weigh the luggage that you want to use as carry-on luggage, but the normal packages are too large for the post office scales.

When people need to ship large or heavy packages they use specialty shipping companies like UPS, FedEx and more. These companies do have scales that will weigh the larger packages. There is a possibility that you could go to one of these shipping companies and ask them to weigh your luggage for you. Whether or not they will actually do this for you will depend on how generous and friendly the person at the shipping company is. Weighing packages that are not being shipped by their company is not something they normally do.

You want to know before you leave for the airport how heavy your luggage is so you can try weighing on your bathroom scales, then stepping off of the scales and weighing again while you hold your luggage. This will only be a weight estimate because the baggage will actually be off to one side of you and this causes you to be out of balance and stops the scales from getting a precise weight reading.

You can ask a local veterinarian if they will allow you to come to weigh your luggage on their scales. The veterinarian scales are generally flat so they are easy to set luggage on top of, and they will usually weigh things as heavy as $200 lbs. The problem with this idea is that you have to find a veterinary office that will agree to let you weigh your luggage at their office, load the luggage in your car, then drive to the veterinarian’s office, unload the luggage and weigh it, then load it back into the car. That is a lot of work to get the weight of your luggage.

The best solution for knowing what your luggage weighs prior to going to the airport is for you to have a set of scales that are designed to weigh luggage and packages with. These scales will give you precision weights so you will have no surprises when you get to the airport.

2 thoughts on “Can I Weigh My Luggage at the Post Office?”

  1. Thank you for the thorough info. Are there not scales that can be bought? I’ve seen some used that have a hook to put luggage on then scale that looks like a clock under it.

    Reply

Leave a Comment