Lessons Learned #4: AirBaltic... again.

courtesy of  http://www.fabbrunette.com

It was my first time flying AirBaltic when I departed Moscow for my 18 hour layover in Riga, with my destination being Oslo. I already had a small beef with AirBaltic (which was later, somewhat, forgiven). Ilya accompanied me to Sheremetyevo Airport. When I checked in, I took my checked baggage and  left my carry-on baggage with him so that I didn't need to unnecessarily lug it 10 meters to the counter when Ilya was waiting for me in the seating area. While standing in line awaiting my turn, I began to notice that the AirBaltic personnel were weighing carry-on baggage (which I have never seen before on other budget airlines), in addition to weighing checked baggage as usual. And they were very strict about their one carry on per passenger rule. I had small panic attacks in my head. My carry-on was 13 kilos- 5 kilos over the allowed weight- but at least I only had one carry-on. After personnel would weigh the carry-ons, passengers would basically receive a gold star in form of a neon-green strap to attach to their carry-on: "AirBalic approved" or whatever it said. There was no way that I was getting a green strap. After saying my thank yous and goodbyes to Ilya, I move on to the boarding area, where I had to torutre myself with passport/visa check, and another 40 minutes of waiting before boarding. The whole time I was still panicking about that weight allowance, especially because my bag wasn't glowing green from the strap that I didn't receive. I think I ended up chewing on about 5 or 7 fruit chews (a Russian equivalent to Starbursts) because of stress. 
What were the air stewardesses going to do? Were they going to turn me away? Charge me the unfair extra baggage fee (I think it was easily more than 60€)? Give me the usual "She's American" dirty look? The best that I could have hoped for was they they were going to just take it and put it with the rest of the checked baggage. I would have yelled at them for that (I really would have), though, because my cameras, laptop, and other very important items were inside.


Well, boarding the plane was flawless, and nothing happened. All that stress for nothing. Now all I had to do is worry about the second leg of the flight from Riga to Oslo. But nothing happened there either, because I had already checked in at Sheremetyevo, where I should have technically weighed my carry-on. 


Keep Calm and Carry On! I should have had that plastered on my hand or something.