How to pack for Lufthansa, Austrian and SWISS fares

Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and SWISS run on the same booking platform and sell the same fare ladder, so learning one teaches you all three. The carry-on allowance is identical: one cabin bag up to 55 x 40 x 23 cm and 8 kg, plus a personal item up to 40 x 30 x 15 cm under the seat in front.

That allowance starts at Economy Light and holds all the way up, on short, medium and long-haul routes alike. There is no priority product to buy, no sizer bundle and no cabin bag fee. If your trip fits in a trolley, these fares are simpler than any low-cost equivalent.

One substitution is allowed. A folding garment bag may replace the trolley at up to 57 x 54 x 15 cm and the same 8 kg, which is useful if the trip is a wedding or a conference rather than a holiday.

The complexity on these carriers is entirely in the hold.

There is a tier below Economy Light, and it is the one exception to everything above.

Economy Basic is sold on a subset of routes as the deepest discount fare, and it includes only the personal item. No cabin trolley at all. Lufthansa's own baggage calculator excludes it from the standard free-baggage results, and Austrian states on its carry-on page that the Economy Basic fare on short and medium-haul flights includes only one personal item.

So on a route where Basic is offered, the cheapest ticket from a full-service airline gives you a 40 x 30 x 15 cm bag and nothing else.

It is easy to miss because the fare ladder on the booking page shows a price first and the contents second. Before you buy the cheapest column, check whether it is called Light or Basic. On these three carriers that single word is the difference between travelling with a trolley and travelling with a laptop bag.

The trap is the same on all three airlines, and the flight length does not rescue you.

Economy Light includes the cabin trolley and zero checked baggage. SWISS puts it plainly for both Basic and Light: the fare does not include any checked baggage. The same wording appears on its intercontinental page, so a Light fare to Asia or North America carries no bag either.

That is counter-intuitive because the default long-haul Economy tariff on all three carriers does include one 23 kg piece. The fare name overrides the flight length, not the other way round.

For a family this is the expensive moment. Four people flying a long-haul Economy Light itinerary with no bags included, then adding one each in both directions, are buying eight separate bag events at long-haul prices.

Check the fare name on a long-haul quote before you compare it with anything.

One bag, and then the same one bag again.

On European routes, Economy Comfort, Comfort Green and Flex all carry one piece up to 23 kg. SWISS publishes that grouping explicitly, and Lufthansa's own calculator groups the same three names together for baggage. They differ on change terms, refund terms and sustainable-fuel add-ons. They do not differ on luggage.

So paying up from Comfort to Flex buys you flexibility. It does not buy a second bag.

On long-haul routes the ladder opens up. SWISS publishes an intercontinental table of one 23 kg piece in Economy, two in Premium Economy, two at 32 kg in Business and three at 32 kg in First. European Business sits between: one 32 kg piece on the Business Comfort fare and two on Business Flex.

Austrian publishes only generic caps of 23 kg in Economy and 32 kg in Business, so its per-fare weights are read across from its sister airlines rather than from its own table.

The price is a banded table rather than a live auction, which makes it easier to plan than a low-cost fare.

For a cross-border European route, which is what every Sofia or Bucharest departure to another European country is, adding the first checked bag to Economy Light costs about €30 booked online eight or more days before departure, about €35 booked online inside the last seven days, and about €60 at the airport ticket or check-in counter.

Long haul is higher. The same first bag runs from about €65 to about €100, depending on channel and timing.

There is no cheaper domestic band available to you. A flight from Sofia or Bucharest to anywhere else in Europe always falls in the cross-border band, never the within-one-country one, so ignore the lower figures you may see quoted for German or Austrian internal flights.

SWISS states it directly on its own site: the baggage fee is charged for each leg. The Lufthansa Group documentation describes the fee as per route, which means the same thing.

Run that through a real trip. Two adults and two children flying Bucharest to a European city and back, on Economy Light, each with one checked bag, is eight chargeable bag events. At about €30 each that is €240. Left until the airport at about €60 each it is €480.

So the threshold is €60 a head, being one bag in each direction at the cheapest online price. If the Comfort fare costs less than that above Economy Light, it is the cheaper ticket rather than an upsell.

There is a sharper edge on connections. SWISS charges its excess fees per leg as well, so an itinerary whose legs sit more than 24 hours apart can attract the charge twice on one journey.

Count bags, then legs, then people. In that order.

Most of what these three airlines charge for luggage appears only inside a calculator. One table is an exception and it is worth remembering.

SWISS publishes a fixed excess baggage price for Europe: €50 if a bag is overweight or oversized, and €100 if it is both. Charged per leg, like everything else.

Austrian publishes the thresholds but not the money. Its excess baggage page gives the ranges, a bag between 158 and 292 cm in combined dimensions or between 24 and 32 kg, and then routes you to a calculator instead of printing a figure. Lufthansa's excess page does the same.

Above 32 kg no single bag is accepted at all on any of the three. It has to travel as air cargo.

So the practical planning number is 23 kg and 158 cm. Pack to that and none of the excess tables ever apply to you.

The saving here is structured rather than dynamic, which means you can capture it deliberately.

The cheapest tier is online, eight or more days before departure. Inside the last seven days the same bag costs about €5 more. At the airport counter it costs roughly double the cheapest online price.

That is different from Ryanair or Wizz Air, where the number moves with route and demand and no amount of planning pins it down. On these three the band is set by when and where you buy, so a decision taken at booking is worth a known amount.

For a family the arithmetic compounds: €30 saved per bag across eight bag events is €240 on one trip, for the work of deciding a week earlier.

If the trip is still uncertain, price the Comfort fare instead. A fare that includes the bag removes the deadline along with the fee.

Far enough to plan with, not far enough to quote as a guarantee, and it is worth saying which is which.

The rules are solid. Carry-on dimensions, the Economy Basic and Economy Light exclusions and the fare-family names were read off the airlines' own pages, and SWISS prints its per-fare table in full.

The euro amounts are weaker. The €30, €35 and €60 band comes from a Lufthansa Group fee sheet that names Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Eurowings and Brussels Airlines, dated November 2023 and marked subject to change. Third-party sources through 2026 report the same shape and rough magnitude, not the same cents. Neither Austrian nor SWISS prints a first-bag price of its own anywhere.

So treat these as the size of the bill rather than the bill. The exact figure appears in the baggage calculator against a real date, and that is the number to put beside a fare.