How to pack for Turkish Airlines and flydubai

Turkish Airlines is the most generous carrier on these routes and the least discussed, because there is little to buy.

Its own fare rules page states that the cheapest international Economy fare, called Promotion, includes at least 20 kg of checked baggage, which may vary by destination. That is the fare a Sofia or Bucharest traveller sees as the lowest price to Istanbul and beyond.

The cabin allowance is separate and unusually clear. One bag of 55 x 40 x 23 cm at 8 kg, plus a personal item of 40 x 30 x 15 cm at 4 kg. The personal item is carried in addition to the cabin bag, not instead of it, which is not true of every airline on this list. Business Class takes two 8 kg cabin pieces plus the personal item.

So on Turkish the planning question is whether 20 kg is enough, not what a bag costs.

Both airlines here use what the industry calls a weight concept, and it behaves differently from the piece concept most European carriers use.

A weight concept pools your allowance across your bags. Turkish gives you a total in kilograms. flydubai lets you spread its total over up to three pieces, with no single piece over 32 kg. A piece concept instead gives you a fixed number of bags, each capped separately, so a bag that is 2 kg over triggers a charge even if another bag is half empty.

The consequence is a different packing method. Under a weight concept there is no advantage in splitting into two bags, and no penalty for one heavy case up to the piece ceiling. Under a piece concept, balance matters.

Turkish switches to piece concept on the Americas and on some interline itineraries, and flydubai can switch on a codeshare sector. So check the ticket, not the airline.

This is the most common misreading of Turkish Airlines, and it comes from comparison sites rather than the airline.

The fare names EcoFly, ExtraFly and PrimeFly are Turkish's domestic brands, sold on flights within Turkey. Their checked allowances run 15, 20 and 25 kg. Those names will not appear on your ticket from Sofia.

An international ticket from Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas or Bucharest uses a different, non-branded structure: Promotion, Semi-flexible and Flexible in Economy, with Business Promotions, Business Semi-Flexible and Business Flexible above them.

All three Economy fares carry the same baggage row on Turkish's own comparison table: at least 20 kg, which may vary by destination. What the higher fares buy is date-change and refund flexibility.

So if a guide quotes you an EcoFly allowance for a flight out of Sofia, it is quoting the wrong table. Read the international row.

Here the sources split, and it is worth knowing which half is which.

Turkish's own page gives one figure for international Economy: at least 20 kg, with the caveat that it varies by destination. That is what the airline publishes and the only number it stands behind.

Third-party sources consistently report 30 kg as the standard weight-concept Economy allowance on Turkish's long-haul flying to Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We could not find that figure stated anywhere on turkishairlines.com.

So plan the trip on 20 kg and treat anything above it as a bonus you confirm against your own booking. If you are packing for a three-week trip where the difference decides whether you pay, open the booking and read the allowance on the ticket rather than trusting either number here.

One hard limit applies whatever the concept: no single piece may exceed 32 kg, and anything heavier travels as cargo.

Turkish does not sell a flat add-a-bag product on the weight-concept routes that cover Bulgaria and Romania. There is no button that says one more bag for a fixed price.

Instead, extra or overweight kilograms are priced through Turkish's own online baggage calculator, and the rate moves with route, date and how close to departure you buy. Third-party aggregators report roughly €8 to €32 per kilogram. Turkish publishes no fixed table, and that range could not be verified for a specific Sofia or Bucharest departure, so treat it as indicative rather than a price.

What Turkish does publish is that buying in advance is cheaper, with up to a 25 per cent discount for online purchase, and that excess fees can change up to eight hours before the flight.

One figure is fixed. Oversized baggage, between 158 and 292 cm in total dimensions, costs a flat $110 on flights touching Turkey and $150 on flights that do not. Turkish quotes those in dollars on its own site.

Turkish operates AJet as a separate low-cost brand, rebranded from AnadoluJet, and none of the allowances above apply to it.

AJet's Basic fare includes only a small personal item. No cabin bag and no checked bag on international routes. The cabin bag itself is sold separately, at roughly €12 bought online and roughly €50 at the gate.

That is a stricter model than Ryanair or Wizz Air, both of which at least carry a free under-seat bag on the cheapest fare.

The risk is not the policy, it is the mistaken assumption. A fare search that shows a low price to Istanbul may be showing you an AJet-operated flight while your mental model is running on Turkish Airlines defaults, where a 20 kg bag is included.

Check the operating carrier before you compare the price. On these routes it is the single most consequential line on the booking page.

flydubai includes hand baggage on all fares, Lite included: one bag of 55 x 38 x 20 cm at 7 kg. Business Class takes two bags of 7 kg each, same dimensions per piece.

The personal item is less clear and worth planning conservatively. flydubai describes one of a laptop bag, a small handbag or a satchel, carried as part of your hand baggage allowance. That wording does not say whether it sits on top of the 7 kg or inside it, and flydubai publishes no separate weight for it.

So pack as though the personal item counts towards the 7 kg. If it turns out to be extra, you have lost nothing. If you pack the other way round and it is not, you are repacking at a desk in Sofia.

Seven kilograms is tight for a Gulf trip in either direction, which is why the hold question below matters more on flydubai than it does on Turkish.

The fare ladder is simple and the bottom rung is strict.

Lite is hand baggage only. Zero checked allowance, and it is the most locked-down ticket here: neither rebooking nor cancellation is permitted at any price. Value includes 20 kg. Flex includes 30 kg plus seat selection and free rebooking and cancellation. Business includes 40 kg.

Every checked allowance above Lite is pooled and can be spread across up to three pieces, with no single piece over 32 kg.

The oversize threshold changes with the concept, which catches people on connections. On flydubai's own metal, under the weight concept, the limit is 203 cm in combined dimensions. On an interline or codeshare sector running under a piece concept, it drops to 150 cm, and a bag between 150 and 203 cm is charged as oversized.

So a case that is fine on the Dubai leg can be oversized on the partner leg of the same journey.

This is the honest gap and it is better to say so than to quote a number that came from somewhere else.

flydubai's own site states only that the cost of adding checked baggage varies by departure date, route and time of purchase, and that you must check it at booking or through Manage Booking. No fixed figure exists for a Sofia or Bucharest departure.

What is published helps a little. flydubai's airport baggage rate table puts Sofia and Bucharest in the same zone, Zone 8, so excess costs the same from either city relative to Dubai. The airline says buying online is up to 70 per cent cheaper than other channels. And the online window is generous: at booking, through Manage Booking up to six hours before departure, or during online check-in between 48 and six hours out.

So the saving is real and the amount is unknowable in advance. Price it inside the booking flow, on your dates.

One flydubai fee sits outside everything above and it is the one that surprises people at the gate.

If your hand baggage is caught oversized or overweight at the boarding gate, flydubai charges AED 200, quoted as $55 on its own page and around €50. That is per item, and it is on top of any excess baggage fee already paid at the check-in desk.

So a passenger who paid for a hold bag at the desk and then boarded with a heavy cabin bag can be charged twice on one flight, for two different bags.

Seven kilograms is easy to exceed without noticing. A laptop, a charger, a camera and a pair of shoes will do it.

Weigh the cabin bag at home. It is the only one of these charges that is entirely avoidable with a bathroom scale, and it is the one most likely to catch a traveller used to European carriers that rarely weigh hand luggage.