Maths teacher finds a way through baggage maze

NEW YORK – A maths teacher in the US has designed a website to help air travellers avoid excess baggage fees.

Luke Dudley says the website enables travellers to find information about luggage limits on more than 50 airlines, to help them compare different policies.

The website, www.luggagelimits.com, allows the user to enter an airline, and the departure and arrival airports then uses that information to find the check-in and carry-on luggage policy for that flight, including size limits and costs.

It also includes details on different ticket class baggage policies including airline club benefits.

There are currently 55 major airlines and 3,000 airports on the website, but Dudley hopes to expand the information to include more airlines and more detailed destination information.

“Interpreting airline luggage policies from their websites can be daunting,” said Dudley who, as a boarding school Algebra teacher, took notice of this problem through students during the summer of 2008.

“Seeing the students travel to and from school on a regular basis with numerous items of baggage, and at a time when jet fuel and airline hidden fees were rapidly increasing, gave me the idea for an online resource that can help travellers avoid, or at least prepare for, these extra costs.”

Since its inception, the site has come to include more than 55 major carriers within the US, Canada and the UK, and approximately 3000 worldwide airports with airport-specific information.

The US carriers are only a starting point. Dudley plans to greatly expand the site’s capabilities in the future to include non-US carriers’ policies and more extensive destination information.