DAWN NEESOM MIND OF MY OWN

The Woman's Own columnist on holiday baggage, school trips and British men

- 

When it comes to airlines and baggage, it’s one rule for one...

Going on holiday is meant to be a joy, isn’t it? The dreams of hot sunny days and sultry starlit nights. The floaty frocks you'll wear wafting around an exotic bazaar, the chilled cocktails sipped by an azure pool... and the sheer, abject terror of getting your luggage there without a second mortgage/selling the kids.

Because nothing strikes fear into the heart of the average British holiday maker than the sight of those hideous, metal measuring crates in airports that your bags must fit into. Contraptions usually stood over by a clipboard warrior armed with a tape measure and an officious, knowing smirk.

Even if you know that your luggage fits the dimensions of whatever airline you're flying with, you always break into a cold sweat and act like you're smuggling the spoils of the Brink’s-Mat robbery.

Which is probably what you'd have to hand over should your hand luggage be deemed 0.004cm too ‘large’ to go in the cabin and be consigned to the hold.