Is it common to remove luggage for weight reasons?

Where do I stand as a customer when I've booked a flight home from Kefalonia including 23kg of luggage - but the airline deliberately left it behind due to the plane being overweight.

- Andy E

Is this common, and should I be compensated?

Airlines have strict rules about an aircraft's maximum takeoff weight (and on many other issues). Kefalonia is not a particularly long flight: about 1,400 miles to the London area, well within the range of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft used for such holiday trips. But I imagine there are other factors at work, ranging from high temperatures on the Greek island - which would make the air thinner and therefore reduce the maximum weight - to especially adverse headwinds en route to the UK.