Guides · Weight & bags

Know your bag's weight before the airport

Updated July 2, 2026

You don't need a luggage scale to know if your bag will pass the airline check. Alba estimates your packed weight from the list itself — every item carries a typical weight for its kind, multiplied by how many you're bringing, plus the empty weight of your actual suitcase. The result is an honest "~7.2 / 23 kg" figure per bag that turns red only when you cross the limit, with suggestions for the way out.

Airline scales don't care how carefully you packed — 23.8 kg on a 23 kg allowance is a fee, a queue, and a public re-pack. The trick is knowing the number before you leave, and you can get surprisingly close without weighing anything: typical item weights are well known (a t-shirt ≈ 150 g, shoes ≈ 800 g, a laptop ≈ 1.4 kg), and the biggest blind spot — the empty suitcase itself, often 3–5 kg — is published on every manufacturer's spec sheet.

Alba does this arithmetic for you, live, as you pack. Each bag shows its estimated weight against its airline budget, and anything Alba can't price is listed as “not estimated” rather than quietly guessed — so the number is one you can actually trust.

Before you start

  • A trip in Alba with at least one bag added (the carry-on preset starts at 7 kg, check-in at 23 kg — both editable).

Step by step

  1. Add your bags. In the trip, add the bags you're flying with. Each preset carries a typical airline weight budget you can edit to match your ticket.
  2. Tell Alba which suitcase it is. Tap any weight to open the Weight sheet, then “Which bag is it?”. Pick your model from the luggage catalog — Away, Rimowa, Samsonite, July, Monos and more, each with its spec empty weight — or type the empty weight by hand. Airline scales weigh the bag too, so this is what makes the number honest.
  3. Pack normally. As you tick items off, each bag's estimate updates live: typical weight per item, times how many you're bringing. Eight pairs of socks weigh eight times as much — counts matter, and Alba tracks them.
  4. Watch the budget line. Each bag shows “~6.2 / 7 kg” against its limit and turns red only when you cross it. Anything Alba can't price shows as “not estimated” instead of being folded invisibly into the total.
  5. Lighten an over-limit bag. If a bag goes over, tap “Lighten it”. Alba ranks the cheapest ways out first: wear the heavy jacket on the flight, move items to a bag with room, take 6 shirts instead of 8 — and only as a last resort, leave something home. Every suggestion shows exactly how much it saves.
  6. Plan the flight home. Shopping at the destination? Set a reserve in the Weight sheet and Alba projects your “coming home” weight — including anything you've marked as picking up there — and warns if the return leg would blow your limits.

Questions & troubleshooting

How accurate is a weight estimate without a scale?

Close enough to matter. Typical per-item weights are deliberately a touch conservative, and the two big error sources — the empty suitcase and item counts — are exactly what Alba pins down: the suitcase from manufacturer specs, the counts from your list. What can't be priced is surfaced as “not estimated” rather than guessed, so you know how firm the number is.

How much does an empty suitcase weigh?

More than most people budget for: a typical hard-shell carry-on is 3–4 kg and a large check-in case 4–5 kg — a fifth of a 23 kg allowance gone before you pack a sock. Lightweight models (like a July Carry On Light at about 1.8 kg) exist precisely because of this.

What's the fastest way to get an overweight bag under the limit?

Wear your heaviest wearables on the flight — a winter jacket and boots can move over a kilo off the scale for free. After that: shift items to a bag with headroom, and trim counts (six shirts usually survive a week as well as eight).

Can I see weights in pounds?

Yes — Alba shows weights in kilograms or pounds, your choice, including the bag limits you type in.

Do things I buy at the destination count?

On the way home, yes — and that's the leg that catches people. Alba lets you reserve shopping space up front and mark items as “picking it up there”, then projects the return weight separately from the outbound one.

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Ready to pack? Get Alba — free on iPhone and Android. Questions? Email travel@withalba.app.