Travel question of the day: Simon Calder on Small Planet Airlines' lateness and luggage allowance

Have a travel question that needs answering? Ask our expert Simon Calder

Some airlines allow two passengers to pool their luggage allowances (Dan Kitwood/Getty)

Q We are going on a package holiday in a couple of weeks with Olympic Holidays and have a query about our luggage. Our luggage allowance is 15kg each and we wondered if we could take one suitcase weighing up to 30kg between us? We don't want to do this and get to the airport check-in and be told we can’t.

We have asked Olympic and also Small Planet Airlines (who our flight is with) this question but either we don't get a response or the telesales people don't seem to have an answer. Can you help?

Also we have tracked our Small Planet flight this summer and it is always late. Are they a reliable airline and why are they late each week?

Kathryn Currey

A Many airlines allow luggage allowances to be pooled by people on the same booking, but they stipulate different maximum weight limits: 32kg for easyJet and Ryanair, 30kg for Thomas Cook, 23kg for Thomson.

Small Planet Airlines – based in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius – also allows this, so you can happily pack a single bag of 30kg.

Regarding Small Planet’s reliability, the airline says on its website: “We always have a back-up aircraft ready on a stand-by to mitigate long delays. We have 25 per cent less long delays (over 3 hours) than industry average.” But a spokesperson confirmed to me that the summer had not been problem-free: "Recent delays happened due to unexpected technical maintenance of one of our aircraft based in Manchester.

"We are still experiencing schedule turbulences due to the unfortunate technical breakdown at the beginning of August, when some of the flights were delayed by 38 hours, but we’re getting back on track as fast as we can and expect our operations to normalize soon."

Olympic Holidays says: “Small Planet is building itself a reputation for going that extra mile with its first class on-board service.”

If you arrive at your destination three hours or more late, then the airline owes you €400 in compensation – unless it can demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances” were responsible. And technical problems do not count as "extraordinary".

Every day, our travel correspondent, Simon Calder, tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder