TUI fly Hand Luggage 2026: Free 40x30x20 Bag & Fees

Every TUI fly ticket includes one free "small hand luggage" of 40 × 30 × 20 cm (15.7 × 11.8 × 7.9 in) — one item per person from age 2, and it must fit under the seat in front of you. TUI fly publishes no weight limit for it, and the official page states it is "always allowed in the cabin" — a firmer promise than most airlines put in writing. Official examples include a rucksack, laptop bag, handbag or camera bag.

For flight-only Economy tickets booked after 30 March 2026 and departing from 1 May 2026, that small bag is the entire free allowance. The 55 × 40 × 20 cm, 10 kg "large hand luggage" is now a paid add-on from ~€20 — unless you booked a package holiday or a Fly Deluxe fare, which still include it.

This page covers TUI fly Belgium (tuifly.be), whose policy is shared with TUI fly Netherlands and partner Freebird. If you booked on tui.co.uk, different rules apply — untangled two sections down.

Because the freebie has been shrinking for a decade, one bag at a time. TUI fly's own 2016 fee sheet included a 20 kg checked suitcase with every ticket. By 2019 the suitcase cost extra. Since 1 May 2026, even the 55 × 40 × 20 cm cabin trolley costs extra on flight-only Economy — from ~€20 one-way. Ten years of TUI fly generosity now fits in a 40 × 30 × 20 box. Luckily, so does our backpack.

The official rationale is smoother boarding and punctuality: fewer trolleys competing for lockers means fewer gate-side negotiations. The announcement came in early April 2026, with the change applying to bookings made after 30 March 2026 for departures from 1 May 2026.

The grandfathering matters: if you booked before 30 March 2026, or you fly before 1 May 2026, both bags are still free on your ticket. So this summer, the passenger next to you may legitimately carry a free trolley you'd have to pay ~€20 for. Different booking dates, different rules, same overhead locker.

One brand name, three different rulebooks — and most English-language "TUI hand luggage" guides quietly describe the UK one. Check which website sold you the ticket before you pack.

TUI Airways UK (tui.co.uk) still includes a 55 × 40 × 20 cm, 10 kg cabin bag plus a small under-seat personal item free on every booking as of July 2026. TUI fly Germany (tuifly.com) went the other way in November 2023: its cheapest fares include only a 40 × 30 × 20 cm bag capped at a maximum of 2 kg — roughly the weight of a hardback and a sandwich.

TUI fly Belgium (tuifly.be, this page) sits in between: the free bag is the same 40 × 30 × 20 cm, but with no weight limit at all. So a 2026 guide promising you a "free 10 kg TUI cabin bag" is describing the UK — pack to it on a Brussels flight-only ticket and you're ~€20 short at booking, or considerably more at the airport.

The large hand luggage (55 × 40 × 20 cm, max 10 kg, overhead locker) costs from ~€20 one-way — TUI's own example is Brussels–Malaga at ~€20 per person per flight — with long-haul routes priced higher. It is sold only during booking; prices move by route and date, and it stays included with package holidays and Fly Deluxe fares.

Pre-booked checked baggage runs from ~€32 to ~€77 per one-way depending on weight tier (20–50 kg) and route; Deluxe fares include 25 kg. Maximum 32 kg per piece, and Antwerp departures are capped at 25 kg. Baggage can be added online up to 12 hours before departure.

At the airport, an unbooked checked bag is ~€50 (EU/Med) or ~€60 (long-haul), and every kilo above a pre-booked allowance costs ~€17–22. All figures from the official tuifly.be rate pages, verified July 2026 — the free 40 × 30 × 20 bag remains the only number on this page that costs nothing.

Historically, TUI fly was the softest enforcer among Europe's holiday carriers — famously so. In July 2019 the airline publicly admitted its cabin-bag standards "were not rigorously implemented" at check-in, and its response wasn't fines but an awareness campaign: airport posters, brochures and social media politely re-explaining what 55 × 40 × 20 cm means. Seven years of pedagogy later, they reached for the price gun instead.

That era is ending. With the May 2026 change, TUI fly announced stricter gate checks — the free trolley is gone, so the sizer now protects revenue. Traveller reports say sizers appear mainly on busy summer departures, the 10 kg cap on the paid bag is weighed and treated as firm, and enforcement varies by airport and staff — which is exactly why the airport you fly from is not a variable worth planning around.

Here's the comfort: the entire gate drama concerns the big bag. Your free 40 × 30 × 20 cm under-seat item has no weight limit and is contractually "always allowed in the cabin" — a bag genuinely inside that size has nothing to discuss with anyone.

Oversized or overweight hand luggage "will be refused at the gate and can be transported in the hold at an additional cost" — TUI fly's wording, not ours. And here's the trap: the ~€20 trolley add-on is sold only during booking. The official FAQ is blunt — buying it at the airport "is no longer possible." Turn up with an unbooked 55 × 40 × 20 trolley and it flies as hold baggage; budget ~€50 versus the ~€20 it would have cost at booking, while you watch it leave on the belt.

If you did pre-book checked baggage, the trolley's weight is simply added to your allowance and you pay only the excess kilos, at ~€17–22 per kg.

One genuinely odd mercy: if the overhead lockers fill up, compliant hand luggage goes into the hold free of charge. So the ~€20 buys locker priority, not certainty — call it the ~€20 lottery. The under-seat 40 × 30 × 20 cm spot is the only one nobody can raffle away.

In your free bag — legally, and by instruction. Loose lithium batteries and power banks are banned from checked baggage, and TUI fly's own baggage page tells passengers to carry them "in your personal item that you are allowed to bring on board." Since May 2026, on a flight-only Economy ticket, that personal item is the 40 × 30 × 20 cm bag: the one guaranteed cabin home your electronics have.

This is where the no-weight-limit detail earns its keep. Batteries, chargers, a camera and a laptop are dense — a paid 10 kg trolley budget disappears fast, but the free under-seat bag has no scale waiting for it at all. Pack the heavy electronics there and let physics work for you for once.

Our compression backpack was built for exactly this load-out: a padded sleeve takes a 14–15 inch laptop (roughly 95% of laptops), and the two hardshell halves keep dense packing from bulging the outside past the published 40 × 30 × 20 cm.

Not this year, and less than the headlines promise. The European Parliament approved the EU's revised air-passenger-rights rules on 7 July 2026, by 646 votes to 12, and the Council gave its final green light on 13 July — the act is adopted, with the rules applying from roughly mid-2027. Their guaranteed floor: a free under-seat personal item of at least 40 × 30 × 15 cm for every passenger.

TUI fly's free bag already beats that floor by 5 cm of depth, so nothing about the 40 × 30 × 20 allowance on this page changes. The approved text also adds a second free small hand-luggage piece — up to 100 cm in summed dimensions and 7 kg — but that is smaller and lighter than the 55 × 40 × 20 cm, 10 kg trolley TUI fly sells for ~€20, and how carriers fold the clause into 2027 fare tables is exactly the fine print still being argued over. Treat any "the EU already made cabin bags free" headline as roughly a year early — adopted, yes; in force, not yet.

Practical conclusion: 40 × 30 × 20 cm is the number to engineer around, on TUI fly and beyond — it exceeds the incoming EU floor and matches the free allowance on Ryanair, Wizz Air, Vueling and Volotea. One bag built to it works everywhere the rule does.