Good call Kitty, in that the "pay for baggage"has blurred the lines a lot.
Back in the day of the Mk1 F27 which had only 780 gals underwing and 810 gals overwing fuel capacity (and we often had to get Spud Whitely at Wynyard to wingwalk for the extra 30 gallons) we tried to get out ofweight problems by weighing the passengers (36 or 40 max) their bags and hand luggage.
It was quite amazing that the most you would win or lose was around 20kg total.
If the weight problem couldn't be solved quite often the Bomber Command boys and the ex New Guinea guys would modify the load and trim sheets themselves and roll zero flap wet power and if the girl didn't want to unstick they would crank 16 degrees of flap in an suddenly they were at 40 feet.
I was told it was the same in Goroka - just get airborne somehow by the end of the runway and put the nose down into the valley.
Where have those days gone. 200 feet coastal between DPO and WNY, follow the railway line and turn port 20 at the Spencer Division Hospital?
LCCs have thrown away a great deal of common sense for the sake of dollars.
Best all
EWL