I've saved thousands in overweight baggage fees with this $8 luggage scale

• A portable luggage scale can help travelers avoid overweight baggage fees at the airport.
• The Travel Inspira Portable Luggage Scale is a small, digital device that weighs a suitcase by its handle.
• With over 13,500 reviews, customers praise the scale for its accuracy and portability for return trips.

Accurately weighing your checked bag has always been one of life’s biggest mysteries. Do you do the “weigh yourself on a scale then add the bag” method or do you just put your bag sideways on the scale by itself? What happens when the bag is too big for the scale? Plus, how accurate even is the former option?

With checked bags already costing a fortune, and overweight bags costing up to $100 more, its better to be safe than sorry. The entire checked bag challenge was completely changed for me when I discovered the Travel Inspira Portable Luggage Scale, which can be brought with you no matter where you’re going — and in the final hours of Amazon's Prime Day sale, costs less than $10.

What is the Travel Inspira Luggage Scale?

Travel Inspira Luggage Scale

Take the guesswork out of checked baggage weights with this handy scale on sale. Save at Amazon

This scale has become a packing essential of mine; the luggage scale is a small, portable scale that has a strap which wraps around the handle of your suitcase. Once you’ve hooked the strap around the handle, you lift the suitcase up and the digital scale will tell you how much the bag weighs.

Pro tip: I’ve been using this scaled for years now and highly recommend weighing your bag two to three times then averaging out those readings. Most of the time the scale gets the reading right on the first two tries, but I say it’s better to be safe than sorry.

What are customers saying about the travel baggage scale?

The luggage scale has over 13,500 reviews on Amazon with an average of 4.7-stars. “With this scale I can find out how much a piece of luggage weighs without any crazy hacks,” one Amazon reviewer who goes under the username Pauli wrote. “It is compact, easy to store in your own bags so you can weight for your trip back. I’ve had no issues with battery life so far, and it is easily accessible through a panel on the back.”

Other shoppers said the scale was especially helpful when flying back from their trip.

"We packed the small scale and took it with us since we knew we’d be bringing back souvenirs—and it paid for itself again on the return trip. We were able to rebalance everything before heading to the airport and avoided any surprise fees,” one shopper named Tony wrote.

When is the best time to buy the luggage scale?

The scale is on sale on Amazon Prime for under $10. Its not clear how long the sale will last, but Amazon Prime Day is running through June 26 so we recommend buying the scale now before Prime Day is over.