Overcharged for Excess Baggage?

[cloudey]

Hi, I recently flew from BHX-FRA using Lufthansa, however whern checking in my luggage found it weighed 22.6kg - 2.6kg over the free luggage limit. The check-in person quickly tagged the bag and made me weigh my hand luggage - which has not happened before. She then told me the excess baggage would cost ₤39. I asked if I could take something out of my luggage and she said no. I was polite the whole time and paid up - however I cant help feeling ripped off.

I flew previosuly on a STN-NUE flight using Air Berlin and was chaged the same amount for 12kg of excess baggage - which I thought was fair enough.

I understand that the line must be drawn somewhere, but 2.6kg really is a small amount of weight, and I am not happy that the charge was rounded also, seems very harsh when I could have booked another seat + baggage allowance for not much more than the added weight equivalent to a bulky book.

[Final 3 Greens]

Did you ask her why she said no, you can't unpack anything?

She may have been trying to be helpful in weighing your hand luggage, to see if you could shift a couple of kilos across, but have found that you were up at the limit and therefore the'no' was a practical answer.

£39 does seem a lot to pay though.

Read the link below, I would have expected you to pay 30€, assuming that your hand baggage stayed as hand baggage and was not checked in.

Lufthansa - Excess and special baggage (http://www.lufthansa.com/online/portal/lh/us/info_and_services/baggage?nodeid=1769640&l=en)

If you have the receipt, maybe a letter and request for a refund would be in order.

[FlyingRabbit]

a couple of months ago Delta tried to charge me US$300 for an excess of 2lbs over the 70-lbs limit on a flight from ATL to GIG. I took the bag away, removed the extra weight to my hand luggage and went back to check it. Inside the plane, my seatmate was telling me how she had to pay the $300 for her excess. Quite a rip-off in my opinion.

[Globaliser]

Inside the plane, my seatmate was telling me how she had to pay the $300 for her excess. Quite a rip-off in my opinion.At least she had the option. The bag would simply have been rejected in many places, where a 32kg absolute limit applies.

[tezzer]

Was £1800 from Manchester to Johannesburg, with Emirates, and that was with 2 of us "pooling" our Business class allowance and my Skywards gold allowance.

That receipt took some getting past the boss on return.

Did a Doncaster to Dublin with Ryanair a couple of weeks ago, and that was £300 each way Excess baggage, on a tickest that cost £50 or so !

[A2QFI]

Time was when the charge was standardised at 1% of the First Class fare for the sector/per Kilo. That was a lot but I think anybody can charge what they like now, so long as the charges are known and publicised.

[VAFFPAX]

Virgin Atlantic and BA both publicise their excess baggage fares on their websites. So do Ryanair and Easyjet.

That's where you have to work out how much baggage you're likely to take with you, and then add any excess luggage costs to the ticket fare. Then see what is cheaper.

S.