That'll be $28 thanks
 

Noted at a Jet* check in recently. Pax was 4 kg over and was hit for the $7 a kilo excess baggage surcharge. First time Ive seen this when only "just" over the domestic 20 kg limit. Is there a tolerance or is this now an industry SOP where the customer pays ... and pays again? Certainly more profitable than hawking trolley loads of aviation trivia up and down the aisle. Maybe I need to get out more or check in with 21kg and see what happens!

DogGone;)

Whilst 4kg might just "be over", I wonder what the technical ramifications ie the good ole weights and balances etc are if say a full busload of passengers each had 4kg extra, which on 150 pax equates to 600kgs extra.
Any bus drivers care to comment on that?????

And if memory serves me correctly, Jetstar are quite clear at time of booking that it is only 20kgs per passenger. If they tick the box re conditions etc then they've read em.
No with your leave here your honour.

And BD, agree 600kgs @$7 would be a much better earner than the trolley.

Cabin Baggage
 

Took a flight on a Friday evening recently from one capital city to another. Not the last to board by any means but the scene reminded me of flying in Europe. People coming on with laptop computers, overnight bags, and hang-up bags. By the time I got on there was only space available for storage under the seat in front. Only thing not carried on board was the live chickens and the odd ass or two. Come to thing of it, maybe one or two of the latter in the walking freight. :rolleyes:

Apparently anything over 4 kilos in excess the staff recieve commission on! So also thats extra excentive to keep an eye on baggage :hmm:

Still a moot point, since a 120kg rigpig will pay the same for its seat as a 60kg grandmother.

Why should she then be penalised should her total weight (her 60kg + say 25kg of baggage) still be only 70% of the rigpig's basic weight, or even 60% if he/it has the allowable 20kg of baggage?

There is commonsense, and then there is pure greed :=

Sorry, but punters know the baggage allowance and if it's over 20 kgs make'm pay. :ok:

Its seems to be becoming quite common with A320 operators

Try flying to NZ on an Air NZ A320. 20kgs each max. So when you show up with ski's, snow board or mountain bike for your adventure holiday you had better have your check book on you.

Most pax get caught out thinking the usual international 32kgs limit applies :yuk:

they have learnt from
 

ryanair, which 15 % of its revenue (and climbing)comes from excess baggage.:=

Understand that companies may wish to charge for excess baggage and thats understandable.
Just wondering how often the airport scales are checked by the appropriate weights and mesures authority.
If your charging based on that weight must be approved for trade and checked.
Think a guy got off a parking fine a while back by showing that the time clock in the parking meter hadn't been calibrated and could have been inaccurate. You also see stickers on fule pumps and supermarket scales showing when they were checked for accuracy. What a nice little earner a 10% error could be. Weigh your bags when you get home.

Two weeks ago I paid Aus$1,375 excess baggage on 45 kg, Brisbane to Hong Kong. It would probably have been cheaper if the two of us upgraded to Business Class with the higher baggage allowance or sent the additional cargo by air freight.

It's a low cost airline so what do you expect. They're making very little profit on the tickets and try to make it up in other ways such as food sales and yes, excess baggage.

Regular airlines often turn a blind eye to an extra few kilos, but they make up for it in the ticket price. Depending on what you're carrying it can be cheaper to use the dustbin than pay excess charges. Paper is particularly heavy,so take as little as possible. Do you need a full bottle of shampoo for a three day trip ? Buy those small toiletary containers from luggage shops. Read the regulations regarding hand luggage, quite often it's one bag + camera, umbrella, reading material, overcoat. So you would be better of carrying these seperately and keeping the weight of the bag down.

Low cost airlines are good as long as you understand and follow their rules, and don't expect them to be the same as a full service operator.

No. Wear your heaviest clothes. Put your heaviest items in your hand luggage or in your pockets. If they try to include the weight of your hand luggage, then have someone hold the heavy items while you check in and then reload your hand luggage.

But don't complain if your bag gets offloaded by the cabin crew and redirected to the a/c hold - but then I guess that avoids the excess baggage charges in the end anyway!

I'm quite comfotable with people being charged excess over 20 kg, if it means my ticket is cheaper. That has been the Freedom Air allowance since day one. They're not in the business of providing free freight.

They're sneaky with oversize items too, $25 for your surfboard, PLUS any excess weight it adds over 20 kg.

Woomera there are new options
 

as excess baggage is becoming more and more of a hassle why not try the service offered by those guys.Worldwide luggage shippingmdoor to door service.
www.firstluggage.com
check the rates, it just might work in the future:ok:

QF mainline are a lost more stringent than a couple of years ago but still fairly leninent.

The usual international 32kg allowance, not sure what airline yr talking about here. Forgeting the americas most airlines give you a bag allowance of 20 kg most will lwt you off 5kg some 10kg some wont let you off at all. THe americas of course have the piece system of 2pc at 32kg each, however lately United and other US carriers have been reducing their allowance down to 2 pc at 22kg each

Cop This Then
 

I have just been to the USA and took one piece at I think 26 to 27kg, not sure to the last gram but near enough for this exercise. QF no probs BNE-LAX, however, on Southwest domestic, it went about 8 pounds over their limit, so without an extra bag to spilt with my fellow pax, what could I do!!

Now Their limit is ..Quote from their terms & conditions "3 pieces not more than 50 pounds per piece" WOW I could have had 150 pounds for free, or with my no baggaged partner, 300 pounds between us, but no we had one bag all of 56 pounds and it cost me AUD$33.00

Yes on the return trip a small sports bag had been purchased. Now I cant complain about Southwest really, they were fine, but what a crazy rule. They will take the weight, no problem, but gee if any one piece goes to 26kg...cost you heaps. Is it a limit for people to lift such a weight ???? Well if its too heavy to lift at 26kg, how does me paying $33 all of a sudden make it safe to lift I gotta ask??

OK....lesson learnt for next time....:ugh:

Cheers J:ok:

As always, read the baggage conditions!!
It's infuriatin to have to constantly listen to 'but I didn't know it was XX kilos" when it's plainly printed on the ticket, confirmation and/or itinerary, not to mention at the check-in counters.

Also, just because "So and so let me take it all the time" doesn't mean the same rule applies to the airline you're travelling on TODAY.

Airline A may allow 7/8kgs, but airline B may only allow 4. Remember not everything is a jumbo jet with overhead lockers, so your lugging on a 12kg laptop bag can get pretty tedious for the check-in/cabin crew!! (Imagine if everyone snuck on say, a 10kg bag on something like a Bras or a Saab...

as for If you mean including it in the recorded weight of your total baggage, grow up! There's a reason the loadsheet gets filled out, it's not to give the pilots and ground crew something pretty to draw on!! :rolleyes:

I've found that J* religiously slug u with extra baggage fees.....I could set my clock by it.

Travelled many times on the same day with J* and other carriers...same bags...no problemo with others....pay up with J*.

If you book early enough anyway, you can still find good fares with others. A J* cheap ticket with baggage slug sometimes costs you more.

Woomerasan

As explained to your handmaiden (for God's sake don't let her know I said that!! She will moider me!) if not totally required immediately on arrival (which it was) the excess can be forwarded on a subload basis as International Unaccompanied Baggage at a fraction of the cost.

Cheapest way to lose excess to a degree on the Rat is to join Club Rat. This gives you an extra 10 kilos per passenger on core services at least.

If anyone wants to join, give me a yell. We have a corporate cell - October turnaround - that saves you about $100 over casual joining fee. We are also agents for Jetta Excess Baggage and they are cheap as chips. Works well too.

The base formula for International excess is 1% of the first class fare per kilogram, but you cannot even count on this. The mood of the dude rule applies, as do airline set rates which are generally cheaper than standard by up to 50%.

Excess is a "gotta have" as I have seen F28-4000 checkins ex DPO with over 180 full sized bags on a 72 seater, and also having to find space for 2 tonnes of live crays.This was always a nightmare at Christmas time.

As for cabin baggage, the airlines need to nail this one down. The huge hand luggage snuck on doesn't make its way to the load sheet and pushed the parameters of the average weight.

Personally I carry my own excess baggage, even if a fair bit has been offloaded of late. Suffice to say someone has to make up for the 60 kg weaklings and maintain the overall average.

Best all

EWL