Excess Baggage Charges - Bkk-Sin With Cathay

[SeaVisionBurma]

My sister is on a stopover in Bangkok, and will fly BKK-SIN (CX) and then SIN-PER (QF) on Tuesday.

Economy ticket book through Qantas, but using BA, CX and QF on various legs

She has already been charged excess in London for the BA leg LHR-BKK.

She has 2 pieces of luggage to check in weighing a total of 32 kg.

Is there any way to pre-purchase excess weight online before going to the airport on Tuesday to check in for the flights back to Perth?

Any suggestions to reduce the charges would be appreciated.

cheers

SVB

[forgetit]

So far i could only find the following statement from QF

Qantas Baggage Allowances do not apply to codeshare flights. Any baggage in excess of the baggage allowance will be charged at the operating carrier’s excess baggage charges.

That means your sister would have to haggle with Cathay and Quantas seperatly. Cathay offers to buy extra baggage with miles from there FFP. You can check it here: http://www.cathaypac...heckedbaggage#R

Quantas offers to buy extra baggage with a CC payment or with miles from the FFP: http://www.qantas.co...ggage/global/en . If your sister has a QF flight number from BKK to SIN she might try to buy extra baggage for this leg too, but she should not be suprised if it is only working for the SIN-PER leg (see quote above).

[forgetit]

If i understand the quantas website correctly, the savings will be only by a margin as it is just 30 AUD. 2*90 AUD prepayed instead of 120+2*50 AUD at the airport. If she could travel with just 1 bag, but keeping the 32 kg, the cost would go down to just 90 AUD.

[Nisa]

Repack and buy a backpack and go carry on? .... Forget it, was thinking pounds and not kg .... those are some heavy bags.

[MiG16]

I notice that the long haul flights tend to be a bit more flexible with allowing some extra weight.

Go early, repack so that the checked I'm luggage comes to around 25 and u might be ok

I was allowed close to 40kg when my actual allowance was 30 on a bkk to Sydney route.

If she's got a baby they might even be more lenient?

Sorry not the answer to your question, but Good luck

[SeaVisionBurma]

Appreciate all the replies. Countless hours trying to sort out something, but the ticketing is quite odd and not very helpful in this respect.

QANTAS issued ticket LHR-PER-HR, but using 3 different carriers through several cities on 5 different sectors & flight numbers.

Almost impossible to apply a single rule, and no help for pre-purchased luggage because of the routing.

Have decided to re-pack the larger bag, reduce the weight of the smaller, and I will post the non-essential stuff to her.

Also she will check in VERY early tomorrow for the flight - I had a look at the loadings for the CX leg from BKK-SIN and it is full. Will help to get there early (won't hurt anyway)

If she's got a baby they might even be more lenient?

We're having a good chuckle at the moment, and my sister has asked me to reply "I haven't been in Bangkok quite long enough to explore that option"

Thanks again for all of the advice.

Cheers

SVB

[MiG16]

Wasn't suggesting she adopt one for the journey lol

Just thought if she's got more stuff cos of a baby, the airline seem to be a bit more lenient.

Anyhow hope it works out. The short breaks in journey doesn't help, cos as said my experience have been that they are not as strict about weights on long haul. Particularly bkk to Aus.

Europe not sure.....I travelled light(er) then. Never been to US

[SeaVisionBurma]

Sometimes its nice to follow up a thread with a happy outcome.

Got to BKK this morning about 2 & 1/2 hours before the flight.

Even the Cathay Pacific counter staff had some confusion, as they were not able to access the QANTAS leg (SIN-PER) which my sister is connecting to later today.

That led to some confusion also about how to charge the excess bag.

Initially they were going to check the 2 bags through to Singapore only, and then she would have had to clear immigration, collect bags, and go through the whole process again with QANTAS.

Finally the supervisor made her an offer - if she was happy to pay just 4kg excess (instead of 13kg) - they would check her through to Perth. $40 later and she had them checked right through.

Then something unexpected. Supervisor came over to the service counter where she was paying the $40 excess, apologised for having to charge her - and upgraded her to business class, seat 14K. The flight was one or two pax overbooked in economy, so they chose to bump her up.

RESULT!!!

cheers again for the replies

SVB

[harrry]

If i understand the quantas website correctly, the savings will be only by a margin as it is just 30 AUD. 2*90 AUD prepayed instead of 120+2*50 AUD at the airport. If she could travel with just 1 bag, but keeping the 32 kg, the cost would go down to just 90 AUD.

Qantas will not count a bag of 32 kg as baggage as it is above their heqlth and safery limit which is about 24kg from memory. If it is above it is totally charged as overweight baggage.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Qantas will not count a bag of 32 kg as baggage as it is above their heqlth and safery limit which is about 24kg from memory. If it is above it is totally charged as overweight baggage.

From the QANTAS baggage information website here:

In addition, a heavy charge will apply at the airport if your allowance is 23kg per piece and any piece exceeds that weight. No single item of checked baggage may exceed 32kg.

In this case it would not have applied to her, as per the OP she had 2 bags to check in.

Anyway as per my last post above - she ended up having no problem and even got upgraded....

[NanLaew]

Sometimes its nice to follow up a thread with a happy outcome.

Got to BKK this morning about 2 & 1/2 hours before the flight.

Even the Cathay Pacific counter staff had some confusion, as they were not able to access the QANTAS leg (SIN-PER) which my sister is connecting to later today.

That led to some confusion also about how to charge the excess bag.

Initially they were going to check the 2 bags through to Singapore only, and then she would have had to clear immigration, collect bags, and go through the whole process again with QANTAS.

Finally the supervisor made her an offer - if she was happy to pay just 4kg excess (instead of 13kg) - they would check her through to Perth. $40 later and she had them checked right through.

Then something unexpected. Supervisor came over to the service counter where she was paying the $40 excess, apologised for having to charge her - and upgraded her to business class, seat 14K. The flight was one or two pax overbooked in economy, so they chose to bump her up.

RESULT!!!

cheers again for the replies

SVB

Truly! I was bumped to the front on KLM a few years ago when it became easier just to upgrade me and give me the Biz Class allowance instead.

However, since they were bought by Air France, KLM have become rather mercenary when commencing travel in the UK. I had 3 bags (1 per pax) and my one was 4kg over the 23kg maximum. It wasn't possible to move anything around (one large bulky item with padding) and despite the wife's bag being 4kg under the allowance and my boys bag a whopping 10kg under, they insisted in raping my wallet for those 'extra' 4kg.

[SeaVisionBurma]

I posted too soon with the good news.

When she arrived to Singapore - she went to the Transfer Counter to get her QANTAS boarding pass.

They nailed her for SGD168 in excess.

Although her bags were checked through to Perth by Cathay - QANTAS staff would not issue her boarding pass until she paid up.

She is writing a letter of complaint to QANTAS. The whole ticketing was a debacle - and although she was lucky enough to have good Cathay staff at BKK who upgraded her (on the shortest leg of the trip) - the overall experience bouncing between 3 different airlines on one ticket was a nightmare.

She recommends anyone considering this type of booking with QANTAS to think twice.

cheers

SVB

[khonburilad]

Very interesting to read some of the comments.....I know for a fact that BA Check in staff are nowadays set monthly targets(incentive payments) for excess baggage charges so you never get much leeway there

[CNXBKKMAN]

I guess your sister booked this ticket because it was the best deal to do uk-bkk-per-(domestic Australia, another Asian city sin bkk hkg?) Then back to UK. Are you saying she regrets paying the economy airfare maybe gbp1200 when she could have paid gbp4000 and had better baggage allowance and saved aud168?

[NanLaew]

Buying tickets online is getting more challenging. The cheapest fares normally have the greatest restrictions and in an era when more and more airlines are charging for baggage, it is worth taking the extra time to consider if you have sufficient with the standard allowance of 1-bag no greater than 23kg. To most holidaymakers, this is ridiculously small when you consider the average bag weighs around 4 to 5kg when empty. Some airlines allow you to pre-pay discounted excess charges online prior to checking in. I haven't tried the Qantas booking website since I never fly their routes but would be interested to see if they offer this option.

In the OP's case, I gave kudos to CX at BKK for the complimentary upgrade but I would take them back for not telling his sister that they were merely passing the buck and that she would be nailed at SIN for the excess baggage still being carried by another carrier.

All a bit disingenuous IMHO but all too frequent, sic my earlier comment on my excess baggage experience with KLM. They do offer the option to pre-pay excess charges online but even so, make sure that no single bag exceeds the maximum free single bag weight for the class of travel ticketed.

[SeaVisionBurma]

Some airlines allow you to pre-pay discounted excess charges online prior to checking in. I haven't tried the Qantas booking website since I never fly their routes but would be interested to see if they offer this option.

QANTAS do offer this option, and although she purchased the ticket from them, she was unable to then pre-purchase excess baggage online. Something to do with the ticketing. Very frustrating, but a lesson in the realities of an airline alliance / interline agreements NOT working to make ticketing seamless for the customer.

In the OP's case, I gave kudos to CX at BKK for the complimentary upgrade but I would take them back for not telling his sister that they were merely passing the buck and that she would be nailed at SIN for the excess baggage still being carried by another carrier.

Cathay did warn her at BKK airport that QANTAS could nail her for excess baggage in Singapore.

We both agreed that the likelihood of this happening was very small - I was very surprised to hear that they actually made her pay the excess for baggage loaded in Bangkok, by a third party carrier - when she arrived in Singapore in transit for bags already checked through to Perth.