Band pays $1200 in excess baggage

[yo yo ma]

The headline has added an extra zero to the figure

Sour note for band Madison Violet hit with $12,000 luggage fee on Virgin Australia flight | thetelegraph.com.au

CANADIAN band Madison Violet claim their trip to Australia was ruined by a "ludicrous" luggage fee on a Virgin Australia flight. The country-folk duo of Brentley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaax were flying from Sydney to Melbourne on March 1 when they were forced to pay up more than $1200 for their luggage.
The pair are frequent visitors to Australia and were travelling with 10 pieces including three guitars and three suitcases. But they say they've never had to fork out anything like this much cash before.
“It was ludicrous to have to pay that much for one trip,” Ms MacEachern said.
“We do travel with a lot of gear but normally don’t pay much more than $200. It was a sad travel day."

 

[Ansett]

Wow that does seem to be excessive (No Pun Intended) But seriously it does seem over the top

 

[yo yo ma]

Actually, it may not be the new rules as they don't start until May 16 - maybe this is still the old system.

 

[dfcatch]

I had a customer yesterday who flew AC YVR-SYD with a connection on JQ to CNS.

I assume it was the QF code share.

They paid extra baggage (approx. $200) to AC in YVR and told it was covered for the whole journey and to show JQ the receipt.

JQ said bad luck and charged them another $800.

Don't get me started on JQ operating under QF codeshares and not honoring QF allowances.....

That's another rant.

 

[serfty]

It would be the old system.

As such: What are the excess baggage charges? | FAQs | Virgin Australia

United States

When travelling to/from the USA, baggage allowance is stated in as a number of pieces, and the maximum weight for each piece. Excess baggage is therefore charged for each pieces over the number of bags quoted as your allowance. If any single bag weighs more than the maximum allowable weight per piece, an overweight charge is also payable for that piece.

• Flights to the United States: AUD 135 per additional piece.
• Flights from the United States: USD 100 per additional piece.
• Overweight Charge: AUD 135 / USD 100 per each overweight piece.

 

[MelUser]

Speaking of changes to USA VA flights, I have noticed some huge changes in fare rules:

Last year, the cheapest Premium Economy Fares were refundable (subject to $300 cancellation I think). This year they are not refundable at all. This is unlike QF's Premium Economy Fares (including the sale ones) which are all refundable.

Also, last year the cheapest Business Fares on VA were refundable (subject to a $300 cancellation I think). This year they are not refundable at all. This is like QF's business special or I class fares which are also non refundable.

 

[Simo]

Seems excessive but as I travel from some mining areas I have seen guys putting there entire toolboxes and other stuff in and they have had excess luggage costs but I guess if they wanted to out it all on a courier it would have been a few hundred dollars anyway.

 

[Mal]

Someone (their manager? Their TA?) didn't read the T&Cs, now it's "blame everyone else". Yes excessive, but if you don't read the rules...

 

[Danger]

I had a customer yesterday who flew AC YVR-SYD with a connection on JQ to CNS.

I assume it was the QF code share.

They paid extra baggage (approx. $200) to AC in YVR and told it was covered for the whole journey and to show JQ the receipt.

JQ said bad luck and charged them another $800.

Don't get me started on JQ operating under QF codeshares and not honoring QF allowances.....

That's another rant.

Surely this should have been covered by IATA's reasonably new 'most significant carrier' rules. The AC payment should have certainly covered the JQ leg.

 

[TheInsider]

I had a customer yesterday who flew AC YVR-SYD with a connection on JQ to CNS.

I assume it was the QF code share.

They paid extra baggage (approx. $200) to AC in YVR and told it was covered for the whole journey and to show JQ the receipt.

JQ said bad luck and charged them another $800.

Don't get me started on JQ operating under QF codeshares and not honoring QF allowances.....

That's another rant.

According to JQ's interline policy, they get the JQ allowance on the JQ leg, if it's the QF codeshare they would get the 23kgs.

 

[dfcatch]

According to JQ's interline policy, they get the JQ allowance on the JQ leg, if it's the QF codeshare they would get the 23kgs.

Well, on a separate note - my folks were on a J ticket last year ex-ZQN (-AKL-BNE-CNS), the JQ flight was the QF codeshare, and JQ refused to honor the QF allowance and forced them to pay excess baggage.

I'm still in the process of dealing with QF's abysmal Customer Care process (issue is more than just the excess charges).

So - like I said - don't get me started on JQ.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I had a customer yesterday who flew AC YVR-SYD with a connection on JQ to CNS. I assume it was the QF code share. They paid extra baggage (approx. $200) to AC in YVR and told it was covered for the whole journey and to show JQ the receipt.

JQ said bad luck and charged them another $800.

Don't get me started on JQ operating under QF codeshares and not honoring QF allowances.....

That's another rant.

What did the receipt say? I wouldn't mind betting that it's an AC receipt saying excess has been paid YVR/SYD only. It's all well and good for AC to say "just show JQ the receipt" but they can't speak on behalf of JQ as to what they would or wouldn't charge. I'm sure the bags would have only been checked to SYD as you cannot interline bags to JQ domestic flights which should have been obvious to AC when the bag tags were printed to SYD only.

It's important to realise that when checking in bags, the excess luggage is paid from the departure point to the destination on the bag tag only so if you are checking in again for another carrier even if it's part of the same trip, you would need to pay the excess again.

If the SYD/CNS flight was on QF metal I'm sure the bags would have been through checked YVR AC x/SYD QF CNS & the excess receipt would have been for YVR/CNS so all they'd be doing would be a bag drop at QF after customs & not asked for any more excess. .

It would be no different to someone flying QF ex Aust & having their 3 bags checked to LAX with the first two bags being included & in their ticketed allowance then paying $150.00 excess for the third piece. If they then went up to a US airline to checkin for a flight LAX/DEN & showed them a QF receipt for excess SYD/LAX, do you think the airline would waive the excess? I don't think so.

How much stuff did the person have? I'm assuming on AC they would have had an allowance of two pieces per person included on their ticket so if they paid $200.00 they had maybe one or two extra pieces. If JQ charged them $800.00 they must have had 80 kilos excess charged at $10.00 per kilo.