Are you bagging the Qantas Club baggage benefit?

[roomer]

Having family in Texas and being a Qantas Club member, I was intrigued to see on my booking that i was entitled to 3 x 23kg bags ( yes I'm Bronze flying Economy) but only on certain legs of the journey. Let me explain; flying to or from Australia via LAX or DFW, no probs 3 x 23kg bags but flying to or from LAX or DFW to IAH its only 2 x 23kg bags. So you book your flight to Houston and its all checked in for you to get to your destination without you having to recheck it, but on leaving you have to pay extra baggage on the 3rd bag.
Now the fun part, I messaged Qantas to see what the cost for the extra bag would be, only to be told that they could only give me a cost when I checked in the bag!
My response was to say, I'd like to know beforehand so I could determine if it was worth the additional cost. No, they must sight the bag I was told! I offered it would comply with the 115cm rule and be less than 23kg. No, sorry , they werent being difficult but I'd have to bring in to the check in.
Fed up with the ridiculousness of it all , I rang Qantas and after a bit of a wait was told $150. So know you now, thought I'd spare anyone else the drama if they were in a similar situation! ( secondary lesson learnt , dont message, speak with a real person!)

 

[RooFlyer]

I suspect that the different allowances is to do with the actual carrier. Were the flights AA when USA domestic and QF across the pond? We've heard of problems getting $ figures for excess bags before. Not wanting to defend the opacity, but perhaps QF not wanting to quote what AA might charge ( and then found to be wrong)??

 

[roomer]

Yes apparently its to do with non Qantas carriers, but still, you book through the one portal to take you and bags from go to whoa, you think it wouldnt be so hard to facitate this process and offer a finished product.
I'm sure others haven't looked at the finer details and have just seen 3 x 23 kg allowance. I mean technically it would be that you take 3 bags to the US and once there you'd have to ditch the 3rd bag because thats not your entitlement once in the US. Just seems half coughd, if you pardon my French.

 

[Forg]

^ While I’m in no way disagreeing with you, you’d probably have the same problem with a round-the-world or circle-pacific fare, where Y legs between US & AU have 2x 23kg and the others follow the more-worldwide 1x20kg ?

 

[roomer]

Well actually, one time I booked with BYOJet ( was not a QC member then) for a similar trip ie to an internal US destination and they made sure the bags ( only one / person as I recall) were taken go to whoa, as they were all part of the same booking. Cant see what Qantas can't do the same...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Having family in Texas and being a Qantas Club member, I was intrigued to see on my booking that i was entitled to 3 x 23kg bags ( yes I'm Bronze flying Economy) but only on certain legs of the journey. Let me explain; flying to or from Australia via LAX or DFW, no probs 3 x 23kg bags but flying to or from LAX or DFW to IAH its only 2 x 23kg bags. So you book your flight to Houston and its all checked in for you to get to your destination without you having to recheck it, but on leaving you have to pay extra baggage on the 3rd bag.
Now the fun part, I messaged Qantas to see what the cost for the extra bag would be, only to be told that they could only give me a cost when I checked in the bag!
My response was to say, I'd like to know beforehand so I could determine if it was worth the additional cost. No, they must sight the bag I was told! I offered it would comply with the 115cm rule and be less than 23kg. No, sorry , they werent being difficult but I'd have to bring in to the check in.
Fed up with the ridiculousness of it all , I rang Qantas and after a bit of a wait was told $150. So know you now, thought I'd spare anyone else the drama if they were in a similar situation! ( secondary lesson learnt , dont message, speak with a real person!)

I think it works like this... the Qantas Club allowance isn't an international (IATA) or alliance benefit, so on that basis, it applies only to the operating airline (QF), and any rules pertaining to through ticketing (all flights on the one ticket etc) don't apply.

For purely QF services, you get the extra bag. But any other carrier, you don't.

The extra bag charge can be found on the AA website - or another airline if you are flying someone other than AA.

For Australia to the USA you are allowed two bags free of charge in economy. This applies under international ticketing rules to the whole journey as it's all on the one ticket. So AU-LAX/DFW-IAH is all covered. On arrival in LAX-DFW you have to collect your bags and drop them for the IAH flight. At that point, you need to pay for the additional third bag. The charge will be as per the AA site, but I think that will be $25, not $150. QF looks like they have looked at the 'third bag' charge on the table, but that applies if you start with zero baggage allowance (as is the case on most economy fares in the USA if you don't have status).

Checked baggage policy − Baggage − American Airlines

I'd be surprised if it jumped straight from the 'zero' to 'three' bag charge, but I could be wrong!

Calling QF reservations in cases like this is usually going to result in frustration. Reservations are good at fares and ticketing - but not when it comes to other aspects of your journey such as seats, baggage, visas, lounges, partner benefits etc etc. It's just not their area of expertise.

 

[roomer]

Thanks MEL-_Traveller, thats very interesting to know. Certainly coudn't find any help from directly messaging Qantas. All I got was 3 or 4 variants of the below
"Understood Christopher, additional baggage for this itinerary will be advised at the airport upon check in and calculated between the multiple carriers."
It was so annoying not being given any useful information that I thought i was dealing with robo assistants, hence my call to speak with someone!
Disappointing that you were able to get to the nots and bolts but Qantas fell short. Again , thanks very much, appreciate your insights

 

[Pushka]

My goal these days is to travel with as little as possible. So much easier. Especially as we like to use trains overseas.

 

[roomer]

Definitely agree with you Pushka, but this is not a sightseeing holiday. Was exploring the opportunity to bring over some family members possessions...

 

[philyohara]

For future reference if it's booked under the same ticket you don't have to pay an extra fee, also if you're separate domestic connection is on the same day you won't have to pay the fee either. I've often wondered that, when flying to Europe I have 3 or 4 X 32kg baggage allowance on qantas metal and then only 1 X 23kg bag on the connecting Airlines metal according to my ticket. But it has never been an issue. And the bags are checked through to the final destination unlike landing in the USA or Australia. I was more concerned about the return leg but again no issues anytime I've travelled.

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/baggage/checked-baggage.html

This is from the Qantas website
"If you've purchased international and domestic flights and these are on the same ticket, the international checked baggage allowance applies to the domestic flights too. Where the international and domestic flights are on separate tickets, if the connection time is within the same calendar day* the international checked baggage allowance is accepted on both flights. Be sure to present both tickets when checking your baggage in. Exceptions apply."

 

[fifo]

Checked baggage policy − Baggage − American Airlines

I'd be surprised if it jumped straight from the 'zero' to 'three' bag charge, but I could be wrong!

Thats exactly how every airline does it in my experience and definitely how AA does it.

if you have 2 free bags, but want to carry a third, you pay the price for the third as if you just paid for 1 + 2. I've flown multiple times with 4 bags of dive kit around the us and had this exact argument and never one.

 

[roomer]

For future reference if it's booked under the same ticket you don't have to pay an extra fee, also if you're separate domestic connection is on the same day you won't have to pay the fee either. I've often wondered that, when flying to Europe I have 3 or 4 X 32kg baggage allowance on qantas metal and then only 1 X 23kg bag on the connecting Airlines metal according to my ticket. But it has never been an issue. And the bags are checked through to the final destination unlike landing in the USA or Australia. I was more concerned about the return leg but again no issues anytime I've travelled.

https://www.qantas.com/au/en/travel-info/baggage/checked-baggage.html

This is from the Qantas website
"If you've purchased international and domestic flights and these are on the same ticket, the international checked baggage allowance applies to the domestic flights too. Where the international and domestic flights are on separate tickets, if the connection time is within the same calendar day* the international checked baggage allowance is accepted on both flights. Be sure to present both tickets when checking your baggage in. Exceptions apply."

My point was that the extra bag offered as a benefit of being a Qantas Club member is not carried through free of charge on AA domestic flights. Agree with what you have posted but in this case Qantas have told me the additional free bag offered because I'm a Qantas Club member is only free on the international leg ( ie with Qantas) but it will incur a fee on the connecting AA domestic leg ( on the same day). I would have thought being booked on the same ticket they would have all been carried through for the same charg.

 

[opusman]

Won't Qantas tag the bag through to final destination? In which case it's already checked on the domestic flight and just needs to be dropped off.

 

[justinbrett]

Technically speaking, any of the extra allowances for frequent flyers (SG, WP etc) only apply to QF services.

What’s stupid about this is if you book the AA connection with AA directly, they’ll give you a oneworld baggage benifit - but if booked with QF you get the QF international non-elite allowance.

It’s all a mess really, but luckily most AA agents will give you the QF elite allowance if it’s on the same ticket.

 

[justinbrett]

I think it works like this... the Qantas Club allowance isn't an international (IATA) or alliance benefit, so on that basis, it applies only to the operating airline (QF), and any rules pertaining to through ticketing (all flights on the one ticket etc) don't apply.

For purely QF services, you get the extra bag. But any other carrier, you don't.

The extra bag charge can be found on the AA website - or another airline if you are flying someone other than AA.

For Australia to the USA you are allowed two bags free of charge in economy. This applies under international ticketing rules to the whole journey as it's all on the one ticket. So AU-LAX/DFW-IAH is all covered. On arrival in LAX-DFW you have to collect your bags and drop them for the IAH flight. At that point, you need to pay for the additional third bag. The charge will be as per the AA site, but I think that will be $25, not $150. QF looks like they have looked at the 'third bag' charge on the table, but that applies if you start with zero baggage allowance (as is the case on most economy fares in the USA if you don't have status).

Checked baggage policy − Baggage − American Airlines

I'd be surprised if it jumped straight from the 'zero' to 'three' bag charge, but I could be wrong!

Calling QF reservations in cases like this is usually going to result in frustration. Reservations are good at fares and ticketing - but not when it comes to other aspects of your journey such as seats, baggage, visas, lounges, partner benefits etc etc. It's just not their area of expertise.

Sorry, you are wrong, The AA third bag charge for elites is the third bag charge ($150), it jumps the first two.

Also, when QF check your bag (say SYD-DFW-IAH), you will not have to pay in DFW to drop your bag off. It’s already checked to IAH. The guys at these transfer facilities literally just pick up the bag and put it on the belt, they don’t re-check it. QF should collect any extra baggage fees in SYD but in my experience they don’t if it’s on the same ticket.

On return, in my experience, the AA system will want to charge for the third bag for both legs, including QF DFW-SYD (or trans Pacific) which is US$200. It’s at this point you can argue you shouldn’t have to pay for the Qantas leg (saving you $50) and at this point it all gets too hard and they’ll probably check it for free.

 

[serfty]

With the USA DOT exception for IATA 302, the baggage allowance for the first journey applies for the entire booking.

Having additional status based allowance makes it complicated - airlines can file their additional status allowances with APTCO, but generally do not.

What this means is the base allowance for the OZ to HOU journey will apply for the entire trip. e.g. If you flew OZ to HOU in business with no status and flew the return on the same booking in economy, the business baggage allowance would still apply for the return trip.

Qantas.com is dumb - it make no allowance for the DOT exception.

IATA 302 was supposed to simplify things - It seems to have made it more complicated.

 

[justinbrett]

With the USA DOT exception for IATA 302, the baggage allowance for the first journey applies for the entire booking.

It’s actually most significant carrier, not necessarily the first.

Eg, if you fly JQ OOL-SYD, QF SYD-LAX, AA LAX-LAS, you don’t get the JQ allowance, you get the QF allowance.

Same with DJ BNE-AKL and NZ AKL-IAH.

 

[serfty]

It’s actually most significant carrier, not necessarily the first.

Indeed, with the DOT exception, the MSC of the first journey is used to determine the base baggage allowance for the entire booking.

I referred to the "first journey" being "OZ to HOU", not the first segment.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sorry, you are wrong, The AA third bag charge for elites is the third bag charge ($150), it jumps the first two.

My bad

 

[JohnK]

My goal these days is to travel with as little as possible. So much easier. Especially as we like to use trains overseas.

And I'm the complete opposite. I'd like to take advantage of my luggage allowance and not worry about washing and drying too much.