Baggage Allowance Changes

[Blackadder]

I was caught between options today - Gold and Qantas Club

One bag, 28 kgm

As a Qantas Club member that is within allowance

As a Gold FF it is over the 23 kg limit for each of two bags

Ended up being charged $20

Not happy. The check in staff were also confused.

I have emailed Qantas re the anomaly / contradiction / inconsistency and await their reply

Has anyone else had this problem?

In my case it appears that I am actually penalized for being Gold vs ordinary Q Club member.

Indeed it does seem cough about by QF, surely as SG that would entitle you to greater benefits than just a standard QP membership.

 

[Danger]

I was caught between options today - Gold and Qantas Club

One bag, 28 kgm

As a Qantas Club member that is within allowance

As a Gold FF it is over the 23 kg limit for each of two bags

Ended up being charged $20

Not happy. The check in staff were also confused.

I have emailed Qantas re the anomaly / contradiction / inconsistency and await their reply

Has anyone else had this problem?

In my case it appears that I am actually penalized for being Gold vs ordinary Q Club member.

Hillarious (the apparently ludicrousy, not the outcome).

 

[bnebased]

... 'Total dimensions of each piece must not exceed 140cm (54in). Dimensions for checked baggage are calculated by adding together the width, height and depth of the piece of baggage.' ...

After lurking for a long time on this forum here's my first post (tried and unanswered on flyertalk ).

I only fly QF every now and then, last time was last week. It was clear to me that a lot of the checked in bags on our domestic SYD-BNE flight were over 140cm, and I don't for a moment believe they were all international connections. I know for a fact that our party of 3 had 3 bags, each of which was over the limit, but not by very much (ie, about 150cm total dimensions each).

What gives? Is there a known tolerance? Do handles and wheels count or are they ignored? (From what I have read elsewhere, the weight tolerance is 999 grams in many situations; is that so for QF? Our bags were all less than 23kg so no concern for us.)


The QF website says:


The Bag Drop contains laser technology and scales which recognise bag size and weight. If these exceed your allowance youll be offered the choice of repacking your bag or paying for excess baggage.


I think Bag Drop tells you the weight, but I did not see it say anything about size. How would QF handle it anyway? For extra weight there is a published fee; no published info that I saw for oversize

 

[serfty]

With an oversize bag, they may reject it outright.

In reality, if you bags have the same 'shape' as normal luggage and are, say, only 5cm - 10cm over the 140cm limit I guess you would normally be fine.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I was caught between options today - Gold and Qantas Club

One bag, 28 kgm

As a Qantas Club member that is within allowance

As a Gold FF it is over the 23 kg limit for each of two bags

Ended up being charged $20

Not happy. The check in staff were also confused.

I have emailed Qantas re the anomaly / contradiction / inconsistency and await their reply

Has anyone else had this problem?

In my case it appears that I am actually penalized for being Gold vs ordinary Q Club member.

It happens all the time unfortunately because it's a stupid rule invented by stupid people who have never worked at an airport before. IMHO it's a double edged sword for the SG as they were penalised (effective 01 June) for taking the same amount of luggage they've taken for the last 20 years or so eg 2 bags @ 15 kgs.

Because of that new one piece rule QF drummed into their heads they had to cram it in to one case up to 32 kgs so that brought about the heavy bag being okay mindset, up until late last year when they relented due to an overwhelming backlash & said SG could have 2 @ 23 in whY & 2 @ 32 in J.

So now SG's who have just caught up with the 01 June modification of 32 kg bags being okay have to find out the hard way when they're stung the heavy fee of $20.00 that they can't do that anymore.

Now if SG were allowed 2 @ 32kg in whY, WP's would get upset because they would feel that there's no difference between WP & SG, gap closing, erosion of benefits etc etc.

I don't think you could program the bag drop to compute that a SG can have 1 @ 32 or 2 x 23 because it has to be an all or nothing type thing according to your tier status.

After lurking for a long time on this forum here's my first post (tried and unanswered on flyertalk ).

I only fly QF every now and then, last time was last week. It was clear to me that a lot of the checked in bags on our domestic SYD-BNE flight were over 140cm, and I don't for a moment believe they were all international connections. I know for a fact that our party of 3 had 3 bags, each of which was over the limit, but not by very much (ie, about 150cm total dimensions each).

What gives? Is there a known tolerance? Do handles and wheels count or are they ignored? (From what I have read elsewhere, the weight tolerance is 999 grams in many situations; is that so for QF? Our bags were all less than 23kg so no concern for us.)

The QF website says:

The Bag Drop contains laser technology and scales which recognise bag size and weight. If these exceed your allowance youll be offered the choice of repacking your bag or paying for excess baggage.

I think Bag Drop tells you the weight, but I did not see it say anything about size. How would QF handle it anyway? For extra weight there is a published fee; no published info that I saw for oversize

Pretty much anything is fair game at the bag drops with the exception of golf clubs, strollers, bikes etc. Note that if you have an SSR code of AVIH (animal in hold) in your booking you will have to take your bags to a checkin counter as any bags for that booking will be inhibited from being accepted at the auto bag drop. This is to prevent someone accidentally sending their pet down the shute (which almost happened once to a pax who hadn't advised the airline at the time booking they were travelling with a pet & therefore didn't have AVIH in the booking). :shock: :shock:

Always attach your bag tag before placing it onto the belt as some people put the bag up first then when they lean over to tag it the bag drop thinks they are part of the luggage & says their bag is oversized & tells them to proceed elsewhere. If that happens, after tagging the bag step away then press the red "rescan" button on the screen so all should be okay after that.

 

[Danger]

I recall reading about IATA's recently introduced 'most significant carrier' (MSC) baggage allowances recently.

Here's an article from Businss Traveller and here's what appears to be the IATA resolution on the subject.

I'm flying SYD-HKG-xSIN-PER with only HKG-SIN on CX and the others on QF. According to the IATA resolution, the MSC is Qantas as it is the first airline to cross tariff sub-areas (3(b) of the resolution). This would suggest I would have the Qantas baggage allowance for the entire journey.

However, two things have me concerned. First, points 2(c) and (d) of the resolution seem to indicate the MSC must publish baggage provisions for the journey. What does "publish" mean? Does it mean the MSC must input some baggage allowance alongside the itinerary in the computer system or does it simply mean what's available on their website?

Second, the Businss Traveller article seems to suggest that the MSC allowance takes into account frequent flyer privilleges for baggage. Obviously, flying on CX as a QF Platinum I would ordinarily not be entitled to the extra baggage allowance. However, the MSC thing suggests I would have my Platinum baggage privilleges applied on the CX sector. Is this correct?

 

[serfty]

You have two journies¹.

SYD-HKG and HKG-xSIN-SYD.

In this case Qantas is the MSC for each journey. If SIN-SYD had been operated by CX², then CX would have been the MSC for the second Journey.

The elite allowances would only apply if the MSC carrier (Qantas) had filed such additional allowance with the appropriate entity. I have came across no evidence Qantas have done so - you may be able to argue your case at HKG check-in.

¹Only if the travel had been to/from the USA then the MSC allowance for the first journey would apply for the entire trip.
²I know CX don't fly this route, it is only an illustrative example.

 

[Danger]

Thanks for that.

I phoned Qantas asking about my baggage allowance, with reference to my booking, and the agent simply said "23kgs for Cathay". The agent had no knowledge of the IATA resolution nor of "most significant carrier", even after checking with a supervisor.

I did a search on the CX website and found this. It indicates that CX will honour the superior baggage allowance of QF (64kgs in my case) of my itinerary, even without Qantas having specifically published anything. The problem I see with this is how a CX agent is going to know the QF baggage allowance rules (let alone of every other airline).

I plan to take a printout of the relevant section of the QF website showing my baggage allowance and a copy of the page from the CX website.