group-of-5
Intern
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2010
- Posts
- 65
Hello Team!
I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with this situation. For the first time in more than a decade I finally snagged some award flights that I thought were worthwhile taking up. The circumstances were quite specific, a one-way journey starting in Chicago, returning to Brisbane. The award flights happened to be available, on the required departure day, and compared to what was available as a paid ticket were much better than any paid fares available on any carrier with a convenient route/connections. Other reward flights, when they were available, were four flights instead of two, three connections instead of one and an extra 6-7 hours of travel time. When I saw this routing pop up after a few days of searching, I grabbed it and as a bonus it was fewer points and less tax. Works out at a couple of cents per point compared to the paid options. That's good enough for me. So before we start, we are ahead as far as I'm concerned. The question is more about what hassle I might have at check-in, is it worth asking a question at check-in, and what documentation I should have available to expedite the process.
Firstly, we have no status (that is long gone as I only really travel for leisure now). Secondly, I've searched this forum and others and I can't find an exact match to my circumstances. Most deal with a trip in the opposite direction (Aus to USA with an onward domestic connection), or are pure domestic (USA to USA), or involve at least some status, not my case. I also have reviewed the AA and Qantas websites, but I don't have a degree in legal Swahili and the conclusion I came to is that they can do whatever they want to do on the day and there will be some clause they can point to. So I'm hoping our community here can provide more definitive answers and guidance!
So the basic facts:
All through the "purchase process" I screen shotted/PDF'ed each step of the process. All through the process the indication seems to be that we get a bag each on the AA segment, but it doesn't say what weight. There seems to be some question however if a bag is included on the domestic flight. I have also tried the "manage booking" on the AA website using the AA booking reference and it doesn't list any baggage details, it just has a "-" . When I hit the "purchase bags" option I get a message "you can only buy ADDITIONAL bags at the airport" (emphasis mine). A bit ambiguous.
Now I don't intend to have a big argument at check-in, It's just not worth it, but if asked to pay I am willing to politely say "I understand your system is saying we have to pay, but could you please ask a supervisor to double-check and here is the supporting documentation" if I have some grounds to do so.
So, are we entitled to a bag each on ORD-LAX in our circumstances? If so, and we are refused, what documentation should we have ready?
As a side question, would the checked baggage entitlement (free or paid) be 23kg or 32kg (i.e. the domestic or international weights)? We are normally economical on our luggage. Our standard practice for a 3-4 week trip is a single suitcase shared between the two of us and a wheeled carryon size that we sometimes also check-in. That way I wheel the larger case and my wife wheels the carryon. This trip is a bit longer at 5 weeks and includes a 24 night cruise, so we might need a bit more stuff, more shoes and variety of outfits than we would normally take. Also, the family likes the dark choc peanut butter cups from Trader Joes, so we might load up on a few kilos of those for the return journey (all declared of course, you won't see us on Border Security). We wouldn't come anywhere near a 46kg total (I would hope), so the question is more about splitting the weight between the bags and avoiding any overweight fees.
Thanks in advance.
I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with this situation. For the first time in more than a decade I finally snagged some award flights that I thought were worthwhile taking up. The circumstances were quite specific, a one-way journey starting in Chicago, returning to Brisbane. The award flights happened to be available, on the required departure day, and compared to what was available as a paid ticket were much better than any paid fares available on any carrier with a convenient route/connections. Other reward flights, when they were available, were four flights instead of two, three connections instead of one and an extra 6-7 hours of travel time. When I saw this routing pop up after a few days of searching, I grabbed it and as a bonus it was fewer points and less tax. Works out at a couple of cents per point compared to the paid options. That's good enough for me. So before we start, we are ahead as far as I'm concerned. The question is more about what hassle I might have at check-in, is it worth asking a question at check-in, and what documentation I should have available to expedite the process.
Firstly, we have no status (that is long gone as I only really travel for leisure now). Secondly, I've searched this forum and others and I can't find an exact match to my circumstances. Most deal with a trip in the opposite direction (Aus to USA with an onward domestic connection), or are pure domestic (USA to USA), or involve at least some status, not my case. I also have reviewed the AA and Qantas websites, but I don't have a degree in legal Swahili and the conclusion I came to is that they can do whatever they want to do on the day and there will be some clause they can point to. So I'm hoping our community here can provide more definitive answers and guidance!
So the basic facts:
- 2 passengers
- A single Booking reference with the two flights on it
- Booking search request was for one-way ORD-BNE, not a multicity request. We just selected the routing offered as a package
- First flight ORD-LAX has an AA flight number and is in booking class T (same flight has a Qantas codeshare flight number, but that combination wasn't offered in the classic reward)
- Connection time in LAX of a couple of hours
- Second flight is QF16 LAX-BNE
All through the "purchase process" I screen shotted/PDF'ed each step of the process. All through the process the indication seems to be that we get a bag each on the AA segment, but it doesn't say what weight. There seems to be some question however if a bag is included on the domestic flight. I have also tried the "manage booking" on the AA website using the AA booking reference and it doesn't list any baggage details, it just has a "-" . When I hit the "purchase bags" option I get a message "you can only buy ADDITIONAL bags at the airport" (emphasis mine). A bit ambiguous.
Now I don't intend to have a big argument at check-in, It's just not worth it, but if asked to pay I am willing to politely say "I understand your system is saying we have to pay, but could you please ask a supervisor to double-check and here is the supporting documentation" if I have some grounds to do so.
So, are we entitled to a bag each on ORD-LAX in our circumstances? If so, and we are refused, what documentation should we have ready?
As a side question, would the checked baggage entitlement (free or paid) be 23kg or 32kg (i.e. the domestic or international weights)? We are normally economical on our luggage. Our standard practice for a 3-4 week trip is a single suitcase shared between the two of us and a wheeled carryon size that we sometimes also check-in. That way I wheel the larger case and my wife wheels the carryon. This trip is a bit longer at 5 weeks and includes a 24 night cruise, so we might need a bit more stuff, more shoes and variety of outfits than we would normally take. Also, the family likes the dark choc peanut butter cups from Trader Joes, so we might load up on a few kilos of those for the return journey (all declared of course, you won't see us on Border Security). We wouldn't come anywhere near a 46kg total (I would hope), so the question is more about splitting the weight between the bags and avoiding any overweight fees.
Thanks in advance.
