Domestic heavy luggage or on-the-spot air freight options?

[equus]

We fly to the US at the end June and back early July in PE on VA and I'm trying to juggle baggage allowances as we need to fly home from Syd to Adelaide on QF!
I've figured we can have 2 bags each up to 32 kg on VA, but when we come home on QF it is one bag up to 32kg at no cost, then another bag up to 23kg for $20.
I'm figuring we will just leave the US with 1 bag each at 32kg and 1 bag each at 23kg and pay the $20.
But I've not seen anything about the "heavy" allowance.

Presuming you both have status, it would appear you have 2 options.

1 piece at 32kg is included.


For your second piece, the options kick in:

1. Pre-pay an additional piece up to 23kg for $20
2. Pay excess at the airport for the additional piece of $30, but as a status member, no heavy fee appplies, and you get up to 32kg.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you took option 1, pre-paid for an extra piece at 23kg, and then turned up with a bag weighing more (up to32kg). A literal reading of the airport excess baggage charges would seem to imply that your excess charge would only be for "heavy" (as you don't need any additional piece), which is not applicable for a status (or QC) member. YMMV trying this.