Excess luggage allowance withdrawn

[liberatortoo]

I've just booked to go on holiday using Emirates and found out too late that they no longer allow an extra 10kg for divers (last year they did). I was told this has only been introduced this week and that other airlines are doing the same.

I was wondering what people's experiences are.

I'm hoping that if we all kick up a fuss and complain to airlines, they'll change their minds.

Anyone who wishes to put their pointed point across to Emirates, should contact them at customer.affairsuk@emirates.com

[RonProwse]

Last week i received a call from XL telling me that the standard allowance had been reduced from May 1st to 15kg per person! I explained politely that i had brought and paid for the tickets over 9 months previous and at that time that was their Terms and conditions when booked so they said they would Honor it.

Ron

[TaffyTheDiver]

Flew with XL to Hurghada and back last week. On the way out no problem (main bag 23kg), but on the return they were weighing everyones bags (and some hand luggage as well) and charging excess baggage wherever they could.

Might have been as the flight was totally full or a wider clampdown.

They do give +10kgs for diving - they wanted to see a cert card before they approved it though!

[samui13]

i think we are going to start seeing a lot of passengers wearing bcd's on planes. thats what i will be doing next week, when i get on a singapore flight to sulawesi. i dont know what they will think of it, i have not read in any information that you cannot wear bcd's. airlines are all adopting the no allowance for sporting goods, so they can charge extreme prices. i wouldnt mind if it was only a few £ per kilo, but singapore are £48 per kilo, and thats each way.
what annoys me is that they do not charge sverely overweight ( obese ) passengers for being too heavy. i know some airlines were in discussions regarding a total weight per passenger, which would mean passengers weight + luggage, but the PC brigade caught wind of it and they stopped their discussions.
another thing that isnt taken into account is the weight of your cases/holdalls. they have to be strong enough to withstand the abuse that they are given by the baggage handlers in airports, so a good bag will weigh anything from 3.5 - 5 k empty.

carry on luggage is another joke. you can only take 5k on most planes but when you get to duty free you can buy bottles of spirits which must weigh a couple of kilos. i know that singapore allow 7k for hand luggage, and i have been told that they are starting to weigh it at check in and at the boardibng gate.

i have had many telephone conversations with singapore and they are adamant that i will be charged if i am 1 kilo over. for my trip next week to lembeh i could end up with a £800 excess luggage cost. bearing in mind my flight only cost me £700 and for the £700 i have my own body weight 12 stone, plus 20 kilos hold luggage and 7 kilos for hand luggage. for the £800 i can only take 8 kilos

[liberatortoo]

I've been quoted 35GBP per kilo! This is just rank profiteering. A couple of quid I could understand but not 35 or even 48!

I could even understand high rates from the budget carriers but not the long hauliers - rarely are their planes full and rarely are the overhead luggage bins full which means there's spare capacity, which means they're taking money for old rope.

This is something that BSAC and Diver should be campaigning on.

[Allan Carr]

We noticed on our recent RTW trip (21 flights) that the airlines are really clamping down on luggage, presumably as a result of the increase in cost of fuel. Part of our decision to go Business Class was because the excess baggage charges would have exceeded the difference in cost between economy and business. Even so, we had a couple of flights where the check-in staff initially refused to accept the two piece x 32kg allowance we had. In Cairo, they wanted to charge us over £700 for excess baggage for the trip back to London. Another couple at the next check-in desk who were travelling economy were indeed charged for being 1 KG overweight.

They didn't seem to be too strict on the weight of hand baggage for Business Class passengers but we saw quite a number of airports where they were weighing hand baggage for economy passengers.

With many airlines, the check-in staff do not work for the airline but for a ground services agency and we found that these tended to be the strictest.

[nickb]

I've never travelled abroad to dive, but my wife's quite keen so this may be an issue for us soon.

Has anyone ever tried inflating their wing or BC with helium before packing it? Clearly this would take up quite a bit of space but if you have a very large bag, it's not possible to fill them these days without hitting the limits that the baggage handlers are prepared to deal with.

That could save a kilo or so I reckon

[samui13]

[QUOTE=nickb

Has anyone ever tried inflating their wing or BC with helium before packing it?

thats funny.

gatwick recently had all their scales calibrated by OFT and found that 20% were incorrect. ( to the airlines advantage )check in gates are supposed to have all there check in scales calibrated on a weekly basis by an independant company.

[String]

Mate of mine wears his BC on a plane. Its one of the stupidly heavy tigullio hover ones so saves him 5kg.

I have flown to greece wearing my Weezle with my torch battery in handluggage, dive gauges in laptop bag before now.

Ive also got one of the thin nylon bags with no wheels or structure to carry dive gear as it weighs about 400g empty as opposed to 4-5kg of a wheeled case.

[ratcliffe]

Originally Posted by String

Ive also got one of the thin nylon bags with no wheels or structure to carry dive gear as it weighs about 400g empty as opposed to 4-5kg of a wheeled case.

I considered this as you can get some really light bags, but they don't have wheels for lugging through the airport, and also being quite flimsy I would be worried about kit damage.

I take it though, you have never had any problems ?