Thomson Excess Baggage Charges

steveh65

I recently booked flights through Thomsons, and keen to avoid the fiasco at the airport of forking out cash for an excess kilo I decided to pay up front.

So I have just paid for an additional luggage allowance of 5kg taking 20kg up to 25kg for 3 people.
However, after paying and then reading the small print on my invoice, I now find it is almost impossible to use this.

From the 1st May 2009 they have a strict maximum single bag weight of 23kg, and they do not allow weights to be pooled across passengers.

So therefore to use the full 75kg across 3 people we would now have to take SIX bags!
Taking into account that an empty bag itself will probably weigh 2-3kg each, this seems to make the whole thing a total con.

So I've paid for an extra 5kg and will only really get 3kg.

I spent the last year moaning about the costs, and now that I have stumped up the cash they've come up with another con trick.

mrme

Seems very mean they won't let you pool the luggage :mad: I would contact them & basically state what you have in this post... they may refund a little to keep you sweet you never know!!

The days of mega cheap travel are over though, its not just Thomson pretty much every airline has increased/introduced new charges and stripped services to the bare minimum.

spiro

You may find that the reduction in the maximum weight for a single bag is down to the elf & safety police. In terms of weight pooling more and more airlines seem to introducing this (based on comments made by mates) which I guess is down to maximising income/profit.

BritRael

steveh65 wrote: »

...and they do not allow weights to be pooled across passengers. ...

I would just do it anyway. As long as you do it away from the check-in desk. How would they know??
In fact, me and my missus went to Egypt recently with Thomsons (before May 1st though) and pooled our stuff in one suitcase with no problems. I travel light

webwonder

BritRael wrote: »

I would just do it anyway. As long as you do it away from the check-in desk. How would they know??
In fact, me and my missus went to Egypt recently with Thomsons (before May 1st though) and pooled our stuff in one suitcase with no problems. I travel light

Just got back from Egypt yesterday, me and girlfriend had one suitcase each, our allowance was a misely 15kg and ending up having to pay £168 in excess baggage costs, when offered them a card it was not accepted, had to be marched to cashpoint to draw out cash at extortionate rate, complete rip off.
Nothing was said when we departed the UK with same weights!!!
Like all airlines etc all they are interested in these days is money, money, money!!

Mr_Lahey

webwonder wrote: »

Just got back from Egypt yesterday, me and girlfriend had one suitcase each, our allowance was a misely 15kg and ending up having to pay £168 in excess baggage costs, when offered them a card it was not accepted, had to be marched to cashpoint to draw out cash at extortionate rate, complete rip off.
Nothing was said when we departed the UK with same weights!!!
Like all airlines etc all they are interested in these days is money, money, money!!

Eh?

Your allowance was 15kg...... You took more than that and got charged and you were ripped off?

spiro

My answer to this has been to stop using Samsonite cases which weigh about 4-5kg each and replace them with large sports bags that have wheels and only weigh 1.5kg. An instance gain of 2.5-3.5kg in luggage.

In you case I would fill each bag to the max (23kg) and hope the airport scales agree with your own scales.

Also worth investing in a set of luggage scales (£15-20) to check the weight on the way back especially as some airlines are now checking hadn luggage.

Mr_Lahey

spiro wrote: »

My answer to this has been to stop using Samsonite cases which weigh about 4-5kg each and replace them with large sports bags that have wheels and only weigh 1.5kg. An instance gain of 2.5-3.5kg in luggage.

In you case I would fill each bag to the max (23kg) and hope the airport scales agree with your own scales.

Also worth investing in a set of luggage scales (£15-20) to check the weight on the way back especially as some airlines are now checking hadn luggage.

My answer is pack less.