Over 20k luggage with Thomsons and they want £70!

Christabel

My husband and I are travelling to Mexico with Thomson Airways in October and have been told we are only allowed 20k luggage each INCLUDING HAND LUGGAGE. As we are going for 2 weeks and also taking snorkels this is going to be difficult to achieve, for me anyway! I've been told we can pay extra to take more but that its £35 each. When I said I would just have the one lot of £35 extra luggage I was told no, it had to be the two of us even though his might be under 20k. Surely this can't be right? Has anyone else had experience of this please and what, if anything, did they do?

thegirlintheattic

Are you sure it's including hand baggage? I'm going to Europe with Thomson and have a 20kg hold with 7kg hand baggage.

I don't think there is away of getting around pay for extra baggage for both of you, as it's the same with extra leg room seats, priority seating, meals etc. it's applied for everyone on your booking. For example, me and my OH do not mind sitting apart, and as I'm small I don't need extra legroom, however he is tall so need its. We called up to see if we could just get extra legroom for one of us, but they said no, it's either both or try to fight for an extra row seat on board. We paid in the end. It's the problem for paying extra in advance, but is likely to work out cheaper than paying for just your excess at the airport.

You can spilt your baggage allowance between you as long as no bag is over 20kg, so if you husband is only taking 15 kg, you can put an extra 5kg in his bag or take an extra bag with that 5kg in, as long as the total between you is under 40kg with no one bag being heavier than 20kg.

If you don't want to pay, have you checked to see if your hotel offers a laundry service, in some areas these can be very cost effective and then you'd only have to take a week's worth of clothes.

MacMickster

Many all-inclusive hotels in the Caribbean provide use of watersports equipment, including snorkels, flippers etc, as part of the package. Check with your travel agent.

spiro

Reading the T&Cs baggage weight is combined:

http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/faqs/flights/luggage.html

Quotes (note bits in bold):

All flight-only customers are entitled to a free hand luggage allowance of up to 5kg. Customers wishing to check in luggage may do so for a small charge by selecting the option whilst making a booking. A maximum of 5 items of luggage can be pre-booked by each passenger

Each passenger who has opted to pay for check in luggage has a total allowance of 20kg per person, irrespective of the number of bags checked in.

Customers choosing to book a Premium Seat (on selected flights) will enjoy an inclusive check in baggage allowance. Premium seats include a total of 30kg baggage allowance (a maximum of 23kg can be checked in to the hold and up to 7kg can be taken on board).

On another page http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/legal/baggage-allowance.html it is very clear:

Each customer is entitled to a check-in allowance of up to 15kg baggage and a maximum 5kg for hand baggage (max. dimensions: 55cm x 40cm x 20cm). Up to 10kg extra hold baggage allowance can be purchased at the time of booking for an extra charge.

DUKE

I went to Cuba for 2 weeks with TC in June & was shocked that I could only take 20KG luggage too, & my case weighed 5KG! But I was fine as I took enough clothes for just over a week & a few nice dresses to wear in the evening & I was well under the weight. I didn't believe it was possible to do but some days you just have your swimsuit on & they don't take up much room in your case. Also I rinsed out a few things or hung them up & wore them again the following week, again I've never done this before but it all worked out ok. Being a money saver there was no way I was going to pay an extra £70! :eek:

thegirlintheattic

spiro wrote: »

Reading the T&Cs baggage weight is combined:

http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/faqs/flights/luggage.html

Quotes (note bits in bold):

All flight-only customers are entitled to a free hand luggage allowance of up to 5kg. Customers wishing to check in luggage may do so for a small charge by selecting the option whilst making a booking. A maximum of 5 items of luggage can be pre-booked by each passenger

Each passenger who has opted to pay for check in luggage has a total allowance of 20kg per person, irrespective of the number of bags checked in.

Customers choosing to book a Premium Seat (on selected flights) will enjoy an inclusive check in baggage allowance. Premium seats include a total of 30kg baggage allowance (a maximum of 23kg can be checked in to the hold and up to 7kg can be taken on board).

On another page http://www.thomson.co.uk/editorial/legal/baggage-allowance.html it is very clear:

Each customer is entitled to a check-in allowance of up to 15kg baggage and a maximum 5kg for hand baggage (max. dimensions: 55cm x 40cm x 20cm). Up to 10kg extra hold baggage allowance can be purchased at the time of booking for an extra charge.

Didn't realise it was different for flight only - compared to package holiday allowance.

jeanniebeanie_2

We have booked flight only to Florida and this is what we get as standard having paid £40 each to check in bags:

http://flights.thomson.co.uk/en/bg_examples_0509.html

davidlizard

MacMickster wrote: »

Many all-inclusive hotels in the Caribbean provide use of watersports equipment, including snorkels, flippers etc, as part of the package. Check with your travel agent.

Its often worth taking your own stuff, particularly masks that you know fit correctly, as the local stuff could be of questionable quality. Some of the more bulkier stuff such as flippers are less critical though and otherwise fully agree with what MacMickster recommends.

carolmorgan

My family have booked a 10 night holiday to Salou with Thomson. When we received the paperwork this week we saw we have all been given a 25 kg luggage allowance + 7kg hand luggage. I suspected we may have been charged for this and checking through the brochure price and the price we paid there was a discrepancy. We had no breakdown of charges but the agent has confirmed we have been charged £17.50 each for this.

I remember the agent saying we have extra baggage allowance (20kg) because it is a premier brochure but I certainly do not remember any extra money being mentioned and I would not have agreed to this especially for our daughter who barely weighs 25kg herself.

It seems we have also been charged a donation of £2-50 for some Earth or World charity which once again I don't remember hearing anything about. Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to giving a charitable donation but I like to be asked.

With all the insurance, theme park tickets, booking seats together etc. it is very easy to get bamboozled and by not receiving a breakdown of costs it is difficult to know what your are paying for. My husband spoke to the agent who said it was too late to change things now, I am waiting for them to ring me back now (which they didn't do today although it is Saturday) as I feel we have been mis-sold extra baggage allowance.

Has anyone else had this problem with Thomson?

stephb34

Did you book this over the telephone as when they are explaining what you are paying for its likely you were given a total price that you must have been happy with but didn't get an individual breakdown of each item. On a premier hol the std luggage is 20kg each and 5kg hand, on a std hol the luggage is 15kg, people often upgrade then to the 20kg but to upgrade to the 25kg is a bit of a con as with thomsons you're not allowed 25kg in 1 suitcase due to the baggage handlers. So then to get your extra 2kg of hold luggage you've paid for you need to take another case which i suppose is okay if your a family of 4 or 5 cause that 2kg each added together maybe worth carrying an extra case but if theres only 2 of you the case probably weighs more than your 4kg allowed. As for the charity donation yes you should be asked if you want to donate.

carolmorgan

We booked it in a travel agents but with so many extras e.g. paying to sit next to each other, it would have been easy to slip this one in. I can imagine that if we had been asked we might have said upgrade my husband's luggage and it seems from other posts you cannot only upgrade one but this should have been made clear. I can't carry 25 kg,nor can my daughter.

As you say, the limit per case is 23kg only so we can't actually take 25kg anyway unless we take another case and I'm sure there will be a limit of one case per passenger written somewhere.