Booked with Flyglobespan??- The New Con Is On!!

natalie1980_2

Im just back last night from my holiday in Majorca I booked with FlyGlobespan, hotel flight and transfer this is the 3rd time Ive booked with them and Ive never had any problems with them.

Now my case weighed 17kgs on the way out, I am quite stringent when packing, I was only away for a week, on the way back I threw toilertries, suncream ect away. At Glasgow only my case was weighed, I had my small rucksack with me had my passport, purse and my sandwiches to eat before I borded the plane.

Yesterday I was checking in at Palma for my flight home to Glasgow me and my friend put our cases on scales at check in the we where told to put our hand luggage on top.............this is when the con is on....surprise!! we where half a kilo over €35 (around £25) please, theres a british woman hangs around the checkin shes the supervisor and she doesnt look thre road your on, I argued that my ruksack wasnt weighed at Glasgow, she didnt want to know.

I now know that Im not in the minority Ove found a few articles on the web about this, one mirrors my story. This isnt your run of the mill excess baggage story, read these this is a real con:

[URL="javascript:ol('http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=281275&page=2');"]http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=281275&page=2[/URL]


FlyGlobespan - by Ray Faccenda (from holidays uncovered)
27 November 2006

Edinburgh-Murcia, 28th October. At check in, for the first time ever we had our hand luggage added to hold bags, and so were well overweight. What followed was a punitive fine of £110, yes, one hundred and ten pounds. This was a nice start to our holiday, but worse was to come. The same check-in agent asked us to then try our hand luggage in the sizing frame beside her desk. I had already checked Flyglobespan's website for permitted dimensions to ascertain that my camera bag conformed. It did not however fit into the metal frame, so the cheeky litlte madam told us that the bag could not be carried on and would have to go as additional hold baggage, with a further draconian fine of course! I argued this point and asked for the bag to be measured by a Flygoibespan representative, which it was, and of course it then re-qualified for hand luggage status. No apology from the desk person. We were to discover two further discrepancies between the web quoted dimensions and those given at the Alicante check-in desk for our return flight. So all in all four different sets of sizes to worry customers. I understand that this has now been resolved, but what a muddle it was, and how stressful it was for clients. Why can't these so called low price airlines dispense with these extra profit making stealth charges and just pitch their ticket prices a little higher to compensate. Then customers could be spared these nasty surprises and know up front exactly how prices compared, on a level playing field. Or is that exactly what the carriers fear the most?

MarkyMarkD

Which part of this clear wording on FGS's website:

Cabin baggage which is part of your total free baggage allowance, is restricted to dimensions not in excess of 55x45x20cm (including wheels and handles) per passenger.

is not obvious to you?

Just because you may not get charged on the outbound flight doesn't mean that it's not legitimate to charge you on the inbound.

Other airlines also weigh both hold and hand baggage - thomsonfly.com for one - although their total allowance is 25kg instead of 20kg for FGS.

The additional £5 per kilo which FGS charge is also consistent with other airlines.

Your comment:

we where half a kilo over €35 (around £25) please

doesn't make any sense. You must have been 5kg over to be charged £25, presumably at EUR7=£5 per kg.

Ray Faccenda who you quote also seems to have not bothered to read his terms and conditions before travelling to the airport.

dmg24

Another case of the low cost airlines getting a bashing because people fail to read the terms and conditions!

ceebeeby

Hey Natalie,

I'm with you ... I don't disagree that it's in the small print, but it's not very obvious (until it happens). It's not usual to lump hand baggae in with hold baggage (I travel probably ?12? times a year on various airlines and have never heard of this before).

Not bashing the low cost airlines ... I'm typing this from Spain courtesy of a Ryan Air flight .... I just think sometimes it would be more helpful just to have one single cost (i.e. this is the whole cost of the whole flight) and to make something that is slightly unusual (i.e. when Easyjet started up they clearly advertised you were going to pay extra for your tea and coffee which was fairly unique back then) extra clear.

Thanks for the heads up though ... I'll bear this in mind

Edinburghlass_2

Sorry but it is clear on flyglobespan emails and tickets should you get them that the luggage allowance includes cabin baggage.

I flew with flyglobespan from Glasgow to Orlando in June and our hand luggage was weighed on departure from Glasgow but not weighed on our departure from Sanford.

I was given the option of purchasing extra baggage allowance by "ordering and paying online before departure". I thought about doing this for the return leg on the assumption we would be buying while in US but instead went to Tesco before we left and bought a soft holdall type bag with wheels to replace my suitcase as this only weighed 2.5kg empty.

Robert_Haney

Please check out Google/Flyglobespan/news.

I was stranded at own expense in NYC for 7 days, Flt Y2 202. Would love to speak to someone at Globespan about it, but no one ever answers the published phone numbers. Tried again today... 29 days later.. still no answer.

They don't answer emails either, nor FedEx. Would like to have my money returned for the 4 tickets purchased.

They must be too busy weighing handbags. Or maybe I should look more closely at the fine print....

Oh yes, there it is. It says: "Up yours mate! We don't need no stinkin EC Regulation 261. If we fly, you pay. If we don't fly, you pay anyway."

budgetflyer

Are Globespan the new Ryanair? Book a cheap flight with them and slag them off if its not up to business class standard :rolleyes:seems to be the latest craze. What bit of "No Frills" dont you understand ?

The hand luggage included in the 20KG allowance has ALWAYS been the rule with FlyGlobespan, you just didnt read the T&Cs natalie1980 !

I have every sympathy for passengers affected by the long delays on their long haul routes and Globespan do need to do more to answer complaints,look after passengers delayed and get their flights off on time but the luggage issue is really natalie1980's own fault.

MarkyMarkD

It's a recurring theme on MSE.

"I didn't read the small print so I've been ripped off".

Terms & conditions are a necessary part of any commercial transaction. It is NOT reasonable to assume that all airlines operate in the same way. In particular, baggage allowances differ between all airlines and it's an obvious thing to check.

You can't check that your allowance is 20kg (on the terms & conditions) without noticing that hold AND hand baggage is included.

Going round with blinkers on when spotting a "bargain" flight offer is inevitably a recipe for disaster.

Read everything before you book.

Sam_Bee

budgetflyer wrote: »

The hand luggage included in the 20KG allowance has ALWAYS been the rule with FlyGlobespan, you just didnt read the T&Cs natalie1980 !

I completely agree with everything that's been said, however, tbh, I've never heard of this (never flown FlyGlobespan), and it would quite likely catch a lot of people out.

I can now anticipate a lot of airlines going this way now that it has been 'trialled' and hopefully at the very least, this thread will pre-warn those about to set off on their hols with FlyGlobespan.

Edinburghlass_2

Sam_Bee wrote: »

I completely agree with everything that's been said, however, tbh, I've never heard of this (never flown FlyGlobespan), and it would quite likely catch a lot of people out.

I can now anticipate a lot of airlines going this way now that it has been 'trialled' and hopefully at the very least, this thread will pre-warn those about to set off on their hols with FlyGlobespan.

It won't catch them out if they read the emails and the website though as it is clearly stated and you are sent a further email before departure explaining about paying for an extra luggage allowance, meals etc all with the relevant links to their website.

However, as regards the Orlando route they have new planes from November and the luggage allowance for those flights will be increased to 25 kg but this will still include hand/cabin luggage.

mystic_trev

I've been tolf that were supposed to be nice to other moneysavers and give them lots of :grouphug: even when (like the OP) they've been erm (cough) a tad silly not reading the t&c :rolleyes: