Paid for checked baggage twice!

Lpa017

Hi,

I don't know if anyone can help me but was advised by a friend to give it a shot. I recently flew with Alitalia from Rome Fiumicino to Florence. I booked the flight back in March via the company Go To Gate and paid for two checked bags at 20kg each, which cost £37.72 (€40). Alitalia's check in policy means that I couldn't check in online for my flight until 48 hours before the flight. I was given the option to purchase checked bag allowance but I didn't look into it as I knew I'd already purchased bag allowance.

So me and my friend get to the airport, we're about to miss our flight and the kind Alitalia staff called the gate and let them know that we'd we on our way. However, the e-tickets I'd printed that morning said "light fare" on them - as far as they were concerned, we had no checked bag allowance. Knowing that if we argued we would miss our flight, we paid €80 for two bags. Upon arrival in Florence, I forwarded Alitalia a copy of the confirmation email send to me from Go To Gate, which detailed the payment for two checked bags, along with photos of our boarding passes, receipt of payment at th check in desk and a screenshot of my online bank statement showing the pending transaction. I received a response two days later, saying that they were correct in charging us the €80 at check in.

Has this ever happened to anyone? I'm so annoyed, especially since, after all that, our bags weren't even on our flight! I just want a refund of the €80 as I know we'd already paid for our bags in advance. Thanks and sorry for such a lengthy post.

PeacefulWaters

Go To Gate are your problem. Take it up with them. Or, if it's within 120 days, charge back on the card you paid with for services not supplied.

GTG also seem to have robbed you blind on the exchange rate.

NiftyDigits

So Go To Gate need to give you a refund. Nothing to do with Alitalia.
Why would you pay for bags separately? That doesn't make sense. BA have a hand baggage only fare, but if you want luggage in the hold, you simply buy the fare that includes a hold luggage allowance. You don't buy the hand luggage only fare and then a hold luggage allowance.
So why would you do that anyway?

Lpa017

NiftyDigits, honestly I had no idea about the fares you've just described. I'm 22 so I don't have much experience when it comes to booking holidays. For every flight I've ever booked, I've booked the standard economy fare, then added the baggage as needed. But thanks for the heads up, I'll be on the lookout for the different fares in the future.

NiftyDigits

GoToGate has, siimply put, cheated you.

Dummy booking

Alitalia:



Light fare is £83 and Classic fare with hold luggage is £98.

GoToGate:



They charge £100 (which covers the cost of the hold luggage fare)

But then on the next page, they tell you that baggage is not included:



That is bad enough. But worse if you actually pay again for hold luggage and it is not reflected on your ticket.


So in fact they have likely cheated you twice. Once for giving you a Light ticket for a Classic ticket fare and twice, for making you pay for hold luggage a second time and then not booking you a Classic ticket which would have luggage inclusive.

It is fraud plain and simple. They have charged for for a service that they cannot possibly provide.
Alitalia give a 23kgs allowance, whereas GoToGate have sold you a 20kgs allowance...and not provided it anyway.

If a UK citizen, approach your bank or CC provider. You may find it hard to prove that you paid for a ticket including hold luggage in the first place. But you'll have no problem in proving that you paid for a luggage allowance but issued a light ticket and had to pay 80€ more. If you paid with a credit card, the card company is jointly liable. So you may request a refund of the 80€. If by debit card, perhaps only what you paid GoToGate extra for luggage...unless you can prove that you paid for a Classic ticket in the first place.
Looking at their website, they are probably the most dodgy OTA that I have ever seen.