Airline won't honour baggage allowance at booking

ericthelobster

This is an odd one...

I've recently booked a long-haul flight for several months time, where I particularly need a hefty baggage allowance. Doing my research, I was pleasantly surprised to find a standard economy flight offering 2 x 23 kg bags, and I booked it. However, when I checked the e-ticket it stated "30 kg".

I naturally queried this, attaching a screen shot of the booking screen (I wasn't born yesterday!) and received a reply apologising for the 'confusion' (no, there wasn't any) and telling me I indeed had just the 30 kg allowance. I've just replied kicking off about this and am awaiting their response - but I'm interested to know what recourse if any I actually have, if any; especially considering that this isn't a UK or EU airline (albeit a prominent global one).

I looked at my booking online to see how much it would cost to add on the 'missing' 16 kg, but it's simply not possible in economy. (No problem if I'd had a more expensive seat though, of course.)

Given that the airline have seen the screenshot, I simply can't believe they have the balls to do this...

suki1964

Airline and route??

dj1471

Assuming you booked directly with the airline, any recourse would come from whatever legislation applies to the booking. What do the T&Cs say about governing law?

Though to be honest it sounds like a mistake, there aren't too many airlines truly offering that kind of baggage allowance in economy anymore.

comeandgo

Are you sure you can't "buy" extra allowance? I have always travelled economy and have had no problem paying extra to take a bike with us or even extra presents to family.

ericthelobster

dj1471 wrote: »

What do the T&Cs say about governing law?

Well, there's lots of stuff about baggage allowances for sure, but nothing that says anything close "we're allowed to reduce the baggage allowance at any time from what we said you'd be getting when you bought your ticket" - I mean, why would there?

dj1471 wrote: »

Though to be honest it sounds like a mistake

Yes, and I expect that's why they're back-pedalling now, but so what - that's still the ticket they sold me. If I was a member of one of several loyalty schemes, or if I'd bought a more expensive ticket, then there would be no argument now; in fact I'd be permitted anything between 50 and 100 kg total baggage allowance, without question. Not like there's no room on board for my paltry 46 kg...

comeandgo wrote: »

Are you sure you can't "buy" extra allowance?

Absolutely. If I try, I get "You're unable to purchase additional baggage online, as your booking contains segments operated by other airlines." One of the 5 legs of my return trip is indeed via another airline (that was clear when I bought my ticket). For what it's worth, that airline does permit additional baggage allowance purchases if required, on the same flight I'm booked on.

Westin

Which Airline? Who did you book through, direct with the airline or via an agency? When did you book? When do you travel?

Why do people miss out the important then drip feed information?

We could all continue guessing what you could do and any recourse, or you could give the MSE community some facts so some relevant help and suggestions might be possible and given.

dj1471

ericthelobster wrote: »

Well, there's lots of stuff about baggage allowances for sure, but nothing that says anything close "we're allowed to reduce the baggage allowance at any time from what we said you'd be getting when you bought your ticket" - I mean, why would there?

That's not what I asked at all, is it?

If you're refusing to provide any useful information then nobody can help you. It will come down to what the T&Cs say about errors, if anything, and per my original question what jurisdiction the contract was formed under. If the contract is with a UK subsidiary and governed by UK law then it's easy to advise, otherwise you'd need to research applicable consumer legislation in whether jurisdiction applies to establish what recourse you have.

TheShape

ericthelobster wrote: »

If I try, I get "You're unable to purchase additional baggage online, as your booking contains segments operated by other airlines." One of the 5 legs of my return trip is indeed via another airline (that was clear when I bought my ticket). For what it's worth, that airline does permit additional baggage allowance purchases if required, on the same flight I'm booked on.

What are the baggage allowances (for your purchased fare) on each of these five legs? It appears to me that you may be restricted to 30kg if any one of these legs has a maximum allowance of 30kg.

ericthelobster

Thanks for the feedback dj1471.

As will be fairly obvious, I deliberately haven't named the airline involved at this point - while I await a final response from them on this I don't want to risk possibly upsetting the apple cart by going public. Yet.

As I said though, it's a global, non-EU airline. I booked my ticket with them direct (ie via their global, .com website - no UK subsidiary or anything like that). (FYI I bought it last week, for travel to New Zealand in January 2020, but not sure how that info helps?)

The ticket T&Cs mention that the agreement is governed by the laws of <insert country name here> but makes no mention of either airline booking errors or any method of recourse I might have.

TheShape wrote: »

What are the baggage allowances (for your purchased fare) on each of these five legs?

As I said, I did check that... in fact it's only 23 kg (ie less than what my current ticket provides, so clearly there's a specific agreement in place there which overrides the second airline's standard limits).

Westin

Baggage allowances can change depending on your routing, fare type, destination and even when you booked.

Still not sure of your airline of travel but as an example, had you looked at Singapore Airlines for your flight to New Zealand the economy allowance is on the whole based on a weight concept. Economy Lite and Economy Standard have 1 x 30kgs allowance and Economy Flex 1 x 35kgs. If however your flight is to or via the USA they work on a piece allowance and offer Economy passengers 2 x up to 23kgs each bags.

https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/gb/travel-info/baggage/checked-baggage/

Perhaps you misread the information given based on a USA routing.

As you won’t disclose the airline no one can really offer much more meaningful advice.

ericthelobster

Westin wrote: »

Baggage allowances can change depending on your routing, fare type, destination and even when you booked.

Well aware of that. But as I said in my original post I have a screenshot of the booking screen, showing my exact route, ticket cost in GBP, flight grade and baggage allowance, on my specific flight, immediately before I pressed 'buy'. Can't really be clearer than that!

Westin wrote: »

As you won’t disclose the airline no one can really offer much more meaningful advice.

As I say, I'm not going to do that, yet. Any airline customer service outfit worth its salt is going to have a Google Alert set up on its company, and while there's still hope that they will see reason, it's not going to help matters if they read this thread.

As I said at the outset of the thread, I was simply after general info about what recourse I might have with a global (non EU) airline to get this put right.