Airline will only let me book hold luggage at airport, but won't tell me how much it will cost??

DullGreyGuy

Tirian said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Tirian said:

user1977 said:

Tirian said:

I am struggling to comprehend why this is actually legal.  Surely if it is, it should not be - you should at least have the right to know how much something like this is going to cost BEFORE you turn up for a flight??

Well, you don't have a right to have the luggage added at all, even if the cost is extortionate. They would be within their rights to shrug and say the hold is already full, or any other reason they like.

Well that's a lovely opinion, but it's clearly not the case as they have said quite clearly that they will add the hold luggage at the airport.

Am I to take it that you don't have any answers to the actual questions I asked?

They are saying you dont have a "right" to be able to add luggage to your airline booking. There is no law that says airlines have to allow you to buy luggage from them. 

It is highly likely that they will be more than happy to take your luggage for you for the right amount of silver but thats not a (legal) right just it makes commercial sense for them to do so. Presumably they operate surge pricing so depending on how full the plane is will dictate the price they will charge hence they cannot tell you now.  

So is all the flight with Iberia or just part of it? Their prices are shown on their website inc airport price ranges https://www.iberia.com/gb/luggage/allowance-in-hold/#!/baggages-search 

If Ibera were doing the whole flight it would be €65 for the first bag and €150 for the second or more. I've guessed at booking and flying dates but the tool is on the website above so you can enter the real figures. Would be €10 per bag cheaper if done before the flight. 

I am not saying that they do "have to" allow addition of luggage. 

I am saying that they DO allow addition of luggage to the booking, and that the terms under which they offer that are unreasonable ones that unnecessarily put their customer in a position of material disadvantage, by being deliberately non-transparent, when they clearly have the ability to be transparent.

The information from LatAm states that I need to contact Iberia to confirm the price of additional luggage.  Iberia won't tell me the price until I get to the airport, and I am saying that unless someone can give any good reason why they should not tell me the price before I actually arrive at the airport with my luggage, that this is not a reasonable business practice.

Would you say that it is?

Well you stated you think you should have a right to know, and its been clarified you dont even have a right to know if they will take the luggage (though most likely they will) let alone the price. It would be great if they did allow and told you up front but you dont have a legal right for it. 

Doesnt really matter if I think its reasonable or unreasonable it ultimately is what it is and my views on reasonableness isnt going to change that.  There can be various complexities of who actually does what, who's employed by who etc which makes business operations vastly more complex behind the scenes than the average person thinks. Hence when M&S had its cyber attack people here were saying why didnt they just restore from backup and be running again the next day instead of the messages that it could be until (late) July before everything is running again properly. 

I'd suggest a more travel specific website like FlyerTalk may be able to both tell you if the price on Iberia's website is likely to be the correct price given your not actually Iberia all the way and potentially also why they can't do it at the call centre. There is incredibly detailed stuff on there like checkin process for non-rev pax at LHR T5 and which staff door to go through etc. 

Tirian

Sorry but there is a lot of nonsense being spouted here.  These particular airlines BOTH provide the ability to book additional luggage pre-flight.  They choose to do that.  

So all this stuff about surge pricing, or what if there's too much luggage booked is rubbish - both of these airlines can and do manage all of that perfectly well and provide prices ahead of flights for booking luggage onto their own flights.  LatAm also advise to contact the "partner airline" for pricing on additional luggage, but then that partner airline declines to provide that information.  That is misleading and unethical. 

Perhaps it is legal - which was my original question - but also, per my original post, it doesn't seem right that it should be legal.  There are all sorts of rules and regulations in all sorts of sectors that protect the public from rapacious practices of businesses that can otherwise extort people through unethical practices - and forcing people to make an on the spot decision whether or not to pay an inflated price or suffer detriment has absolutely been recognised in many sectors as unreasonable and rules put in place to prevent it. 

And in fact, this very website and its founder have frequently campaigned for and achieved changes in rules to ban such practices.   So yes it does matter if it is reasonable or unreasonable.  It may not change things with respect to my particular upcoming flight, but there is plenty of evidence here that both these companies are able to and in fact do price AND book additional luggage ahead of flights.

And I have so far seen nothing in anyone's responses but speculation, and on occasion erroneous assumptions, about why they would refuse to do so for this one.

You say it is maybe more complex behind the scene.  Maybe it is, but unless you can tell me what would *actually* prevent them from doing so, that is pure speculation - whereas what I am asking for is if anyone has actual knowledge on why it would not be possible for Iberia staff to book this ahead of time, when all the parties involved can and do permit booking additional luggage ahead of time, and when Iberia staff will in fact book the luggage on at the airport.  

Thank you @DullGreyGuy for the suggestion of the other website - haven't looked yet but sounds like the kind of place that might be more likely to have that kind of information.

DullGreyGuy

Tirian said:

Perhaps it is legal - which was my original question - but also, per my original post, it doesn't seem right that it should be legal.  There are all sorts of rules and regulations in all sorts of sectors that protect the public from rapacious practices of businesses that can otherwise extort people through unethical practices - and forcing people to make an on the spot decision whether or not to pay an inflated price or suffer detriment has absolutely been recognised in many sectors as unreasonable and rules put in place to prevent it. 

Generally things are legal unless there is a law that explicitly states it isnt. 

Laws on air travel are difficult because of the jurisdictional issues of the number of countries involved from where the airline is domiciled, where the flight is too and from etc. In principle a country can close its airspace to those airlines that dont want to obey local law but it's a fairly drastic thing to do. If it's a flag carrier then you're likely to lose tourism etc as a consequence. 

There is no law governing airlines having to sell additional baggage to add to an existing flight let alone one that specifies which channels it has to be available through etc. 

As an aside, have you looked to see how much a luggage company would charge? A friend swears by one but then they have 3 kids and so can see the attraction of not having to have kids, buggies and luggage. Theirs dont service Peru for some reason, though they cover most of Latin America, but imagine others might... when I looked they were more expensive than adding luggage at the time of booking. 

Tirian

DullGreyGuy said:

Tirian said:

Perhaps it is legal - which was my original question - but also, per my original post, it doesn't seem right that it should be legal.  There are all sorts of rules and regulations in all sorts of sectors that protect the public from rapacious practices of businesses that can otherwise extort people through unethical practices - and forcing people to make an on the spot decision whether or not to pay an inflated price or suffer detriment has absolutely been recognised in many sectors as unreasonable and rules put in place to prevent it. 

Generally things are legal unless there is a law that explicitly states it isnt. 

Laws on air travel are difficult because of the jurisdictional issues of the number of countries involved from where the airline is domiciled, where the flight is too and from etc. In principle a country can close its airspace to those airlines that dont want to obey local law but it's a fairly drastic thing to do. If it's a flag carrier then you're likely to lose tourism etc as a consequence. 

There is no law governing airlines having to sell additional baggage to add to an existing flight let alone one that specifies which channels it has to be available through etc. 

As an aside, have you looked to see how much a luggage company would charge? A friend swears by one but then they have 3 kids and so can see the attraction of not having to have kids, buggies and luggage. Theirs dont service Peru for some reason, though they cover most of Latin America, but imagine others might... when I looked they were more expensive than adding luggage at the time of booking. 

Airlines can and have been restricted from certain sales and operation practices in the UK in the past.  It doesn't even need to be a new law, there are existing laws in the UK governing consumer rights and unfair business practices in general that could be applied.

I have indeed looked at what it would cost to courier a bag to Puerto Maldonado - £156.  It could conceivably be a reasonable way to do it - but pretty impossible to tell when the airlines won't tell you what their charge would be for taking it as hold luggage ....

saajan_12

Fully agree and sympathise it should be possible in this century, to pre-book luggage, so that the airline doesn't have those last minute issues needing surge pricing and the passenger knows what to pack. 

EXPLANATION:
The issue here will almost certainly be the systems across the industry that allow booking across airlines are around 60 years out of date. Your booking request is sent as an old line-entry style request to to price aggregators, which at that stage has an option for luggage. After that, the linkage between airlines is very manual, so I can believe they don't infact have a way for Iberia customer service agents to book Latam luggage or vice versa as those lists are maintained separately. The airport staff would however collate both sets for the upcoming flights and can add the luggage straight through. Unlikely to be profiteering, as they'd presumably love to collect your money for add ons such as luggage, whereas many people may not take the risk on the day of the flight and just travel super light. 
Basically agree its ridiculous, but its more likely outdated systems than a profiteering ploy. 

SUGGESTION: 
What might work is if you book the luggage separately for each flight leg, eg Iberia and Latam separately. Then when you get to the airport, they should be able to see that its paid for each leg and hence tag it to pass straight through. 

strawb_shortcake

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6602010/etihad-charged-me-1600-at-the-desk-to-take-3-suitcases-to-australia-how-can-i-get-my-money-back/p1

Looking at thread copied above, sending it separately may well be the cheapest option.
In all honesty though I probably would have worked out how much baggage I'd need before booking the flight rather than  assuming it would be easy to add on afterwards

mdann52

Did you by any chance end up booking a basic Hand Baggage Only fare?

From memory, IB do not allow pre-booking additional hold bags on these if so, and you either need to amend the fare class to be entitled to hold luggage, or pay at the airport