your luggage is overweight - step up to the excess fee.

jamescredmond

I tend to slag off the Uk press (see my other posts) but here's something I found in sat's guardian.

'report blasts airlines for mis-weighing luggage abd pushing check-in staff to collect extra charges.'

Trading Standards, it would appear, did a spot check on scales at gatwick and found nearly 20% were set above zero before luggage was weighed.

no individual airline was identified but the finger of suspicion clearly points to the low-cost carriers.

the chances of compensation for mis-weighing are close to zilch, as the article makes clear.

so no moneysaving here. other than to say: weigh your baggage scrupulously and on more than one set of scales before you fly, then argue if the check-in scales don't tally.

generally speaking, cheap air travel is a good thing ( I exclude ryanair - see previous posts ad nauseum) but has it really come to this?

alanrowell

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/apr/05/consumeraffairs

chuckley

hows that when they show the scale number facing you? if it says anything above 0, its the customers fault for accepting if its over.

i dont believe any if it to be true.

Saint_Chris

quite funny really

as last week i was coming back from tenerife with ryanair, and everyone was weighing there cases on the check in desks which were closed (it was a thursday and the airport was empty)

we had 3 cases in total, 1 weighed 13kg, 14kg and 15kg

so i knew we were bang on

placed the 13kg and 14kg on, never looked at the weight and these went through

i put the 15kg on and it came out at 16kg, the lady said i have to charge you for being 1 kg over,

So i told her that i had weighed my case on checkin desk number ? and it was bang on 15kg and could we take it there to be re-checked, as maybe there was a fault with her desk.

She picked up the case put it down, and hey presto it weighed 15.5kg

with a unhappy look on her face she just gave me my boarding cards.

funny thing is the people who argue when there cases are 22kg and they start telling the checkin girl, that it is the weight for them and there child, it does clearly state on there website weight, then they hold the que up by argueing, then by taking stuff out, because they are annoyed.

jamescredmond

chuckley wrote: »

hows that when they show the scale number facing you? if it says anything above 0, its the customers fault for accepting if its over.

i dont believe any if it to be true.

ah. so trading standards must be telling massive porkies.
perhaps the officers experienced a bad flight and decided to put the boot in.

and the scale no. facing you is deadly accurate...

richardw

Perhaps get a bag of something cheap, say rice, to check the scales and then leave it with them to settle any arguments.

nearlyrich

I have noticed that a lot of the package carriers have reduced the weight from 20kg to 15kg and then add on a £10 charge for an extra 5kg...makes the holiday look cheaper till you add all the extras on.

Mrs_Thrify

On the story of weight - in a conversation with someone,they said " next time they were only going to pack 1 beach towl each, as most sc appartments now provide towels. If extra was needed they would buy on holiday" I thought-howtrue.

Saint_Chris

we dont' take beach towels, we just buy them when on holiday then throw them away.

Mrs_Thrify

Oh***even better weight saving :rolleyes: prehaps we ort to start a weight saving thred? I also ware/carry a flease & light jacket to board - with trainers and put the lighter sandles in the case. Only need 1 more cardi in case for the cooler evenings/high mountins trips.

bagand96

The report, Hiding Extra Charges in the Baggage, reveals that 62 out of 321 scales that were checked at Gatwick were incorrect to the disadvantage of passengers.

Can I ask how many were wrong in the other direction, i.e. favouring the passengers?

That seems like a gaping whole in the report? I would expect that sentence to read something more like "62 out of 321 scales were in the favour of the airline, while XX were in the favour of the passenger..."

The fact that this is not even mentioned says to me that it has just been left out... and for a reason. maybe it might just show that just as many favoured the passengers, as these bits of equipment will have a deviation BOTH ways?

Or am I a cynic?