Unfair Air France/ Lastminute.com Baggage Practices

I have recently booked a flight to Central America with Lastminute.com. They were offering the flight for a good price with Air France/ KLM/ Coppa Airlines but it wasn't until the end of the booking process that it told me that that this flight didn't include a checked in bag. Now this is a long haul flight so it seems ridiculous that a check in bag would not be included in this and i know these two airlines have traditionally included a 20kg bag when travelling long haul. There was no information on the site as to the full costs of including a bag which i thought was especially poor. I went ahead with the booking then found my full reservation on the Air France website (which showed all flights involved in this trip) and went to purchase a checked bag. However, I was unable to do this. I sent a message query to Air France and was told that I was unable to purchase a bag in advance and would have to purchase this at the airport (which is more expensive). I asked what the cost would be and received no reply. I ended up calling Air France who told me that they were unable to confirm the cost of a checked bag and i could only find out how much it would be when i check in at the airport. She did advise that it could be up to about 150 euros more but didn't really know. I called Lastminute.com and spoke to a particularly unhelpful person there who told me that she also couldn't tell me how much it would cost for a checked bag but could ask for a quote to be sent which would take 10 days.
I realise that many of the big airlines are following the Easyjet/ Ryanair model where customers are enticed in with good flight prices and end up playing a lot more than they originally thought if they want a checked bag. However, at least these low cost airlines put all the costs on their website so you can see what the full costs will be at the time of booking, I still have no idea how much it will cost me to check in a bag. How can these booking companies and airlines get away with such a complete lack of transparency in their costs?? I strongly suspect that i may end up paying a huge amount more for my flight than i originally anticipated.

Comments

  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 32,521
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    Have you tried the Air France baggage calculator?
    I'm surprised you can't add it onto the booking online though.
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • I've looked online and I can't find a cost info about. The person i spoke to at Air France customer services told me that she was unable to tell me the cost. I just don't understand how no one can give me this information! It's not like i am asking for anything unusual. I feel like i am being slightly conned. When i get to the airport to check in i will have no choice but to pay whatever they chose to charge.
  • I also just had an email from Lastminute.com to tell me that they can't give me a quote for baggage and that i need to contact the airline for costs!!!
  • EveryWhere
    EveryWhere Posts: 3,249 Forumite
    According to the Air France Baggage calculator, a single item of additional hold luggage (23kgs) is 80 euros online and 100 euros at the airport.

    https://www.airfrance.fr/FR/en/local/resainfovol/aba/BagCalculatorAction.do?method=jspProcess

    If you make a dummy booking of a Light Fare on the AF website, you will be offered the opportunity to buy hold luggage online one way for 50 euros.

    If you utilise their quote of a 20% discount, then you could be paying 120 euros for the Return flight.
    It's odd that they cannot sell you outbound luggage now.
  • photome
    photome Posts: 16,350
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    I also find it strange that the baggage price wasn’t available at time of booking.

    As you say most people would take hold baggage in long haul.

    Another reason to book direct with airline.

    KLM have just introduced a light fare, thought I had found a bargain flight price , then baggage charges appeared think it was about £35 each way on a long haul flight
  • I can't get the baggage calculator to work. I have tried on my phone on Chrome and IE and nothing happens when i hit apply. It also only applies to Air France & Hop flights and the final flight of my journey is with Coppa (although this was all done in one booking and all flights appear in the My Reservations part of the Air France Website). Literally no one can tell me the costs of a checking in a bag! How is this a fair way to operate?
  • Katal wrote: »
    I can't get the baggage calculator to work. I have tried on my phone on Chrome and IE and nothing happens when i hit apply. It also only applies to Air France & Hop flights and the final flight of my journey is with Coppa (although this was all done in one booking and all flights appear in the My Reservations part of the Air France Website). Literally no one can tell me the costs of a checking in a bag! How is this a fair way to operate?

    I've already told you. Expect a cost of 60 to 80 euros each way for a 23 kg piece.

    It seems that you had the opportunity to not complete the booking when you realised it was a Light fare with no Hold luggage, but you confirmed anyway.
  • The amount on the baggage calculator is not for the flight i am taking so the 60-80 Euros is not accurate. The system will not give a figure for a Light fare. In fact after a back and forth on twitter with Air France they have said it will be over 100 Euros each way but can't tell me how much more it will be. I DID know that the fare didn't include a bag that's not my problem. The thing that i think is unfair and poor practice is the lack of information about the true cost of the checked bag. This is basic info that should be available, Also, there was nothing to say that I would not be able to add in a bag online and would be forced to pay an inflated price at the airport.
  • Katal wrote: »
    The amount on the baggage calculator is not for the flight i am taking so the 60-80 Euros is not accurate. The system will not give a figure for a Light fare. In fact after a back and forth on twitter with Air France they have said it will be over 100 Euros each way but can't tell me how much more it will be. I DID know that the fare didn't include a bag that's not my problem. The thing that i think is unfair and poor practice is the lack of information about the true cost of the checked bag. This is basic info that should be available, Also, there was nothing to say that I would not be able to add in a bag online and would be forced to pay an inflated price at the airport.

    It's a bit annoying that you don't simply state the destination concerned, instead of just venting here. How can anyone check if they don't know the routing??
    I chose Panama for my example.
    So simply run a dummy booking on the AirFrance website direct and see how much they charge there to add hold luggage. Add at least 20% to the online price offered.
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