Air baggage fees an unwelcome surprise

If you’re taking bulky luggage overseas, shop around for the best price. One Jetstar passenger was shocked to discover he had to pay an extra $180 to take his snowboard on a flight with him.

Alex Lee and his wife had already paid for 25kg of checked luggage each. Jetstar’s standard luggage fees start at $13 for 15kg and go up to $53 for 40kg.

He also paid $25 to book the board as an oversized item.

Lee thought that meant the board would not count towards his normal luggage allowance. But when he turned up to the airport he was charged $180 for being 12kg over what he had purchased.

‘‘I was understandably upset about having to pay a $180 fee, having thought I had done the right thing and booked this luggage ahead.’’

A Jetstar spokesman said the fee was introduced in March last year to cover the additional handling required for oversized items.

House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas said there was a lot of variation between airlines, and according to destination. ‘‘It’s extremely complex.’’

He said travellers should check websites for the details before they booked. Costs could range from ‘‘significant to very, very large’’.

It was cheapest to pay any extra fees at the time of booking rather than at the airport.

Customers who knew they were going to need more luggage allowance could prepay $60 for an extra bag on Air New Zealand flights to Australia and the Pacific Islands, $105 on other long-haul flights, and $165 for flights to London. It was about twice that if extra baggage was paid for at the airport.

Virgin Australia would charge $35 per extra bag, if purchased online, and $75 if the bag was added at the airport.

Thomas said some travellers would find that the cheapest fare advertised turned out not to be the best if they had to take oversized luggage, such as sports gear.

‘‘Air New Zealand might have a $1600 flight to go somewhere and another might have $1500 but if they charge you $250 for a bag and Air New Zealand charges $60, you’re better off with Air New Zealand.’’

He said travellers should also check the rules around connecting flights if they were transferring on to another airline.

Air New Zealand said it would usually consider a snowboard to be the equivalent of one checked standard bag, and could be counted within the normal allowance. Emirates too said it would accept sporting equipment as checked baggage. Virgin would allow it if it met size and weight limits.