Not just the kilos on your baggage count
Many airlines allow only one piece of checked luggage
WHEN it comes to selecting a domestic airline, most of us are guided by price. It’s certainly all I look at when making my choice.
But it’s not the only thing passengers should be comparing. Depending on the airline’s baggage policy, consumers with heavier luggage could end up paying more than they bargained for.
Just as other conditions vary from airline to airline, so too do rules around check-in luggage, with some offering better deals than others.
Two readers found this out the hard way recently when opting to fly Kulula with their families. The passengers had to fork out R500 each at the airports for overweight luggage, despite being under the allowable limit.
Kulula, like many airlines these days, operates on a luggage piece concept as opposed to the more traditional weight concept of previous years.
It does not allow pooled weight between couples or families travelling together.
So taking the unused 10kg of your child’s 20kg allowance to add to your own is a no go. You can do it, but you’ll pay a R250 flat excess baggage fee.
Johannesburg sales manager David Reid, and Cape Town mother Rafieka Dale, both forked out for fines recently when flying with their families. Both have demanded a refund, but Kulula is not budging.
Said airline spokesman Shaun Pozyn: “As of November 2011, we amended our baggage policy and replaced it with a new one allowing customers one piece of hand baggage weighing 7kg and one piece of checked baggage weighing 20kg per trip.
“The policy was introduced so that we can align ourselves with general aviation common practice while at the same time helping to mitigate the ever-increasing fuel cost.”
He said the policy had initially
What frustrates me is absolutely no logic has been applied here
been rolled out with “a soft launch period” of six months, but that strict enforcement was now in place.
Reid has vowed not to use the airline again.
“What frustrates me is absolutely no logic has been applied here,” he said.
“It appears Kulula will take any opportunity to make extra money at the expense of upsetting passengers.”
Reid, his wife and son were returning to Johannesburg from George two week ago with two bags between them, when Kulula told him he was 10kg overweight at 50kg.
At 20kg per person, Reid had assumed that the family’s total allowance was 60kg. He was then told to pay a fine of R500, being R250 for each overweight bag.
“But we were told that if we repacked one of the bags with 4kg, making it 20kg, we would be fined only R250.
“Also, if we found a third bag, and repacked that, there would be no fine at all. Funnily, no shops sell bags at the airport,” he said.
“To tell us to transfer a pitiful 4kg to another bag so as to avoid paying is beyond ridiculousness.”
Cape Town mother of two Rafieka Dale is equally put out with Kulula.
“I’ve taken more than 100 trips with Kulula in the past and have always enjoyed the freshness, vibrancy and cheerfulness that the airline is associated with,” she said. But not any more.
In June, she, her husband, three-year-old daughter and 11month-old son travelled to Mauritius on holiday.
The family were booked return on SAA but following a family tragedy commemoration, they didn’t make their flight back to Cape Town via Johannesburg as planned.
So Dale booked new tickets on Kulula a few days later. But when she tried to check in the same three bags the family had travelled with — large bag (31kg), medium bag (25kg) and small trolley bag (12kg) — she was told to pay a R500 fine.
“We were entitled to check in four bags totalling 80kg and we were actually 12kg under this,” said Dale. Infants under 24 months of age on Kulula are entitled to 20kg, plus a collapsible pushchair and car seat.
“We tried to reason with the check-in person . . . but to no avail,” she said.
“So Kulula didn’t allow me to pool my luggage with my family. They unfairly expected three bags of a suitcase set to all weigh exactly 20kg, since this was the only way that I could have fully utilised my combined family luggage allowance.”
Pozyn said while Kulula appreciated the issue of collective weight in relation to the number of people travelling in a party, the practical application of this was difficult to manage.
“The policies need to be clear and transparent for our customers,” said Pozyn. “We cannot regulate a weight policy as well as a piece policy.”
The same applies to domestic sister airline British Airways, operated by Comair, although it allows the single check-in bag to weigh 23kg. Infants are entitled to the same adult allocation, plus pushchair and car seat.
Extra allowances and greater weight are provided for business class and frequent flyers. It charges a flat R250 fee for each bag that is overweight.
SAA allows one bag at 23kg per person, and no pooling of weight within the same group.
Its domestic overweight fee is also R250 for economy-class passengers, and it allows a maximum of three extra pieces per person (chargeable) over and above their free baggage allowance. Bags heavier than 32kg are sent as cargo.
Infants, certainly, are worst off travelling on SAA: they are allowed just 10kg, plus either a pram or car seat.
Internal discussion about this less-than-friendly allowance is under way.
Sister airline Mango has the same limited infant deal. But that’s where the similarities end. Mango passengers get a 20kg check-in allowance but, because the airline still operates on a weight and not piece concept, the allocated weight can be divided between two bags.
It doesn’t, however, allow family pooling and anything in ex- cess of the 20kg allocation is charged at R30 a kilogram. (R70 on its new Zanzibar route.)
There’s clearly more to consider when choosing an airline than just the ticket cost.
Luggage rules, including possible exceptions for the medically unfit or elderly, should always be researched before booking.
Tune in to Power FM’s Power Breakfast at 8.40am tomorrow to hear more from Megan