FrugalLuxury

Anyone has experience with AB "Economy Light" fares? It's hand-luggage only, but does AB give Oneworld Emeralds one checked-in baggage for free?

It seems different airlines simply put in their own interpretations on such hand-luggage only fares: afaik BA doesn't allow free checked-in baggage but S7 apparently does. How's the situation with AB?

Thanks for any feedback

spanishflyer

I think there should be no problem. I am topbonus gold (Oneworld Sapphire) and I can bring one baggage up to 23kg in Economy Light fare.

Flying Lawyer

As a One-World Sapphire you still can (different from the BA fares)

FrugalLuxury

Thanks for the clarification! So OW still has a more or less uniform treatment on this, BA being the only published exception. Simple is beautiful

warakorn

I would be careful with Iberia and Iberia Express, as well.

Flying Lawyer

Is this once again one of your speculations without any evidence? The OW website clearly states:

https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/extra-baggage-allowance

waffle

I was just wondering whether anyone who is Oneworld Sapphire (but not through topbonus) can speak from recent experience. I emailed their service team to ask whether Sapphires can check one bag and pick a seat for free even in Economy Light and it took them less than a week to come up with this lengthy reply:

The gist being that only their topbonus card can be used on airberlin flights and they're sorry for the inconvenience. I'd have accepted this answer if it hadn't been so oddly unspecific – the way it's written ("only our topbonus card can be used on our flights") reads like they didn't even understand my question, because of course you can use the other Oneworld benefits on their flights, I just wanted to know whether that applied to baggage and seat selection as well.

That's why I'd like to ask any non-topbonus Sapphires whether they've had success checking a free bag and picking a seat in Economy Light recently.

skrosvik

Any updates on this?

They state on their Q&A that elite TopBonus members get 23 kg for free on the Economy Light fare - no mention of other OW Elites.

Any Sapphire travelled Economy Light lately?

waffle

It's all very confusing. They seem to like to contradict themselves.

When I emailed them, they told me that it only applied to Topbonus members (but didn't seem to understand my question – see above). But then I asked them about it the other day when I called to reserve seats for an upcoming flight and the nice man on the phone assured me that (as Sapphire) I'd be able to check a bag for free and that I shouldn't worry about my booking confirmation stating "0PC" and just present my card at the check-in desk.

The flight's in March and I'm considering trying it out by checking a bag that I can also carry on if they want me to pay for it. If I do, I'll report back.

waffle

All right, here's an update: I flew ZRH–TXL last night on an Economy Light fare. I didn't have any bags I wanted to check this time, but as I collected my boarding pass I asked the check-in agent if I could and she said yes, thanks to having Sapphire I could check one bag free of charge.

I suppose we have to treat this as just one data point, I'll bet there are agents at some smaller outstations who aren't as familiar with the rules, but it's encouraging.