sxc

The 40 kg bag definitely won't get checked in. I would say you have a less than 5% chance of it being checked in. 32kg per piece is a hard limit and has been in place for many years.

watery

I don't think they would (could) announce courtesy in advance recorded message. I'll stay hopeful; and as backup, paid luggage storage is available at the urban Airport Express stations.

The "(lack of) appreciation of J class passengers" is kinda frustrating, but you get what you bought as stated at the point of purchase; never could we blame when a store do sales afterward. I'd appreciate when CX is kind and flexible with rules though, just not to take waivers for granted.


32KG is the limit to "set for the health and safety of airport workers who have to lift hundreds of bags daily" (http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/ops-inf...check-bag.aspx). Even CX let go it's still not a good practice. Plus I'm really amused how you managed to drag so much weight around.

cxfan1960

That is a hard limit for baggage handler, but CX decided to handle it (differently) anyway. I wonder if CX has to pay extra for special baggage like this.

corfe mixture

Sadly not a recorded message, but a conversation with an agent.


I made it clear that I did not expect a definitive answer but was simply asking for an unofficial view of the likelihood of me having to move weight into my cabin baggage. Answer was 'depends on the agent, but the probability is that I will have to move weight to get down to 30kg per person.


Conversation was friendly and the guy I spoke to was sympathetic when I observed that it was frustrating to know that whilst I would probably have a problem with 68kg a non-status person with a recently purchased premium economy ticket would definitely not have a problem.


As you observe, I knew what I was getting when I booked my ticket, and had planned my work around. Just seems crazy to me to change the checked baggage rules on the basis of booking date and not on the basis of date of flying when the ticket cost did not change on 15th September.

Ausriver

Don't worry, you will be fine.

Cathay Dragon 666

What's the amusement? And who said I'm the one that dragged it around?

Cathay Dragon 666

I've never paid any attentions to details (until it hits me personally, like the recent downgrade of DM to GO made me realized how wonderful it was as a DM vs. GO). I seem to remember in the past 32kg is the allowed weight for baggage even for Economy flyers? I remember flying as an entry level professional in the 80s HK to US in Economy on Cathay and I'm allowed 32kg per bag? Was my memory wrong? I am also pretty sure back then people stuff their bags more than the allowed 32kg.

I guess I should update my DM unpublished benefits list: go above and beyond weight-limits for our DM members.

corfe mixture

Sure hope you are right as I just decided to check on the additional baggage charges, I could potentially incur, with the result that I'm not sure that I want to take the risk.

What I discovered was that if we wished to take the full 40kg each, post 15th September allowance, then the additional charges for our round trip would be:
LHR-HKG 10kg x 2 atUS$35 per kilogram = US$700
HKG-SYD 10kg x 2 atUS$35 per kilogram = US$700
SYD-LHR 10kg x 2 at US$60 per kilogram = US$1200

Making a whopping additional US$2600 of additional baggage charges simply to get the current allowance!!

Even with our anticipated checked baggage of 68kg (34kg each), which would fall comfortably inside the allowance of a recently booked non-status couple travelling in Premium Economy on the same aircraft, I am potentially looking at additional baggage charges of over US$1000, all because we booked before 15th September.

Never ever before had to worry about taking three average sized (two 78cm Carlton Airtec and one 65cm Carlton Airtec) suitcases in J class and will make sure that I never find myself in this position in the future.

OK, maybe you are correct and we won’t get charged, but I’m not used to having to think about how heavy our three average(?) cases are and this is a whole new experience and introduces an uncertainty I could do without.

Whole thing makes me conclude that Cathay have sufficient regular (Marco Polo members) filling their Business class seats and are not really interested in new J class clients.

I genuinely now wish we had booked with BA via Singapore when I could have possibly used Avios to upgrade to First on the long run home.

Unfortunately, that is no longer an option. Although our Cathay tickets are 95% refundable, our hotel in Hong Kong is booked and, as we are leaving next week, availability and cost make changing at this late stage a non-starter.

Ah well you live and learn. What is certain is that, as a person who is happy to pay for a J class ticket, but doesn’t expect to worry about anything other than getting to the airport, we are less than pleased with our Cathay pre-flight experience.

delacpa

Two business class (AAward) tickets LAX/HKG/SIN......one is PLT, the other GLD:

What is the baggage allowance for each ??

Thank You, delacpa

sxc

So how would you feel if you had booked the CX flight and there was no change to baggage allowance announced? You would definitely have an allowance of 30kg per pax.

The fact that they have made this change means they are trying to match higher industry standards for baggage allowance now. CX's mistake was to be "cheap" and not just give everyone who travels after a particular date the higher allowance.

However, it is not unprecedented. When QF increased their luggage allowances, they also looked at when the ticket was issued and applied the old allowance for previously issued tickets.

Is your ticket cancellable? If so, maybe you want to consider cancelling your ticket and buying again if you can still get the same fare?

sxc

You will find a table here that shows you your allowances:

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_...c-flights.html

Both of you will get 2 x 32kg pieces each as there is no additional allowance for flights to/from USA for Ruby/Sapphire.

corfe mixture

Apologies to everyone if I appear to have come across as a 'moaning minnie'.


OK I should have taken more notice and thought about what 30kg per person meant before I booked, but we do not travel with masses of luggage and I am not accustomed to having to even think about weight when purchasing a J class ticket on a major airline and whilst I was mildly annoyed to realise that, because of my own lack of diligence, I was going to have to juggle weight, as you say that was my fault.


However ask me how I feel about the fact that the way Cathay has introduced the change and the answer is: Bitter. No - Very Bitter.


Why bitter?


Well we have paid more than double the amount paid by a couple travelling on the same flights in Premium economy passenger but who booked after 15th September and remember fares did not go up on 15th September.


Yesterday I decided that perhaps the easiest solution was to purchase the extra allowance only to discover that, if I wished to pre-purchase 10kg of extra checked baggage, in order to get the same baggage allowance as said couple in Premium Economy, I would have to pay an additional US$1300.


Sadly it is far too late to change, as you suggest, as we leave next week.


Yes I do have a workaround, as we normally travel with very little cabin baggage and can make more use of that. However, with an anticipated 34kg each checked baggage and only 5kg each genuine cabin baggage, playing games and moving weight between checked and cabin baggage should, IMHO, not be necessary.


To be honest, if Cathay had not changed the allowances, I would have accepted that any annoyance would have been my own fault for being less than diligent when I booked.


However, knowing that there will be non-status people paying far less than me and travelling on the same aircraft with the same baggage and who will not need to think about this matter and you might just understand why I say I feel bitter about the way that Cathay have handled the transition.


Well, I've made my point and banging on further is not going to change anything or make me feel any better.


So, end of moan. Life is too short to worry about these things, but Cathay have definitively come over to me as a penny pinching airline.

percysmith

I don't think you're whinging, however you seem to be slightly unduly stressing over a corner case.

In the past you would've just breezed through by using soft allowance. It's just the codification of soft and the non-update of your pre-change baggage allowance that got you trapped.

If I were you:
Plan A: Play dumb. Do nothing. Pack 34KG into airport as before
Plan A.1: Claim you've been let over last time
Plan B: Ask if you can pack 4KG back into hand luggage if they insist on charging on it. Go through the motions. Whinge about how you wished you issued after 15 Sep. See if agent will let you pass.
Plan C: Pre-identify stuff you really can hand carry.

I won't stress over the call centre agents. These are the same agents who insist you must cancel your ticket if you have one space left out in your ticket name or if you got firstname and lastname mixed up. CYA gods.

About the check-ins:

SYD: I really think you'll get away with it. IME they are very laid back.

LHR: Not as nice. But I only really been thru CX at LHR once and might have had a bad apple.
But - the agent in question did let me check in my wife's bag (the missus head started into restricted area to eat and get an early start on all that Chanel shopping).

tycosiao

If 2 pax travel together, 1 with OWE and the other without status, does the OWE baggage allowance apply for both or just the OWE?

I do remember CX applying the higher status benefits if booked together in PNR.

Is that still the case?

kaka

In lhr they are plenty strict