stiwi

I am slightly confused over Finnair baggage allowance. I will be travelling in business class and having BAEC Silver, I am entitled to take 3 bags. That's clear. What is not clear, is the weight allowance for each bag. Finnair states on their website that each bag can weight 23 kg and between 23 and 32 kg there is a surcharge.

However doing a quick calculation using their online calculator by entering route between Europe and Asia, selecting business class as FT Gold (equivalent to BAEC Silver), typing 32 kg as first bag doesn't show any surcharges which is against their statement in checked baggage section:
"The maximum weight of a single bag may not exceed 32 kg (70 lb). If you are travelling with a bag weighing 23–32 kg, you will have to pay a flat excess-baggage fee."

As I rely on their online calculator, I would prefer to see it in written and print that 1st bag surcharge between 23-32kg is waived like their online calculator is suggesting.

Can someone confirm who is right here (their online tool vs t&c of checked baggage)?

LH747FTL

To me the calculator clearly says excess fee needed when when a bag exceeds 23kg. I would say 3x 23kg. Which is already generous given oneworld has no Star Alliance like benefits for elites.

stiwi

Really?
Please choose:
Origin: Europe
Destination: Asia
Travel Class: Business Class
FT: doesn't matter
First piece: 32 kg

Let me know if you can see any surcharges, because I can't in this setup, hence confusion.

LH747FTL

For me, Asia-Europe it said 56e online, 80 airport. And look at that blue thing on the right, it says extra fee req for a bag between 23 and 32kg. I chose Platinum as status.

You may do ok with the printout but be prepared for a nasty fight. I had 3x32 in F on a BA ticket when BA changed from 32 to 23, it took me half an hour to convince a QF agent although my ticket said MOST GENEROUS BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE APPLIES FOR ENTIRE JOURNEY.

stiwi

The blue thing on the right says extra fee required for a bag between 23 and 32 but it shows it for the 2nd bag, not for the first...

Anyway I just arrived to Singapore through Finnair flight and had the following combination of bags together with my spouse: 2x 32 kg + 2x 23 kg and there were no questions asked. I had the print out just in case though...

intuition

There seems to be a bug in that calculator?
If I add one bag of 32kg, it shows zero €, if I add 2 bags of 32kg, the graphic still shows 0€ for bag one and 56€ for bag two, but "price to pay online" shows 112 (=2*56)

3*23kg is free, AFAIK.

stiwi

No I don't think it's a bug. Finnair just doesn't tell us something here. For me it looks like if you are Gold you get 3x 23kg or 1x 32kg + 1x23kg (the 3rd bag allowance has been used to offset difference between 23-32kg; therefore 3rd bag would come at extra charge).

At least I understand it this way.

riku2

They have a not very clearly explained policy that status card holders can convert the extra 1x bag benefit to instead increase the max weight of the first piece of luggage from 23 -> 32 (this would be in economy, not sure about J).
From my attempts with the online calculator it does recognize this, but the baggage rules part of their website doesn't mention it. I think they forgot to update their pages.
But since they don't write down the rule and the online calculator doesn't allow one world status to be chosen, only AY status, then it's not clear if this 23 -> 32 benefit applies only to finnair plus or to others (eg BAEC).

I will find out this week when flying CDG-HEL with 1x suitcase @30kg and BAEC gold status.

I did email AY and explain to them that their website was unclear. That's when they explained the 23 -> 32kg benefit, but they did not answer the other part of my email that asked if this applied to one world or just finnair plus (unable to read beyond the first line of an email?)

WilcoRoger

Do you have a link to this? I was hit by a 40€ surcharge BUD-HEL for one bag being over 23kg, but could've used this rule to avoid it.

(I still came out winning, as I could cheat the scales for two other bags, both well over 30kg )

stiwi

There is no source for this except their online calculator. In case of dispute you can refer them to Finnair's online calculator, or even better, have such printout from their calculator with you.

riku2

To report back from what happened at CDG trying to check in one bag @30kg with a BA gold card, they were (to my surprise) aware that in booking class P (discount economy) a status card gets you either one bag @ 32kg or 2 bags @ 23 kg!

I would still prefer AY updated their website though and correctly described the allowances with a status card

aster

Does OW have a standard benefit like *A has with their 20kg extra?

If I was to fly Finnair in Y or J, would there be a difference in the max luggage I could take depending on whether I have BA or AY status?

stiwi

As far as I am concerned OW doesn't have it. There are additional bags or higher weight allowances for status holders but it seems that each carrier has its own conditions.

aster

So if you hold status with BA, but book a ticket with AY, then you get no extra luggage allowance?

Raakax

Flying tomorrow morning VIE - HEL and as usual got today an Pre-Flight email from Finnair. Here's a small snip from it "oneworld Sapphire -jäsenenä sinulla voi olla Finnairin lentojen bisnesluokassa käsimatkatavaraa yksi laukku ja yksi salkku tai kannettava tietokone. Yhteensä kaksi laukkua, joiden yhteispaino on enintään 10 kg. Kirjattavaa matkatavaraa sinulla voi olla lippuun merkityn lisäksi yksi laukku. Yhden kirjattavan matkatavaran enimmäispaino on 23 kg."
Bolded texts loosely translated; "As a Oneworld Sapphire - member" ... "You can have one more bag of checked luggage than is printed on you ticket."
In our case, as we are flying in C we could each have three pc of luggage, each 23 kg.
We are using our BA Silver, so our AY Plus status isn't known by Finnair in this case.

So conclusion, at least Finnair respects OW / BA luggage rules.

And finally, as a double check, we flew HEL - NCE - HEL on AY in July. It's an one class flight, so had to fly in Y. We received similar emails as above, with same text "you can have one more..." and we used our BA Status then also.
We had a total of five quite heavy bags checked in on return leg and no complains from the Business class check-in desk.
So it works also on Y.


-A