One of the newest bonuses of becoming AC Elite last year (early status recognition) was the increase in my checked baggage allowances on AC metal. Essentially, I get to check twice as many bags into my transpacific flights instead of pre-shipping cargo several weeks/months in advance.
I was informed through another FT thread that the baggage allowance is only on AC metal which is why I had to call CX this morning to find out what the excess baggage fees were on the two additional boxes from HKG-MNL. I called the CX reservations line and they told me to contact the domestic carrier and in this case, it was AC.
Long story short... Provided that all four bags are checked through to MNL, there are no excess baggage fees!
Yippee!! The AC reservation agent indicated that the baggage rules of the check-in airline will take precedent. As a result, I don't have to worry about the measly allowances on CX.
AC Elite baggage allowance: 4 pieces at 32kg/70lbs each
CX Economy baggage allowance: 2 pieces at 23kg/50lbs each
Since all bags will be tagged with AC priority luggage tags, I'm curious to see if the will be the first bags out at MNL (NAIA Terminal). If they are, it will be a miracle!
However, since I'm checking in with CX in MNL back to Canada, I'm going to have excess baggage fees on the first leg. Not sure what the fees are as CX doesn't have info on their website on excess baggage fees. I guess will have to ship stuff by cargo back to Canada, which isn't an issue since I've always done that.
My HKG-YVR flight is on AC so one alternative that I'm looking at is to spend a day in HKG and then re-check my bags plus all the goodies I may have bought while in HKG without incurring any additional fees.