Situation: My company recently sent a group around the world. The group consisted of 20 individuals and 82 pieces of baggage (21 personal, 61 equipment). All bags met the international standard for size and weight.

When the group was departing from Okinawa, Japan, to travel to Manama, Bahrain, they were charged 7.6 million Yen (~$98.5 thousand) in excess baggage. Excess baggage costs up to this point were running about $6.5 thousand. Our group manager debated the excess baggage costs with the ticket counter, but they refused to re-evaluate the amount (they claimed that the extra cost was calculated using the rates of the MSC - Emirates Airlines). Due to the trip timeline the group was required to maintain, the group manager could not delay the departure of the group by a day to better argue the excessive amount. The manager had to accept the $98.5k charge knowing that my company would actively dispute the charges with JAL.

Amplifying Information: The flight route taken by the group was OKA-NRT-DXB-BAH. OKA-NRT was on JAL; NRT-DXB was on a JAL code/operated by Emirates; and DXB-BAH was on Cathay Pacific. The charges were claimed to be calculated using the rates posted by Emirates (IAW IATA's baggage policy that it is charge IAW with the MSC's rates).

As shown below, even in a worse case scenario (if for some reason the group was charged for the baggage on each leg), the total amount would be $58K - $40.5K less than what they were charged. Realistically, the group should have been charged a maximum of $40K (1000 kg / 2,200 lbs of excess baggage above the included allotment) - $60K less than they were charged.

Calculation for amount they should have been charge:
Emirates Airlines website shows that the airline bases their charges on weight and not amount, so each individual exceed their included amount by 50 kg for a total of 1000 kg excess - $40K.

Worst Case Scenario Charge:
~$58K (JAL charges a flat fee per bag - $150 - with the first two bags per person free and seven bags per person allowed; Cathay Pacific charges by weight/destination - $10/kg - with the first 20kg per person free; Emirates charges as stated above).


We have sent official notice to JAL requesting a refund of the overages above the official amount we should have been charged.

As of right now, JAL is "supposedly" working with us to resolve the issue, but there has been little movement. They claim that the issue is with Emirates Airlines (and that they are working with them to resolve it), but we have no avenue to approach Emirates due to our tickets being issued on a JAL code and our receipt being a JAL receipt. Additionally, it was a JAL employee that charged our group the erroneous amount.

Two questions:
1. Would it be appropriate to request a complete refund from JAL for ALL costs related to travel on their code share (baggage and passenger tickets)? A $60K error is not something you can just "write off on taxes." People get fired for far less money.

2. What recourse (besides requesting the FT community boycott both JAL and Emirates) outside of what my company is currently doing is available?

Any other thoughts on the issue would be greatly appreciated. Also, any ideas of alternatives to excess baggage (while using the same aircraft) for transporting a similar amount of baggage would be helpful.

I have three other major baggage issues from this tour that I will post at a later date for additional insight (one involves losing the same piece of luggage twice in a row even though it was the only flight between two airports, another involves losing 1/3 of the luggage even though the two aircraft were parked at adjacent gates, and the last one involves a computer error of a factor of 100 - credit card posting of $400,000 instead of $4,000).