@ warakorn

From the Star Alliance Website at http://www.staralliance.com/en/benef...silver-status/

Extra Baggage Allowance 3
As a Gold Status holder you can choose not to travel light. We allow an additional 20 kg (44 pounds) where the weight concept applies, or one additional piece of luggage where the piece concept applies.

There is a footnote which says: "This benefit may only be available if travelling on two or more Star Alliance member airlines on a single ticket. Please contact the Star Alliance member airline with whom you will check-in with for further details."

What this means effectively is that if your booking is only with a single star alliance carrier, that carrier can choose whether or not you get a free bag. This is pretty underhanded: it's one of the many reasons I decided not to bother maintaining my status with OS/LH: they just don't really get the concept of a loyalty program and they haven't structured theirs in a way that incentivizes anyone to fly with them.

The theory behind the "Light" fare concept is that these big airlines like LH can compete with diso.... airlines like FR by cutting out all of the extras--no baggage, no earning miles etc... The problem with implementation is that nowadays tickets are usually purchased through travel companies like ebookers etc because they can sell cheaper than the airlines themselves, and when booking with them you have no way of knowing if you've gotten the "Light" fare or not. So passengers end up essentially being held hostage at the airport and forced to fork over substantial sums of money, often meaning the airlines end up making more on a Light ticket than they would if the passenger had just bought a standard ticket.

What's particularly shady about the way OS/LH is implementing this is that they are soaking their and their partners' most loyal customers. FR's obscenely high costs to check a bag at the airport are there by design: statistically a certain percentage of people are dumb/incurious enough not to bother checking and will just show up with a bag helpless and forced to pay the high fee at the airport--these guys enable the rest of us to fly for €19 each way. I am fine with FR making money off of ignorance.

They way OS/LH is doing this I am not fine with: they are soaking loyal customers and seasoned, experienced travelers, many of whom actively try to maintain status precisely so that they can have benefits like free checked bags.

@ihateturbulence I would tell OS/LH that you intend to report this treatment to the airline you have status with as part of a demand for compensation. You still probably won't get any compensation if you were just on OS, but threatening to report them will definitely increase your chances. If OS/LH don't reimburse you for the baggage costs report this treatment to the airline you have status on and ask them to reciprocally deny benefits to OS/LH Senators.