Originally Posted by
catocony
Did you check the airline's contract of carriage before you showed up at the airport with what sounds like a couple cases of wine you want to transport in checked baggage?
This isn't a contract of carriage issue. The issue is precisely as stated. If you have nothing of value to add about the misinterpretation of IATA guidelines, please go post elsewhere.
Originally Posted by
trooper
I tend to agree with your view of the INTENT of the IATA recommendation...BUT..if the airlines own website clearly states that each pax is limited to 5L in their baggage then you can hardly blame front line staff for interpreting THAT exactly as written... Arguing intent of the underlying basis seems pointless to me. (Like arguing a speeding ticket in a work zone when no workers are present..lol) YOU are certain that this 5L limit (where it exists) is a misunderstanding ...do you know for certain the particular airline did NOT actually CHOOSE to set that (lower) limit? You acknowledge they CAN come up with their own policies after all.... Perhaps they actually CHOSE that policy?
To be clear using the examples from my original post.
- Virgin's dangerous goods policy for alcohol is a copy and paste of the IATA regulations. Using what I'm going to call the correct English grammatical understanding of the sentence, there are no baggage restrictions on alcohol below 24%. I also have this understanding in writing from a Director at the IATA who is responsible for certain portions of the Dangerous Goods policy and cargo standards.
- Virgin customer service has told me their copy and paste needs to be updated to be more clear. Clarity isn't the issue. They misunderstand the guideline.
- Air France's dangerous goods policy states 5L per person, yet in practice they allow pax to check entire cases of wine in certain circumstances (did this earlier in the year returning from Barcelona) OR in the case of JNB, 5L per checked bag.
- By the way, it should be noted that security IS NOT going through bags and removing alcohol in excess of 5L. So in addition to the disconnect between what IATA says is OK and what the airlines say is OK, security does not care. You might say "security just doesn't catch everything." That's true, but I also have in writing that security at certain airports do not screen for or care about wine in any quantity in luggage.
Last edited by TWA884; Nov 29, 2018 at 5:23 pm
Reason: Merge consecutive posts by the same member; please use the multi-quote function