Ouch, that is unfortunate. I was going to say that I thought the first carrier determines the baggage fees of a multi-flight itinerary, so if AC didn't charge you for them, you should not have been charged subsequently.
However, it seems that there is a "most significant carrier" rule for multi-carrier journeys:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g...ine.Trips.html
https://www.airnewzealand.com/most-significant-carrier
which would suggest that these excess pieces are charged by ANA's policy, not AC's. And there are lots of complicated exceptions, but here it seems ANA is the most significant carrier.
But anyway in this case you were involuntarily forced to check your bags. I don't know if you'll get far with asking AC, because you would be in essence requesting that they pay ANA for the baggage fees charged (not a refund of something they charged). That seems very difficult.
Has anyone had success in appealing directly to ANA via some help line on such issues?
Edit, I note there is an exception called out on NZ's page -- was AC your marketing carrier?
There are two exceptions to the MSC rule:
- Starting or ending in the USA or Canada: If your single-ticketed journey starts or ends in the USA or Canada (this does not include journeys that only pass through the USA or Canada), the 'first marketing carrier' decides the allowance and charges that will apply for the entire journey. They can apply their airline's rules or those of the 'most significant carrier'. Where Air New Zealand is the 'first marketing carrier' we always apply the most significant carrier's rules, which may not be our own. For return trips, if you travel in a different class or have different fare products in each direction (such as Business Premier one way and Economy the other or Seat and Seat + Bag), the same carrier's rules apply but the allowances may differ as they will be based on the applicable fare types and classes of travel purchased in each direction