Adam Smith

It may be mandatory *G benefits, but NZ only has one priority boarding, so it's worth slightly more than AC/UA Zone 2.

As for the carry-on, the full page is here, but basically regular customers get one carry-on only, up to 7 kg*. *G, along with NZ elites and J, get two bags, up to 14 kg total, of which one can be 10 kg. And they're fairly strict about enforcing those limits, in my (somewhat limited) experience.

*A "personal item" is also included, but unlike AC, the "personal item" is a small, thin laptop bag, a small purse, a camera bag, not a big briefcase or monster purse or small duffel that AC will let you have as a personal item.

pewpew

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BB10; Touch) AppleWebKit/537.35+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.3.1.2576 Mobile Safari/537.35+)

Aren't limits in Australia / NZ enforced at security rather than at boarding / check in?

Food for thought for when I finally get around to going to Australia. My backpack is longer than my rollaboard

Adam Smith

Depends. I don't recall seeing any enforcement of carry-on restrictions at security in AUS. JQ enforces it at the gate prior to boarding and I would presume it's the same for QF and VA.

In NZ, my bag was weighed once by security, but they didn't hassle me even though it was overweight. But otherwise enforcement was by NZ at the gate or at check-in.

folkart

I had four Thai flights in August, all gave priority boarding and extra baggage automatically. All flights I was given priority seats in bulkhead but I had to ask for that at check-in or at transfer desk.

karachi

Flew Avianca in Peru for a few domestic segments.

1. got upgraded with 3 family members on 2 segments when I asked at gate
2. priority boarding group 2
3. on 3 segments, they priority tagged all 4 pcs of luggage. on another, checkin agent only priority tagged those under my name.

Fizzer

My wife and I haven't been AC*G for a couple of years now but we did receive Op Ups on UA occasionally and once on SQ LHR-SIN, which was really nice. On top of that, as they didn't have diabetic meals for my wife in J on that flight ( because we'd ordered them for our Y seats and they wouldn't serve her Y meals in J) they gave my wife a voucher for $100 US IIRC, which she used to buy herself jewellery from their Duty Free catalogue on the trip home. The food was fine in J ( to say the least)and she had no problems selecting suitable dishes, so it was totally unnecessary. She also got almost OTT apologies from the SD at each meal.

We were recently surprised, (as UA*Gs )to get op ups on 2 AC flights recently, YHZ-YYZ and YYZ -YQR. As unexpected as the SQ Op Ups TBH.

kwflyer

Just curious, did they offer meals to you? or told you were not entitled to one because you were upgraded?

Fizzer

No we received regular J service. I thought of asking for a refund of our prepaid meals in Y but that would have been really cheeky.

yqtyyz

I've taken only a handful of revenue flights on LH, but in Y, I've always gotten an exit row to myself, and/or an empty seat beside myself and another passenger, whereas the rest of the plane was pretty full.

Not sure if it's coincidence or *G, though.

kwflyer

LH blocks the next seat next to you if you're *G and the plane isn't completely full. Something I wish AC would do as well.

INEC

I've received more attention and privileges, including a few op-ups, as a *G flying with other *A carriers, than I ever did as a SuperElite flying with AC.

However, the airlines in the LH group seem to have started charging for checked baggage, which I thought was guaranteed free (one bag) as a *G, regardless of fare class or ticker.

canadiancow

*G gets you one bag more than your ticketed allowance. So at least one.

YOWgary

Worth noting that some of the Euro carriers (including BA, SN and LX, I'm not sure about LH) have introduced "hand baggage only" fares, to compete more directly with the LCCs, and explicitly state that alliance-elite baggage allowances don't apply.

For example, from the Swiss website:

"Passengers with the following status have a higher baggage limit on all SWISS-operated flights in Classic, Flex and Business. This benefit does not apply with Light fares."

canadiancow

Are they even allowed to do that?

What's the point of an alliance-wide benefit...

YOWgary

It's been fascinating watching the Euro carriers try to adjust to life in RyanWorld, for example, this new mini-site BA have launched to do a cost comparison against Ryanair and Easyjet.

http://www.britishairways.com.br/tra.../public/en_gb#

I've got a BRU-EDI leg week after next, and neither OWS nor *G status could get my large carry-on onboard without a fee at the lowest-Y fare.

Oddly, both BA and SN were happy to offer complimentary seat selection, just nothing bigger than a laptop without paying either a baggage fee or a Flex-equivalent fare.