Forced to gate check carry-ons then hit with a $600 excess baggage fee!
 

Just want to share an unexpectedly bad experience with ANA at the gate in Vancouver.
I was travelling with three others from YYC to Manila with two stops in YVR and Tokyo. Air Canada was the carrier that brought us to Vancouver. The gate agent in YYC stopped us and forced us to gate check three of our carry-ons straight to Manila as the flight was "full". The flight then proceeded uneventfully with many overhead bins empty!
Fast forward to the gate in YVR, the ANA gate agent advised us that there would be a $600 excess baggage charge because the total free checked baggage allowance was 8 pieces for the four of us. With three carry-ons gate checked, we were informed that our total checked bags was now 11 pieces and they have to charge us $200 per excess piece that was gate-checked in YYC. We tried to explain that we didn't choose to gate check the bags and Air Canada forced us to, but she wouldn't waive the fee and was told I have to contact Air Canada for a refund or some sort of compensation.
I understand that it's not really ANA's fault as they are just following their rules but the Air Canada gate agents in YYC never told us that there was going to be a fee to pay once we reached YVR.
The onboard experience was excellent as always on ANA, but this gate experience in YVR left me feeling frustrated. Unfortunately, I am due to fly this route again soon, so I just have a few questions:

1. Can you tell the gate agent that you wish not to gate check carry-ons especially when you have a connecting flight with a different airline?
2. If the gate agents in YYC checked the carry-ons only up to YVR, would there still be an excess fee?

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?

Sounds like it's time to complain to the CTA

The first carrier is responsible for charging the fees though, so if AC didn't charge them in YYC, NH shouldn't have charged them in YVR. It's the same as if AC had charged excess baggage fees and then NH charged them again. That's been against the rules for a while

Or alternatively, it occurred to me that this is the kind of customer-mishap case that one of the travel bloggers or travel magazine consumer advocates might be interested in taking up.

I purchased the ticket directly from the ANA website and did send ANA an email about what happened. This was the response I got back from them:

While it is terrible customer service, NH was justified in collecting the fee because AC did not (and with good reason). It is unusual for an onwards carrier to do this, but not unheard of.

Rather than NH, I would approach AC for the refund. Presuming that your carry-ons were :"legal" it was simply an unfortunate circumstance that there was no room for the bags. But, AC should have absorbed the additional cost and did not. While I would not hold my breath for AC to refund the excess baggage fees, it is AC which should have dealt with the issue and did not.

Well, to me AC is at fault, but I think it will be nearly impossible to get a refund. This is going to take some higher ups in the support line, AC will need to talk to ANA and figure out what's what. Sadly, I don't see a high chance of things going well unless you go to someone like the CTA as mentioned.

It seems to me that AC was at fault for checking the legal carry-ons through to the OP's final destination. Had AC merely checked the carry-ons only to YVR, the OP could have claimed them there, and then carried them on to the ANA flights. The OP should not have to pay for what seems to be an obvious error on AC's part.

That said, if time permitted, couldn't the OP have requested that AC or ANA offload the bags at YVR?

My connection in YVR was only about two hours thanks to the AC flight coming in late and I did ask the ANA agent if the bag could come off the aircraft but she said it wasn't possible as the bag was already tagged to the final destination when it was gate-checked in YYC.

I did send an email to the CTA as well regarding what happened, so far nothing has been heard back yet.

Consumer advocacy groups and travel bloggers should be all over this. OP's bags were involuntarily checked, end of story. NH's primary fault or not, this is a typical big corporation, 'screw-the-little-guy' move on their part and in this specific case, one of the weaknesses of NH being a typically Japanese company.

Used a credit card?
 

I assume a credit card was used to pay the fee? I’d disputed the charge. I’d print the relevant baggage allowance section and state you were in accord with that and you were forced to check and no warning was given of costs. With that info dispute the charge and let the airlines figure it out.

More to the point, they were involuntarily checked even though the OP was within allowed baggage limits (i.e. per OP's comments, they weren't trying to carry extra bags into the cabin).

I know I go to this well frequently, but would a chargeback/contesting the (presumed) CC charge be worth pursuing (taking the attitude that, in a pinch, ANA should take this out of AC's hide)?

And...well, let's just say that we're back to the fact that I would very much like to see rules requiring short gate-checking/gate pickup at the end of a segment (a la "pink tagging") to be allowed. Not gonna happen, but it would be nice (especially if I'm trying to avoid dealing with a clumsy ticketing situation and/or an airport with a bad baggage terminal).

(Also, I can definitely read between the lines, but the degree cultural misconnect between the Japanese corporation's phrasing and how it would come across to a regular, irate North American traveler is impressive.)

I wouldn’t bother with the CTA. I expect they’ll tell you that AC’s tariffs allow it to force you to check in your carry-on bags, and ANA’s tariff allows it to charge for them. Their core philosophy is that the onus is on the passenger to prove that the airlines violated their tariffs by charging you. Unless you’re getting a competent lawyer, or are one yourself, good luck. Go through their decisions to see what you’re up against.

You will be much better off going to small claims court instead. CTA is usually a waste of time and energy.

I would have flat out told ANA to "just send Air Canada an interline debit memo as it is their mistake".

Reading the responses now, I agree with your last sentence.

ANA's response:



basically admits that the situation should not have happened.

In this case, NH wouldn't even incur any real loss by refunding the fee, as the correct situation would've been the OP carrying bags on anyway -- hence the added weight is already incurred and all that cost NH was some additional baggage handling (if even). It's not like their action "teaches someone a lesson" about baggage overage for the future.

Why not acknowledge the mistake and work to have their corporate refund the mistake, rather than put the burden on the customer?