Frinkiac7

Had a 57 lb bag and an 85 bag on a trip to South America. CVG -- DFW -- EZE, one way ticket. Desk clerk told me $600. Is the charge per segment or for itin? Per the chart here https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...ht-baggage.jsp I can see how I get $300 easily, but the only way I can get to $600 is by doubling that, and the only way doubling makes sense is if they charge those fees per segment. Can anyone enlighten me? Ywia.

Steve M

It would ordinarily be for whatever segment(s) you're currently checking the bag for, so on a round-trip ticket it would be just for the direction you're currently traveling (which may be more than 1 segment). It wouldn't make sense to charge up-front for both directions, as you may not have the same amount of luggage on the way back.

Dave Noble

Did you purchase a single through ticket for origin-EZE or was it 2 separate bookings?

Frinkiac7

This was a one-way ticket to EZE with stopover in DFW. Booked/purchased all together at the same time, not as individual flights.

3Cforme

Don't forget that oversize and overweight charges are additive: if a bag is both oversized and overweight you pay twice.

coolcoil

If it was two bookings then the sequence should have been collect $300 at origin and $300 at DFW on the second bag check in. Of course, with two separate PNR's it is possible that the agent somehow overrode the no-though check rule, but still charged appropriately.

The OP would have to pay $600 if the origin (not stated) was not domestic - US, Canada, US Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico. If the origin was indeed outside of those locations then they are going through two baggage regions and there would be a $300 charge for each for a total of $600 to be collected at check in. At least that's the way I interpret the rules. Others may know better.

Often1

Presuming that this is one ticket CVG-EZE with a connection at DFW, OP should have been charged whatever was appropriate for CVG-EZE and that is it. While I suspect that the bags were not only overweight, but oversized, OP will need to call AA to ask for a breakdown.

As a caution to others, it's important to get these things resolved at the point of sale. If the agent has it right, there is an easy answer. If not, best to get it fixed on the spot.

Speculation about "baggage" zones and the like is simply not applicable. Neither DOT rules nor AA's own contract work that way. There is a single fee to check the bag (or a bag waiver) + fee for overweight + fee for oversize.

It is also important to know whether OP checked any other bags which did not incur extra fees.

JDiver

As the link was broken, I’ll add this:

coolcoil

I see now that you are correct. I found the page that breaks out all of the region-to-region charges for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th bag, overweight and oversize. It's a very useful page that ought to be in the baggage wiki:

https://www.americanairlines.ie/i18n...es.jsp#baggage

However, this page and the other that was linked before both say that >70 lb. baggage is not accepted from Europe. Obviously this rule was not followed in this case. So, assuming $300 in overweight charges plus $150 in oversize charges for each bag per the page referenced here, that would be $600.

Frinkiac7

This all makes sense. Thank you to all for the info. This was a rush of a flight for family member (emergency itin and booked it 3 hours before departure and then packed in a hurry), and wasn't about to start ripping open bags and trying to free up weight with minutes to spare at the check-in desk. I recognize they were overweight and was happy to pay for that -- the agent explained that the issue with the bags was strictly their weight. No mention of oversize although I guess based on the rough math from posters above, that is probably where they are coming from. I have one long bag and one pretty standard size suitcase -- if the clerk isn't mentioning "oversize," asking you bag dimensions, or measuring anything, are they just eyeballing the bags and choosing to apply the fee? Again, what was relayed to me was "your bags are too heavy, look at the scale, it's going to be $600 if you want to check them at this weight." She also made me come around the counter and hoist the 85 lb bag onto the conveyor belt , so I left under the impression everything was related to the weight.

JDiver

I believe CVG = Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Often1

What has this matter to do with Europe?

ordsky

if you look at your reciept it will show what it is you have paid for...I’m pretty sure that it is related to a software glitch which the agent dind’t or maybe couldn’t rectify. If you wanna you can try asking for 300$ back

Exec_Plat

IMO dont 'ask' for the $300 back (assuming it **was** an error/glitch)

Contact your CC company; provide a print out of the receipt, the rules from the AA website, explain you were overcharged. Lets them get the $300 from AA.

If you 'ask' AA you will spend 6 months chasing them. And fail.

Do come back and tell us what the receipt actually said. Easiest is if agent mistakenly charged for each segment...

platbrownguy

Probably the same check-in agent that caused that youth group to miss their flight despite arriving 2 hours early (https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...-thanks-to-d0/)