dalexs2

I wanted to book a CDG-DUB-CDG with aer lingus but the baggage fees are horribly expensive. I'm BAEC gold so i'm wondering if, in this case, the baggage allowance is free. Someone knows ?
thk
Alex

corporate-wage-slave

Il est one bag de 20 kilos mon ami(e)! No extra pour le Gold carte.

kanderson1965

As Aer Lingus is not (yet) a member of the One World alliance I would suspect that your BAEC status would have no effect on this an Aer Lingus baggage rules would apply. I am not sure what the situation would be if it is booked as a BA codeshare, you may be luckier in that case.

BTW welcome to FT and the BA board.

Land-of-Miles

It is worth noting that the BA codeshares are considerably more expensive than EI fares so it should be cheaper to just pay for a bag if necessary.

corporate-wage-slave

Ah, the perils of mobile phones, thank you kanderson1965 since I've neglected to welcome dalexs2 to Flyertalk and the British Airways forum. I hope you have a good flight to Dublin, and that we see plenty more of you here. Bon voyage!

On connections, not necessarily so. I'm off to Ireland today as a BA codeshare on EI metal, it was Ł103 on one ticket, Ł180 on two tickets (due to the cheaper add-on to the domestic, my NCL-LHR flight was at peak times). In fact I realise I could have done Hidden City ticketing on this!

dalexs2

thank you everyone for your answers !
Aer lingus baggage fees are absolutely crazy, I think I'll book with AF

corporate-wage-slave

They aren't too bad if booking in advance, they are vastly higher paid at the airport.

I've got a new thread coming up covering this and related topics for BA codeshares on EI, and I've already written up this section, so here's a preview, see the second paragraph, but taking a second bag of 15kgs could cost 265€ at the airport, but "only" 35€ if reserved in advance.


Baggage Allowance
One feature of codeshares generally is that you don't get the marketing airline's baggage allowance, instead you get that of the operating airline (or metal). It isn't at all unknown for people to turn up for flights completely unaware that (a) they are not flying on the airline they thought they were using and (b) when it comes to baggage, the rules belong to the possibly unknown airline.

Aer Lingus is not as generous as BA. Moreover baggage income seems to be a key priority for EI such that if a bag comes through on a flight connection which needs to be paid for, they have been known to hunt you down at the gate to extract payment! Furthermore your BAEC privileges for extra baggage do not (yet) extend to EI, on BA codeshared flights, you get one checked bag of 20 kgs. Just to make it even more irksome, though can pre-pay for extra baggage in advance to reduce the cost, the online facility does not work on BA bookings, you have to ring the call centre (same cost as online, but for the "extra piece" allowance you need to explain the online block). If you want 2 bags totaling 40 kgs that is 35€. The "extra piece" allowance of 2 bags but still totaling 20 kgs is 10€, alternatively one bag of 25 kgs is also 10€. As indicated in Note 2, this issue is less likely to arise on your longhaul trip ticket, it's more on shorthaul tickets.

NOTE 1: if paying at the airport they charge 40€ for an "extra piece" for the second bag, but it doesn't increase your allowance beyond the original 20 kgs, there is an extra charge of 15€ per kg for that. So taking 2 bags, one of 20 kgs, the other bag at 15 kgs, will set you back an astonishing 265€! So ring up, it would only be 35€ if booked in advance.

NOTE 2: for a trip such as ORK-LHR-BOS, then BA's allowance on the longhaul will apply throughout, under the Most Significant Carrier rule, if it is the marketing airline (in other words, ORK-LHR is a BA codeshare).

Infocustv

Still not 100% understanding the rules here. for example I have a BA booked code share trip
(Ticket 1)MAN-DUB (EI on BA code) 1 bag? or two?
(ticket 1)DUB-LHR-BLQ-MAN all BA and 2 bags (Gold)

As the first is basically a positioning flight for (Ticket 2)(DUB-LHR-JFK-LAX-LAS-JFK-LHR-DUB BA and AA in Club and First) to do a Transatlantic for work and pleasure so need the 2 bags.
What wasn't clear to me was 'most significant carrier rule', does that mean I do get 2 bags on the EI flight?

corporate-wage-slave

No, unfortunately it's still only one bag for Aer Lingus. You can purchase more either at the airport or more cost-effectively by calling their service centre (it can't be done online in this scenario). If it was one ticket throughout, including the USA, then you'd have got more bags for free, but that would have cost more money. You paid for a cheaper product and the consequence, among other aspects in this case, is that you get fewer bags.

When buying a codeshare flight via BA.com it's made very clear that the usual allowances won't necessarily apply. Now in your case the longest sector is LHR-BLQ, not sure how you managed BLQ-MAN but I suspect there is a LHR connection in there somewhere. So that's one bag in EuroTraveller. You get a second bag on the BA services by dint of the Gold card, but that doesn't work on Aer Lingus, just BA flights. Arguably you are allowed 23 kgs from MAN to DUB, rather than 20 kgs, but I'm not sure that's going to help much.

Infocustv

Yes you are correct, I missed a link its ticket 1 MAN-DUB (EI) ticket 2- DUB-LHR-JFK-LAX-LAS-JFK-LHR-DUB, ticket 1-DUB-LHR-BLQ-LHR-MAN

So I'll give EI a call tomorrow and book an extra bag.
Incidentally in Jan I had a MAN-DUB-MAN positioning with a DUB-LHR-MEX-DFW-LHR-DUB in the middle and had two hold bags on all flights inc the DUB EI positioning flights, (one personal bag and one flight case), So I guess I just got lucky.

Infocustv

So I called the BA Gold line today to see about booking an extra bag for the EI MAN to DUB flight (all the others on the booking are BA and allow 2) On the line the CS lady said I didn't need to book an extra bag as its a BA Booking, the other flights on the booking allow 2 hold bags and that is the over riding allowance and as I'm Gold I get an extra hold bag any way.
Was she correct or do I need to contact EI?

corporate-wage-slave

I thought you said MAN-DUB was on a separate ticket to the rest of the trip? If so, you cannot "transfer" allowances from one ticket of one airline to another airline on a separate ticket. You are asking for something you didn't pay for - if the transatlantic service was in ticket1 then that would be different. And your Gold card doesn't work on EI, it's not part of oneworld. As mentioned on BA's website, if you buy a codeshare you get the baggage allowance pertaining to the underlying carrier.

You have 3 choices: go with one bag or HBO; give it a go at MAN and see if you get away with it, but you may get stung for extra charges, that's the risk you take. Or ring the EI Service Centre to pay for the extra bag.

firstclasslad

I called BA about this - even if the EI flight has a BA flight number (codeshare) - there is no free bag for Silver or Gold EC members.

Infocustv

This is why I was a bit sceptical about what the Gold line said.
To be clear the EI leg is part of a BA ticket MAN-DUB-LHR-BLQ-LHR-MAN only the first leg is EI the rest is BA. I am using the first leg to access my Transatlantic ticket and on return from that trip we go to Bologna
Not asking for anything not paid for

lesethan

I just got off the phone with the BAEC Gold line. Unfortunately, it seems like it's not clear to them either as they couldn't give me a straight answer and asked me to contact Aer Lingus directly. Aer Lingus in return asked me to contact BAEC as they don't have anything to do (yet) with the BA baggage policy (what a surprise). After explaining that I've just done that, she only said that she can't see any extra bag in my booking and that I should book one if I want to be sure to not pay extra at the airport. I'll just have to buy an extra baggage in advance if I don't want to risk to pay triple at check-in...