Wadge

Dear All,

we are off with my family to a nice big round trip which has 5 legs. The first 4 legs have checked in baggage in the rate but the last leg is hand baggage only. I am Silver now and the rule says:Silver/oneworld

Sapphire
One additional checked bag when travelling in economy

For everyone on your booking*, except on hand baggage only (Basic) fares, where there is no checked baggage allowance.



A weight allowance of 32kg (70lb) per checked bag



So I purchased for the last leg 1-1 checked baggage for me and my wife. Now I checked my full baggage allowance on that booking and it says 2x32kg for all segments except the last one where I bought the extra baggage, there it says 1x23kg for me and my wife. Which is the luggage I paid for afterwards.

1. Why does it show only 1x23kg if I am Silver? The extra baggage and weight doesn't apply to this option when I buy the checked baggage separately?
2. If it does apply and we can both fly with 2x32kg on the way home - as I hope to do anyway no point of Silver benefit - who can get it confirmed it for me in writing? There is no any email form on ba.com anymore and depending on who picks up the phone at BAEC gives me random different answers. I don't want to argue with the check-in agent on the airport and risking a high baggage fee.

Can you guys advise or anyone on the forum is here still from BAEC please I can talk to?

Thank you,

Wadge

corporate-wage-slave

If it was a standalone booking on BA metal bought as a Basic fare then you can buy luggage on top but it doesn't generate the Silver allowance by simply buying the first bag allowance. To do that you need to but either a Plus (if shorthaul) or a Economy Standard fare (longhaul). So it's just the one bag, and I'd very surprised if anything online would give you a different impression, the BA website spells this out very clearly in my view. The other flights on the trip are irrelevant if this a standalone booking, since to use BA's jargon, they are separate contracts. And the reason it is just 1 bag is that you are still on an HBO fare, just with the segregated extra bag. You can buy more bags, at ever rising cost. To get the full Silver allowance you need to buy a ticket which has a checked baggage allowance.

The 32kgs issue is a bit unclear since it can be read in different ways. Personally I think you would probably get it if it was a main BA station on mainstream BA metal.

Usually if you have checked luggage it doesn't make sense to go HBO on the fare, it is priced deliberately to make it infeasible. The exceptions relate to things like AA and AY metal.

Wadge

Hi Corporate-Wage-Slave,

great to see you are Lifetime Gold, wow...

This is one big booking in one ticket for all 4 of us... I wanted to have for me and my wife checked baggage fare and HBO for children but it wasn't possible as they are minors. Anyway, the ticket came out like this some segments have checked baggage and the last inbound part nothing on BA metal with BA ticket.

So you suggest to cancel the extra baggage purchase on the last leg and upgrade 2 of us to the checked baggage fare to be on the safe side? We will have 4 large suitcase, I don't want to be surprised on the way home.

Thanks

Sailbot3310

You can't upgrade from economy HBO to economy plus... I learnt the hard way. You gotta cancel the booking and remake it (if in 24 hours). I made the same mistake as you, thinking we only wanted one checked bag and it would be cheaper to just buy a bag.. Ironically it cost is �20 more to fly with 1 bag than if we purchased plus and had 4....

Wadge

This is a joke, seriously....

corporate-wage-slave

Correct, it is a different ticket, it's not some sort of supplement. Moreover, if you try to structure it so that only the adults get the allowance, and the kids stay HBO (or vice versa) they are going to end up on separate reservations too. Now that's a small risk, but in theory if there was an irrop the computer may do different things to different reservations. But if inside the first 24 hours then you can revise the reservation without paying any fees for the privilege.

If you are more than 24 hours then you can cancel the ticket and rebook from fresh, but that won't be cost effective either.

If you have 4 large cases, you need to buy a bag each. HBO does allow a car seat for kids for free.

Wadge

Yeah, OK, let's say I buy 2 more baggage, so we will have 2 for my wife and 2 for me but only 23kg each.... Silver benefit of 32kg will still not apply? Usually luggages are heavier on the way back, they will surely be more than 23kg... I am just frustrated nobody can confirm it for me in writing and again I can start arguing on the airport.

windowontheAside

Depending where you are travelling from, it might be easier and cheaper to ship some of the stuff back. Managing over 100kg of luggage in 4 cases with two young kids and all they entail won't be a breeze. Maybe bring the essential stuff back with you in your two paid bags and arrange for the other stuff to be freighted? The only time I did this it came back on the same plane as me although they obviously didn't guarantee that.

corporate-wage-slave

Give up on getting it in writing. I would probably have found it if it had happen, and no one has corrected any of my previous posts about this issue. My understanding is that you (at least, maybe the whole party) may be allowed 32 kgs. Essentially it comes out on the e-ticket as 23 kgs and then you wave your Silver card and hopefully the agent gives you 32 kgs. Depending on the airport that should work. 23 kgs x 4 is quite a lot, I'd be surprised if you needed 128 kgs on top of the 184 kgs cabin baggage, you are heading towards a third of a tonne in baggage.

NWIFlyer

If you can't manage within the generous hand baggage allowances, or fall foul of the size requirement, and you're stuck with an HBO fare you may wish to consider a POUG (Promotional Online Upgrade) to a cabin that automatically offers a baggage allowance.

This will obviously depend on whether the last leg is long haul or short haul as to the cost versus paying a lot of bag fees, and indeed you might find it's not offered at all. However, if it makes sense financially to pay, say, �79 per person for Club Europe you could wait until 48 hours before (by which time the offer would probably have popped up if it was going to) before deciding what to do about buying extra bags.

The other, more chancy, option is to wait until the airport if you don't get the offer beforehand and then enquire about an AUP (Airport Upgrade Price). If that isn't offered you'll be looking at a much bigger extra baggage bill though ...

If you can tell us the actual problem sector, we might be able to better guide you because we're guessing a bit at the moment.

Wadge

Well, the thing is, before when we travelled only together with my wife, we flew out with 2 baggage and arrived home with 3 after buying things and so on... They may not be 32kg each but more than 23kg for sure and I liked using my Gold or now my Silver benefit of not spending time with luggage packing to match the kilos. There you are and you can take off....

But now we will go 4 and for 2 weeks. Knowing my wife 2 outgoing luggage wont be enough for sure and coming homebound cant even imagine but the 23kg wont work for sure. I don't plan to move quarter of a ton but want to be prepared for the possibility as if you come across an agent on the airport who doesn't agree with your card buying extra kilos there is way much more expensive as it happened to me once.

Wadge

Thanks for the advice but as the entire ticket was paid by travel agency I cannot modify anything online and wouldn't wait for my luck on the airport.

The full route is BUD-LHR-JFK-SFO-LHR-BUD, the problematic segment is the inbound or homebound part for us, which is SFO-LHR-BUD but without stopover. This is the final part of it. All other segments have checked-in luggage included and I can see in Manage my Booking that all those show 2x32kg except the last double segment where there was no checked luggage. So I purchased 1-1 for me and my wife but those stayed as 1x23kg under each name. It doesn't go up to 2x32kg.

corporate-wage-slave

Did you buy BUD-LHR-BUD separately from LHR-SFO (etc)? This isn't making sense.

Wadge

No, they are all in one issued e-ticket. I asked the agent to buy the standard economy for me and my wife with checked baggage as I am Silver this will be enough for 2 of us having checked baggage only and for the children the HBO is enough where still available. I used travel agent as I cannot do it myself online either 1) for the different fare types in one ticket won't go 2) if I do a split booking with 2 adults with standard economy and 2 children separately with HBO the system warned me minors cannot travel without adults. OK, so I asked the travel agent to work out a way around it. The booking has been made, it was standard economy for all of us all along the route except for SFO-BUD part where they found HBO for kids and standard for us. HOWEVER!!!! When the booking was ticketed, I got even surprised as it was cheaper, BA issued the entire ticket for all of us on the last SFO-BUD segment as HBO!!!! When I called them they said, no worries, just bought one-one luggage each for the adults and you will be fine with your Silver benefit. But no... even though I did that we won't be fine. Manage my Booking still says 1x23kg where everywhere else it is 2x32kg as it should be... I hope it fully explains the situation.

It depends on who you talk to on the phone you get different answers and nobody gives you in writing if it is OK now or not.

windowontheAside

Maybe the TA bought it separately...? Although I'd expect that to work out more expensive but you never know.