tuonopepper

From what I can tell this isn't something BA do, was wondering if they ever have or ever would....

Being a GCH, travelling alone or with other half the baggage limit rarely bothers me, however on bigger family trips it usually needs a hodge podge of suitcases to be deployed.....some are simply too small to get 23KG in and others too large to fill and keep at 23KG.

Having just done a 9PX family trip on EZY I found the baggage pooling to be really useful, also believe FR do it as well.

As long as you're not exceeding the total booked limit or 32KG in a single case why does it matter?

Tobias-UK

The Gold BA luggage allowance is for all people on your reservation, max weight 32kg and an extra checked-bag for each passenger on the booking. The only exception is if you buy a ‘basic fare’ which gives no baggage allowance.

mikeyfly

What is baggage pooling?

Genius1

It's when the handlers leave your bags outside in the rain.

tuonopepper

Eg. Book and pay for 3x23KG bags = 69KG.
Pitch up at checkin with 1x32, 1x23 and 1x14KG, not an issue a still 3 bags, still 69KG.

Allows flexibility.

tuonopepper

That's a fair point and not a great example from me as a GCH, however still a valid question for a non status, cant really see a downside to BA to add this bit of flexibility across a booking.

corporate-wage-slave

It's a cost though, and it's a bit like those who no-show, BA has the big data to know that happens, and that some people don't use any of their 23 kgs allowance, perhaps because they want Free Change On the Day instead. Baggage pooling is a customer friendly policy, and at the "just over the limit" area I bet many baggage agents let things slide, but from an airline perspective it can only mean more baggage and thus more cost.

Ted51

Checking in at Sydney last wednesday, premium economy, so our allowance was 4 x 23kg. We had one full bag at 13.5kg and one full bag at 28kg. While club passengers three desks away could check in bags at 32kg, we had to try and take items out of the "overweight" bag to put elswhere, where is the logic!

FlyingUnderTheRadar

There is no logic, only rules.

Once I had the same happen with my larger carry-on. I had just gotten the airport, through the first round of security and so had stuffed my jacket, sweater, etc into my pack so my personal item was light and easy to carry. My pack was 2 or 3 kilos over the limit. I explained what I had done and why. The checkin person was not having it. So I put my sweater back on, then my jacket, put my camera in my personal item. Was continuing on when they realized they were going to lose the game and said it was fine.

Dave Noble

You also had the choice to pay the fee for overweight baggage? the logic is that it saved you excess fees and saved the price difference to business class.

BA's allowances are pretty decent - 2 x 32kg for business class vs 30-40kg on some airlines. The main beneficiary if BA switched to weight based rather than piece based would be BA.

Pooling baggage seems to have a negative side effect for the passenger - if 2 people's luggage is pooled and checked in under 1 person, then the airline will only be liable for baggage delay/loss to that one person

louie-m

Their allowance was 92kg in total and they had 41.5kg in reality. Not even as much as one person's allowance.

Why would anyone pay excess fees in such a situation? This is purely the standard BA customer unfriendliness; let's inconvenience the customer despite there being no cost to us to accede to their request.

Dave Noble

Their allowance was 2 pieces each, with each piece being a max of 23kg. It was not an allowance of 92kg. If it was a 92Kg allowance, then it would not matter how someone packed ( as long as the 32kg per bag was not exceeded )

The allowance is already a generous one - if there was a 23kg allowance per person, then for those with status , it would come to 38Kg or 43kg. not sure who wins there

Charging fees in excess of allowancre is a pretty standard thing and not some sort of BA unfriendliness

If taking items of >23Kg s important, then book business class , hold appripriate status or pay the excess fees.

The complaint by the OP seems bizarre since as a member holding Gold status, checking in 32Kg per piece is , iirc, permitted without charge on a BA service

EuropeanPete

Paying by kg seems like a great idea until you’re suddenly in economy on QR and taking on an extra 23kg suitcase costs you $500 for a flight.

SilverChris

There's a reason why the total allowance was 4 x 23kg, not 92kg. I don't see how this is inconveniencing the customer, when it was the customers themselves who failed to pack according to their allowance. There would be no point in having a piece concept if they started combining the allowance of each bag.

Ryanardo_daVinci

The weight limit comes from the cost of the fuel to transport all the bags, but the price limit comes from some parts of the world charging “per piece” for baggage ground handling, with surcharges for >23Kg (which is an old school conversion of 50lbs), and the flexibility over these rules come from how full the flight might be plus how strict the destination is (eg in some parts of South America, handling bags >23Kg is prohibited by the ground handlers union).