23 Kilos max baggage weight as of 13th Feb
 

After the seating 'enhancement', now comes the baggage changes.

23 Kilos max weight per piece from 13th February.

I received the following;

Dear Mr swissytrader.

Our vision for London Heathrow Terminal 5 is to create the best possible airport experience before you fly. With this in mind we have announced a new simpler checked and excess baggage policy, which will come into effect on 13 February 2007.

Checked baggage

In order to comply with health and safety recommendations the maximum weight per bag will be reduced to 23kgs. The number of free checked bags you may take will vary according to your class of travel and route. Please check ba.com for the details of your free allowance on your next flight.

Excess baggage

A fixed fee, the cost of which will depend on the length of your flight, will be charged for each bag in excess of the free checked baggage allowance. In the majority of cases the new charges will be less than those currently levied and a further 20% discount will be available by pre-paying online at ba.com up to the point of check in on most routes.

You can find out more about the new baggage policy including a reminder on the
changes to hand baggage here.




Kind regards,



Sarah Keyes

Oh f***ing marvellous! Sorry, I don't usually use that word in real life, let alone in print, but I thought the one benefit of the liquids in hand luggage fiasco was that this crazy policy would be allowed to die a death. BA you are really screwing with us at the moment!!! :td: :td:

Boy, the w@nkers at WallyWorld are really working overtime this month! :rolleyes:

Do they think we're stupid ? :mad:

Another reason why the Star Alliance is becoming more and more appealing to me.

Well done Mr Walsh.

B

I'd hoped this had died a death - 23kg is really a feeble limit and I'm fed up with this disingenuous 'for health and safety reasons' line that is being peddled.

I can't help feeling that this, coupled with the ridiculous new seating arrangement and the general 'mean-ness' I feel emanating from Waterworld is going to drive a lot of people to say 'enough is enough'.

BMI and LH are starting to look more and more attractive...especially as I have no travel booked with BA after April of next year.

It's hard to win back loyal customers once you've driven them away...or does nobody at BA understand/care about that ?

BAH

Surely this is just the baggage changes we all knew of long ago which got postponed from October due to BAA being incompetent. Now, if BAA would pull their fingers out of their sorry arses and run a proper 'security' system, we'd be back to one case + one personal item/laptop bag as hand luggage and this would not bite quite so hard.

I still find it total bollox that 23Kg is for 'health and safety' reasons though. Since the workshy baggage handlers are on 'work to rule', this issue is surely moot? There can only be a health and safety issue if the lazy f*!kers were doing any handling of baggage at all, let alone of 32Kg ones :rolleyes:

I do love the way everything is now being rolled out wrapped in a sham of a mockery of a farce of 'Our vision to make T5 a wonderful, easy, happy, clappy travel experience means that we have to....<screw you over somehow from now on>' :rolleyes:

This is another classic case of BA having no grasp on the real world in which their loyal and ESSENTIAL premium customers live. The seating changes would all be hugely easier to swallow if everyone on the PNR benefited from the highest status as before. Simple as that. People who can assign seats, want to do so together. That is a total no brainer. Likewise, this baggage crap would be easier to swallow for people travelling together (especially with young childrren) if the allowance could be pooled up to a 32Kg max. per case. Pha, we did this all to death on the other thread originally. BA didn't listen then, nor will they now :(

Yeah, I got this too. Good tactic I guess ... get all the bad news & customer alienating policies out in one go.

Not. <...censored...censored...censored...censored...ce nsored...censored>

Which, IIRC as *G you get an EXTRA 10KG baggage allowance just for being *G!

Well there you go!

Had thought that BA had thought better of this plan. Obviously not.

VS, SQ, LH and CX for me for longhaul after 13 Feb.

It's BA's valentine gift to all its loyal customers. :rolleyes:

I also love the fact that when you follow the link in the email where they will allegedly tell you how many 23kg bags you can take, it goes straight to the existing baggage policy page with current allowances.

They are really going to lose business with this.

I can't remember from the old thread but is the maximum 23kg requirement a BA or BAA stipulation ? If the latter, it would presumably apply to *A airlines ex-LHR as well.

Nightmare! especially for those travelling economy.

Short haul it's the number of bags that's the problem, not so much the weight; on ET the limit was always 23kg so won't change, and on CE you can now in theory take 2 x 23 = 46kg instead of 30kg. But I often used to check two small bags instead of one large one, particularly now with the silly ex-UK hand luggage rules. Or if coming back with a purchase that isn't particularly heavy but can't be counted as hand luggage. (Or is liquid, like the 5 litres of our gardener's olive oil which I bring back each time I visit our place in Italy :) ). Now everything has to be in the one case.

Long haul economy fares just effectively go up by £60 or whatever they want to charge (extra cost of the inevitable second bag). I've been lucky enough to be able to have avoided Y long-haul for as long as I can remember, but do the one-bag rules apply to WT+ as well? :(

And long haul premium fares also go up by £60 if you want to take more than 46kg (3 x 23 would take you up to the old 2 x 32).

And health and safety my a***. Look at places like Sweden etc where their H&S legislation is much more draconian than ours, and 32kg is no problem for them. I have a Swedish friend who sells lifting devices - hand-operated fork-lift-truck type things designed for specific applications - and he's always amazed at what they let people do in the UK. He's never seen people pushing those horizontal stacks of 50-100 trolleys around an airport by hand except in the Third World - most sensible airports provide little ride-on electric pushing-things for that. I'm sure that if a sensible assessment was done of how the handlers lift the luggage - it isn't the weight, it's how and at what angle etc you lift it - they could solve the problem.

BA allegedly in accordance with HSE guidelines. No other airline has breathed a word of the same crap however.

But if you read the mail:

These are recommendations, not regulations. And I suppose your bags will still take a minimum of 45 minutes to get to the carosel :rolleyes:

No. 2 bags, if I recall correctly.

No BA would like people to think that someone else is imposing this policy, but the truth is it is a BA imposed gouge, dishonestly dressed up as a Health & Safety Issue. The other airlines, if they have any sense, will not adopt it as it will provide them with a significant selling point over BA in the premium cabins.

To take an example. On Friday I fly to NYC. After NYC I am going to go diving. I will be taking my dive equipment. At least one of my bags will exceed the 23kg limit. They will probably weigh about 27kg each. I am a Gold travelling in F. After 13 Feb, I would be forced to reduce the weight down to 23kg per pag and to put the excess in a third bag for which I would be charged £120 per sector.

They can f**k off. After 13 Feb, I'd go with VS for this trip, as I am allowed 3 x 32kg bags.

And whilst I am on the topic of dishonest spin, note that the e-mail claims:

"In the majority of cases the new [excess baggage] charges will be less than those currently levied".

This may be literally true, but the point is very few passengers presently pay excess baggage charges, whereas many more will be paying them after 13 Feb.

This is the sort of dissembling that I expect from Ryan Air.

How fabulous!!! In the middle of HALF TERM!! So, I'll be going outbound on the 30Kg rule..coming back with 23Kg rule..Fabulous Thinking WaterWorld!

Have just been pricing up flights in VS and mailed regarding status matching if I were to switch.

Nice one Willy Wonka- nice letter on its way in the mail tomorrow too.

enough is enough.:td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td: :td:

Copy of letter on its way to BA

Let's see what their response is.

I have just read your email about your new baggage policy with some dismay.

It will have an effect on my choice of carrier and cost you business next year. As I have spent around £20,000 flying BA this year, I hope my loss of business will be noticed.

Let me explain why I will be flying with other carriers. I am currently in Houston, due to fly back tonight on BA 2024. I have my 22" roller case with me which I have filled with a few presents bought in Houston in addition to teh clothes I brought out. I have no idea whether the bag weighs more than 23kg and after February, when I turn up at the airport, I will discover whether I can check my bag or whether I need to throw some things away or purchase another bag. Having to crawl around the floor at IAH repacking my bags is not a part of the BA Club World product that I wish to experience.

I think it was British Caledonian's slogan:- We never forget that you have a choice. Well I have a choice and I will be using it. If I fly Star Alliance, there is a much more reasonable 32kg per piece maximum weight and as a *Gold customer I get an additional allowance. As a BA Gold card holder, I get nothing.

You talk about the 23kg limit being introduced for health and safety reasons. I have previously worked in an organisation with a world class health and safety record where, amongst other responsibilities, I was involved in manual handling assessments. We managed to deal with lifting items heavier than 23kg with no adverse impact on individuals quite easily. It seems to me that BA sits alone in deciding that 23kg is the maximum allowable weight of bag that can be lifted safely. I would love to know why.

I suspect many of your regular travelers will feel as dismayed as me about your new policy, and I suspect you will lose much more revenue that the £20,000 I will not spend with you next year. Please think again.

Seriously, why do BA hate their passengers so much?

The Policy has been actually enhanced!!!:::

FIRST and Club World
Passengers will be able to check three bags into the aircraft hold free of charge.

Club Europe and World Traveller Plus
Passengers will be able to check two bags into the aircraft hold free of charge.

World Traveller*, Euro Traveller, BA Connect & UK Domestic
Passengers will be able to check one bag into the aircraft hold free of charge.

Business opportunity here selling helium balloons at airports to fill unused space :D

From ba.com

FIRST and Club World
Passengers will be able to check three bags into the aircraft hold free of charge.

Club Europe and World Traveller Plus
Passengers will be able to check two bags into the aircraft hold free of charge.

World Traveller*, Euro Traveller, BA Connect & UK Domestic
Passengers will be able to check one bag into the aircraft hold free of charge.

------

wait a second: FIRST & Club World: 3 bags? ^

Sorry, beat you to it by 1min :D HeHe.

Which may possibly be an indication that the second carry on bag has vanished for good :td: :td: :td:

Have we noticed that this has just brought the gap between F and J even closer?

Without a doubt it has. :(

Hardly in a meaningul way I'd say (i.e. like NCW improvements do). They get the same checked bag allowance already on by-piece routes with a marginal extra allowance on by-weight routes in F. And they already had the same hand luggage allowance after the new changes came in (which is the same as every cabin anyway now with BAA's useless airports forcing the 'one bag only' rule on us all).

Is it good F/J and CE/W have more baggage allowance than Y? Yes, that should mean less chance of people on already expensive fares paying excess perhaps, if they pack right. BUT is it any good that it's 3x23Kg? No. Why? It's entirely impractical for the lone business traveller (err, hello, did someone say 'target audience'? Oh, no, sadly nobody thought of that at BA again?) to lug around 3-4 items (2-3 checked, one hand luggage) to/from airports, ffs. It's even less practical for a family with a couple of small kids to lug around dozens of cases and 2 pushchairs, etc. The whole thing doesn't add up. Sigh.

No, it hasn't. You can still easily and legally bring a case (within the maximum dimensions) and a second item on board ex-US. Or ex-EU (I often do ex-HEL for example). It has just disappeared in places where 'security' is run by a shower of incompetents, i.e. BAA.

I suspect the "Health and Safety recommendations" excuse has been demanded by the unions to protect the workshy (aka bone idle) luggage handlers from "potential injury". What a bunch of pansies.

Yet another example of the deeply malign influence of the trade union.

^ ^ Well said!

When the two of us go away in CE for a weekend break, or even CW Longhaul on a weekend break (or even 5 days), we take the one case as we don't want to be saddled with piece after piece of luggage, especially since the Mrs does not want to carry anything apart from her handbag ;)

I guess that the 'discretion' they had when two customers are sharing one bag to 'pool' the allowance also goes out the window :td:

Of course, and I too always have 2 carry on bags flying ex US or any sensible country which can provide decent security.
But the fact that BA have changed this does not bode well for it being reintroduced ex UK :(

I agree and that is the reason why the policy won't change.

I suspect there was much horse trading in smoke filled rooms around changes in working practices for T5 and the 23kg maximum weight was an easy concession for the BA negotiators to make in return for something else that would save them money.

How wrong they were. I suspect they will find this costing them millions in lost passenger revenue.

* Alliance for me too
 

I have nearly 4000 TP's with BA this year but this is the final straw. I have flown SQ and TG longhaul recently and will certainly be using these airlines premium cabins to Asia and Oz in the future.

I have no clue what BA are playing at.....

This came up before, but what sort of traveller on a purely business trip needs to take 46kg or 69kg of luggage? Blimey, I manage with a carry-on sized bag and my laptop for pretty much all my work trips.

F off BA. I just got the message from Sazza and came str8 here to find I'm a latecomer to this news.

Only the poor travel light and I'm not poor. 23Kgs they can f right off. :mad:

I'm gay for godsake. If I go away for a week I can't be seen in the same outfit every day. I can't even be seen in the same outfit for the whole of one day.

This is not on Sazza. :mad: :mad:

From 13 Feb VC10 Boy will be going out of his way to fly with a Star Carrier.

What a nice Valentines pressie from the worlds most stupid f-ing airline.

Of course I can have x number of other bags at 23kg at a price. Perhaps I should save money by travelling discounted Y. No on second thoughts I couldn't bear it.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Agreed in general...but this is why it's the limit of the weight which is the major PITA, not the number of pieces - and upping the number of pieces is just something BA hopes will 'sound good' as part of the smoke and mirrors here. Who will actually travel with 3x23Kg cases each in reality!?

Do I regularly carry that much in my luggage? No - certainly for shorthaul/short longhaul trips. But if I'm going to an event or going on a longer 'tour' type trip, then in addition to clothes I often pack literature/samples/other stuff, etc. I cannot recall in all my travels that I've exceeded 32Kg. I have exceeded 23Kg many times. Do I relish trying to lug 2 suitcases now, one weighing 23Kg and one weighing 2Kg, around? Not really! That's just bloody silly! What about those shopping jaunts to NY? I'm pretty sure all the airlines are loving that right now - so what, should I check one case and then a second empty one to fill up? How the hell does that help them reduce baggage handling costs - the lazy, useless, workshy baggage handlers now have to mishandle twice as many cases. It'll take twice as long to get bags out! The August farce proved the baggage system is already over-stretched...how does putting MORE cases in the system at a few Kgs less help? It is madness. In addition, instead of carrying one case for me weighing, say, 25Kg in total, BA will now carry 2 cases - 23Kg + 2Kg + weight of second hard-shell case (only a fool travels with a soft-shell case!). This is going to INCREASE the total weight carried and cost MORE in fuel. No doubt they will then seek to find further cuts from cabin/flight crew expenditure somehow to cover this and lead us all in to another strike as a result. Again, utter madness. For a company which must surely piss away millions on consultants and MBA-toting wasters, I can't believe it appears BA have never heard of "joined-up thinking" :(

I don't want 3x23Kg. I can't think of a time when I'd ever have 3 cases of 23Kg each. Ever. I would be very happy to have (for example) "EITHER 1x32Kg OR 2x23Kg, sir, otherwise you must pay excess, sorry" though. If BA want to make my life easy and offer me a flexible, hassle free travel experience, that's what they should actually bloody offer - flexibility.

Likewise when travelling with others - pooling of luggage makes sense. That becomes less of a reality with a 23Kg limit and NO flexibility to pool the allowances of 2 or more people.

Every 'little' cut. Every stupid, ill-thought-through change. Every extra hassle. In aggregate, they're all noticed. They add up and just make regular travel that bit more depressing and less enjoyable. BA pissing off premium pax which are its lifeblood given the stated strategy of targeting the business markets, just makes no sense to me at all.

This is rich. :rolleyes: Create the best possible airport experience by forcing us to pack more into out carry-on bags, so I can tote around useless kilograms whereas before I just checked them into the hold. I fail to see the improvement. This assuming of course BAA gets their act together and permits a normal amount of cabin luggage; but if not, we'll be forced to become like Brülè by spending countless hours debating the finer points of what to bring in a very limited amount of space. (The horror... I like chucking everything into my hold bag and then chucking it onto the conveyer belt.)

I also notice that "simple" seems to be the new word in BA marketing. A simple seating policy. A simple baggage policy. A simple hand luggage policy. A simple Executive Club. Has simple become the new enhancement?

How much more simplified and enhanced is the flying experience to become???

I agree entirely - my trips are generally for a few weeks. I was happy with my big case on wheels which sometimes weighed approx. 26Kg, a wheeled cabin bag and my laptop bag. I cannot see how I could manage an additional case given that I currently have one in each hand and the laptop bag on my shoulder.

Furhtermore, as my laptop now has to go into the cabin bag, I can't carry as much with me onto the plane and will need to put more into my hold bag.:mad: