KL : Piece concept weight limit
 

For economy pax traveling on tickets issued after September 1, KL will reduce the piece concept weight limit from 32 to 23 kg per bag. Excess luggage will cost €25/US$25 per kg, depending on the direction of travel.

AF will not reduce the weight limit (one airline, huh?).

In Dutch:

"Per 1 september a.s. wijzigt het piece concept voor alle vluchten met een KL- of NW-vluchtnummer. Het maximum gratis toegestane gewicht wordt voor Economy Class-passagiers verlaagd van 32 kilo naar 23 kilo per stuk bagage. Passagiers die in World Business Class reizen, blijven het recht houden om maximaal 32 kilo per koffer mee te nemen. Air France houdt vooralsnog de oude regeling aan.
Tegen betaling van een vast bedrag van EUR 25 per enkele reis wordt de mogelijkheid geboden om tot 32 kilo per koffer mee te nemen. Vanuit de USA wordt hiervoor USD 25 per enkele reis gerekend en vanuit Canada CAD 39.

De huidige optie om tegen bijbetaling van overbagagekosten het gewicht tot 46 kilo per stuk bagage op te hogen, is vanaf 1 september niet langer geldig. Dit in verband met de ARBO-wetgeving. Zoals hierboven aangegeven wordt dit maximum dus nu 32 kilo per stuk bagage. Dit geldt voor alle vluchten van KLM, Northwest Airlines en Air France waar het piece concept van toepassing is (USA, Canada en Mexico).

Bovenstaande geldt voor tickets geprint na 1 september 2005."

Johan

I hope this time they informed the DOT before making the announcement and got approval... :o

46 kg is still a lot, will be tough for KLM tough to brief their Swissport handling agents of this.

I was told everything from 3 pieces of luggage plus another 32 kg or 10 kg for Plat`s to 2x32 for C as well during the last years leaving the US after some shopping sprees, I have to admit quickly :D

You were allowed to bring a modest 94 kg, I assume. (The extra allowance for Plat is 20 kg, according to the website, and 10 for Gold.)

Being Gold I guess my current allowance is 2x32kg, plus an extra bag of 10kg - plus the carrry-on. That'll be ... 84 kg in Economy, so help me goodness. Maybe I should buy some cast iron pots and pans to take home. :D

Jerene
(ORD)

The extra KG allowance is intended ONLY for weight concept flights...piece concept currently remains at 2 x 32kg/70lbs for all passengers. However, the FB benefit is incorrectly written and does not specify weight concept only, so passengers are currently being given the benefit of this error in most situations (but discouraged, as 32kg is already a HEAVY bag that can break apart, lose a handle, damage equipment & other bags, and injure staff). Expect to see it clarified in the future.

Regarding the drop in piece concept allowances, AF has planned twice in the last 2 years to reduce the maximum to 2 x 23kg/50lbs per passenger, but it never gained IATA approval and was abandoned. It will be interesting to see if KL manages to go through with it. If so, then I expect the extra KG allowance will be "officially" in effect for elite/+ members on piece concept flights also.

Jerene, I am pretty sure that the extra allowance for elite card holders is not valid on piece concept flights....

Aha. Thanks for responding.

Does anybody know if one if the two pieces could be a bicycle (weighing less than the limit, of course, and properly packaged) - ?

Jerene

They will NOT get approval on this.

I have no problem with reasonable weight limits. What I have a problem with it when I drop $40k on an airline in a given year on lets say 50 segments, and check in no baggage whatsoever on 46 of them. On the two segments that I am travelling with family or whatever and am 10k or over my limit, I get some idiot third party airport worker who won't budge and try to charge me full whack for my overage. I have always successfully fought it, but it is a drain. A true FF benefit would be to track what you actually check in and give you "credits" that you can use in a time of need (Imagine the Expat, who flies back and forth to the home country 30 times in full J in a two year period, never checking much if any luggae, wouldn't it be a great perk if when he relocates he can bring let's say 10 bags with him FOC??)

Bicycles are included in the baggage allowance, so yes...it may be checked as one of your two pieces (not exceeding 32kg, of course).

Regarding the waiver for excess luggage, I agree it would be a nice perk to give some sort of "credit voucher" when passengers check no luggage that could be saved for future use (e.g., 1 or 2 kg future credit for each flight without bags). However, the accountability of such a system would be hard to manage.

Piece Concept For Elites
 

There used to be an extra allowance:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...25&postcount=3

Has this now been removed?

As I understood it from your post Johan, this applies to tickets issued after 1. september.
But just to be sure, i called KLM Norway today, and they said it applies to ALL flights after 1. september, regardless of ticket issue date.
So what is correct....can anyone confirm?

Regards

TommyL

Well, to answer my own question, I just got a reply from KLM Holland. The booking office at KLM Norway was wrong, and Johan was right.
This does not apply for tickets issued before september 1.
Better bring that e-mail with me on my October trip to NYC, since they cannot seem to agree....

Regards

TommyL

Hope not. And I hope that extends to the lesser elites. I'd love to be able to bring an extra suitcase. Not that I want to bring another 10 kg but that I would like to bring

2 medium heavy suitcases + 1 light suitcase, plus 1 carry-on, as opposed to
2 much too heavy suitcases and 1 carry-on

Jerene
(or maybe I should get a husband? - or a porter?)

Good Tip re Carry-On from USA
 

Flyers in USA expect and are granted much more leeway with their carry-on baggage than in Europe. So my tip on USA-Europe is to take that huge piece of carry-on through security and surrender it at the gate.

The gate agent is happy because they can cut down on the boarding struggle in the cabin and the pax is happy because you can get another - oh - 15kg free-of-charge :p

Continental announced a similar change, approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Looks like this one may stick