Victim to OneWorld's Baggage Agreements
 

I recently took a golf trip from HKG to EDI. My routing was:

Outbound:
- HKG to LHR on Cathay Pacific
- LHR to EDI on British Airways

Inbound:
- EDI to LHR on British Airways
- LHR to HKG on Cathay Pacific

I am a Cathay Pacific Gold member (OneWorld Sapphire), and everything worked fine on my outbound trip. I got the shock of my life at the start of my inbound journey. On check-in, I had my golf bag and one small bag to be checked. The BA agent at EDI told me that I was 20 kg over and it would cost GBP45 per kilo to check my bags! I asked whether my status with Cathay would allow me to have additional bag allowance - and the answer was NO!! The agent proceeded to tell me that if I check my bag to LHR only, and recheck my bag at LHR with Cathay... the charge would be about GBP38. Since I only have 2 hours in between, I figured I won't have enough time to pick up and recheck my bag. I asked the agent whether BA would do anything if I were to miss my connection - and the answer was NOTHING!

I ended up taking out a few things and carried a laundry bag with me as carry-on, and STILL ENDED UP PAYING GBP575 for my golf bag. It was a good thing that I did not take the recheck-my-bag option as the BA flight was late, and I barely made my connection going from T5 to T3. I have since filed a complaint with Cathay Pacific - of course, it has gone NOWHERE in 2 months.

I think this is completely UNFAIR to the customers as we are basically left with no choice but to pay the ridiculous baggage fees. Had I known about BA's ridicuous charges, I would have FEDEX'd my bag!

I am not expexting CX or BA to do anything as I am just a speck on their radar. But I think OneWorld is ridiculous to treat their customers the way that they do. From what I understand STAR ALLIANCE, at the very least, has baggage allowance for their Gold members... I really wonder what it means to be a OneWorld Gold member.

I hope, by posting this, fellow travelers will not fall victims to OneWorld's baggage agreements - or the lack of it!!

Oneworld doesn’t have Gold status. They have Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald (three tiers instead of Stars two).
Currently, Oneworld only offers a special luggage allowance if you’re booked on a Oneworld product (eg xONEx, xASxx etc). If you’re not travelling on a oneworld product, you generally only get what your status gets with your airline (eg, I get extra baggage on Qantas, but not BA).

Star Alliance offers an additional 20kg or extra piece to Star Gold, and nothing extra to Star Silver.

While it would be nice for OW to offer additional luggage allowance across the alliance, they chose not to for some reason.
I can see three options OW could go with.
- No change.
- Offer extra based on OW status. Say extra 10kg for Sapphire and extra 20kg for Emerald.
- Require each member to give extra allowance to equivalent status holders. (eg, AAdvantage Platinum gets the same allowance when flying on CX as a CX Gold would)


I personally don’t care about extra baggage. I’ve never needed it and don’t see my ever needing it. In 6 years of RTW travels, I’ve never had more than 20kg of baggage – even though I’ve been allowed at times over 30kgs and up to 3 bags.

That is outrageous!!

Cathay would never have charged that even if you didn't have status! Cathay charge 6kg for every 15Kg overweight for golf equipment.


I had a similar experience flying BA / CX from GVA - LHR - HKG. I had one duffel weighing 20Kgs and skis weighing another 20kgs. On checking in in Geneva BA wanted to charge me 20Kg in excess baggage fees. I told them that Cathay would only charge 3Kg excess for skis and that they wouldn't charge their gold card holders anyway because I get excess baggage. I told them I would pick up my bags in LHR and that I would only pay for the extra bag - as per BA rules (30 pounds or something). Anyway after a couple of phone calls, they agreed that Cathay wouldn't charge me, and let me go without paying.

Star Alliance is consistent. Since i often have substantial amounts of luggage most of my flying now is on Star. I believe OneWold should get their act together.

This is just one aspect of oneworld's lack of integration. Pre-reserved seat assignments and FastTrack access are others that come to mind.

Please do sound off with Cathay and ask them to make it right. To say that the charge was outrageous is an understatement.

oneworld Emeralds suffer from the same inconsistencies issues, and am very much considering Star for 2011.

That's the joy of having excess baggage. If you were 20Kg over the allowance, the BA agent was perfectly correct in assessing the excess fees , which are expensive. It would be hard to believe that you did not realise that you were over the ticketed allowance

That CX didn't charge anything on the outbound is irrelevent

Dave

While I can understand your frustration, it is your responsibility to check the allowance you have. This is neither the fault of Cathy, BA or oneworld. Just out of curiosity, what allowance was printed on the ticket?

Unfortunately Star Alliance is not consistent anymore. NZ is not offering any luggage benefits for *G in long haul business class anymore and they also don't waive the bag charge for short haul routes (they don't call it bag charge but it is effectively the same).

You did the right thing to warn us others.

You were 20 kg "over", I suppose that means that your golf bag weighted 43 kg? The problem here is then that no baggage piece should weight over 32 kg's or severe penalties kick in.

So far majority of complaints go to BA for luggage charges. I guess many of us can figure out why.

So, next time, when you need to go to EDI or MAN. Just buy one ticket to LHR and rent a car or take the train. Forget BA.

As a Cathay gold card holder you are entitled to 35Kg when flying Cathay Pacific. British Airways charged ewong without considering his Cathay status. BA could have just charged him the 38 pounds for the BA sector (the cost of the extra bag when flying BA) instead they charged him 545 pounds, when his Cathay status meant that he would have only been 5kgs overweight).

I normally do not travel with excess baggages... I fly over 150k on an annual basis with various airlines. It's just that I was on a 10 day golf trip to Scotland. With the equipment and all, it went over the BA limit of 20 kg. Since I booked the entire trip through CX and that BA is part of the OneWorld alliance, I assumed, at the very least, they would recognize one's status with their partners.

After this experience, I am seriously considering moving to Star next year... after having reached Diamond with CX this year.

The limit on your ticket was only 20Kgs - even for Cathay. Your MPO status gives you 15Kgs extra on CX. BA didn't recognize that your Cathay status would give you extra bagage allowance on CX, and therefore charged you the excess on the entire ticket. That's where the problem lies... it's fine if Oneworld carriers don't have reciprocal luggage arrangements - it encourages the frequent flyers to stick to their home airline. What is ridiculous is that you are being charged when flying your home airline when your status entitles you to the benefits. For example when you fly from HK to EDI - you are entitled to 35Kgs, but when returning as you check in with the partner carrier - BA only allow you 20Kgs.

I would be furious and complain bitterly to CX. Kick up a massive fuss. I wonder if Cathay actually collect the baggage fee or does it all go to BA?

To be fair, they should charge the excess baggage fee for the outbound too. If BA should recognize a CX gold has excess baggage allowance on CX flights and not charge excess baggage fee on CX sectors, then CX should recognize CX gold doesn't have that on BA flights and charge OP on the outbound flights for excess baggages.

Maybe they should - but that would still only be 38 pounds or so.

Interestingly American Airlines does waive certain charges for Emerald / Saphire members - they don't have to pay for the second bag.

They charged quite correctly. If he wanted to take advantage of any special allowances that CX offer, they gave option to

(a) check luggage through to London using the BA allowance and the BA extra piece cost and then re-checking in with Cathay and then be charged by Cathay as applicable or
(b) pay the standard excess baggage fees for EDI-HKG and be checked through to HKG.

He chose (b) and was charged accordingly and correctly.