How to contact OneWorld re: TAM's insane interpretation of Emerald Extra Baggage rule
 

In another thread, I've just recounted an infuriating experience with TAM regarding the OneWorld Emerald extra baggage allowance.

(Short version: in TAM's view - different from every other carrier I've dealt with in the alliance - the extra allowance only applies to domestic-discounted-economy tickets, which ignores basic arithmetic and makes a mockery of the whole benefit when traveling in business class.)

I've tried looking for a OneWorld contact e-mail address to which I can send a message about this experience, in the hope they can help prevent similar confusion in the future.

Does anyone here have such a contact?

No. Oneworld makes it virtually impossible for travelers to contact them. They're just a marketing organization anyway and simply don't meddle in individual airlines' policies.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Don't know if this will help the OP, but it appears that oneworld has both a Facebook and a Twitter presence.

enquiry @ oneworld.com

Thanks Himeno.

I've just sent off a quick message, and received the following auto-reply:


Will report back here if I ever receive any follow-up, and in the other thread I'd mentioned with the content of that response.

[Of course, if it makes sense to eventually merge both threads in one place.... Mods, that's your call]

This restriction is actually true of TAM's rules for their own elites in business class. It's only one extra bag, either for business or elite, but not both. So the maximum is 3, not 4, checked bags. Nonetheless, in my experience they do accept 4 bags on the JFK-GIG flight.

How to contact OneWorld re: TAM's insane interpretation of Emerald Extra Baggage rule
 

In alliance each airline sets their own Baggage rules for Elites
In Sky Team there are different rules set by each airline
So best to check before hand

My Son being BA Gold ended up paying excess baggage as Quantas had different rules

In the description above - which matches what TAM told me as well - the Emerald extra baggage benefit would seem to only apply when traveling in economy class. And while I personally think that's nuts, if TAM wants to apply such illogic to their own flights, I suppose that's up to them. [And I'm glad to hear that on the JFK-GIG flight, good sense and basic arithmetic prevail]

But my case was somewhat different: an AA operated and marketed flight from USA to Brazil, with a domestic-add on operated & marketed by TAM. Regardless of the latter's policy on their own flights, when issued as part of a single ticket, I'd understood the baggage allowance of AA (the over-water airline, or Most Significant Carrier) should apply to the entire journey. Mid-journey was no time to be told otherwise.

The DOT rule does not apply to additional baggage allowed for class of service or for elite status. Here is one explanation:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g4...ine.Trips.html

Sorry, but you are wrong. And, the "over the water" stuff from IATA 302, hasn't applied to AA since 2011.

The DOT rule simply provides that the baggage allowance of the marketing carrier for the first segment of a ticket, applies to all segments of the ticket. This does not include waivers for additional bags extended to status, CC holders and the like.

Thus, if your first segment was AA-marketed and was USA-Brazil, your allowance was 2 bags. That same allowance applied onwards. AA could choose to adhere to IATA 302, but it doesn't and DOT thus doesn't care about over the water.

If you did not get that allowance from JJ, you have a DOT complaint against JJ.

OW itself is a marketing operation. All that will happen is that some clerical somewhere will forward the complaint to AA/JJ as the case may be. OW itself has no authority to force anybody to do anything. It is a creature of JJ (and other carriers), not the other way around.

Very interesting and detailed read, thanks for the link.

This bit would seem to be the section that covers my experience:

To be honest, I never knew there was such a thing as a "base allowance" or "standard economy allowance" for each carrier. Rather, I'd understood that each ticket was governed by its own rules, with some (e.g. - BA's HBO fares) offering zero free checked bags, and others offering specific limits according to the piece concept (eg. xONEx tkts) or the weight concept (eg. Seaman's tickets, which allow 40kgs in economy).

And so, when a business class ticket is notated with a "3PC" baggage allowance, I'd never have guessed that this was composed of a base-allowance + a bonus-allowance, and that only the former would apply to downstream connecting sectors. In my specific case, even TAM didn't argue this - since they recognized that my ticketed allowance was indeed 3-pieces. They just balked at granting an additional free piece on account of my OneWorld Emerald status. And since the extra baggage benefit is an explicit OneWorld benefit (which I sincerely value), I was a bit stunned at the incoherent grounds on which TAM resisted to offer it.

In practical terms, class of service bonus that is ticketed as part of the ticketed bag allowance does get carried over. If the JJ segment also shows "3PC," of course JJ has to honour it.