Baggage Allowances
 

Can someone please help me understand baggage allowances?

I am WP and I have a RTW ticket booked in PE where I can, but Y on a few legs within the US because there is no PE.

I booked the ticket directly through QF, but because of the routing, some legs are with QF, some are with BA and some are with AA

So, I have one checked bag that weighs about 30kgs, plus normal hand luggage.

I have no problems at all getting from SYD-LHR, but when I checked in for LHR-JFK with BA, they charged me £30 for excess baggage??? I said to the woman that this couldn't be right because surely as a OW Emerald in PE I would be able to have extra baggage, but she was adamant that I could only have 23kgs...

Is this right and am I going to have the same problem in the US when flying AA??

Appreciate any assistance!

They were absolutely correct. There is no additional allowance due to having Qantas Platinum status

BA's economy allowance is 1 piece of 23Kg and for Premium economy is 2 pieces of 23KG. There are excess charges for exceeding the 23Kg limit

Qantas offers additional allowance to its own members (additional 15Kg for being Platinum) and BA offers additional allowance to its own silver/gold members, but there is no OW entitlements to additional allowances

Since you did not have a bag exceeding 32Kg nor exceeded tha max allowed weight on QF of 3Kg, then you were fine for SYD-LHR

AA also has a weight limit per piece of 23Kg, so you can expect to pay adiditional charges there. You can avoid those by purchasing another bag since AA permits those with OW status to take 2 pieces of luggage of up to 23Kg without charge

Dave

On checkin in for your flight to JFK how many bags did you have and how much did each weigh?

I presume you were travelling in BA Premium Economy.

This is important in ascertaining whether the BA check-in agent was in compliance with policy/fare rules.

Actually the number of bags and total weight don't matter in current policy at most airlines. A single bag overweight will attract a charge even if the total is below the maximum! Up to the pax to redistribute weight between bags or purchase a new one. Most of the Oneworld airlines have an informal policy of extra allowance of some sort for OW status; as mentioned on AA it is to waive the per-bag fee for up to 2 bags (worth USD 50 per sector). So on AA you can take 46kg for free (but max of 23kg per bag); single bag of 24kg will cause a charge (about USD 50) and it is to the ounce.

In premium economy the max bag weight allowance on BA is 23Kg. The OP stated that his bag weighed 30Kg. There is no question that the agent was in compliance with the rules

Number of bags being checked in is irrelevelent to excess fees for overweight bags.

I missed that :o (otherwise I would not have asked the question).
Yes, but if only the one bag, the OP
may have been entitled to the piece system, so the number of bags would be important.

With the piece system, OP may have been indeed entitled to two pieces - and could have rectified the matter very simply.

For example if bubbles23's ticket was a LONEx or LGLOBnn then they would be entitled to 2 Pieces up to 23kg each before having to pay excess luggage, even in Economy.

Failing that, I believe to OP was traveling in PE on the LHR-JFK sector, if so, they should have been allowed 2 x 23Kg on that basis.

£30 would have been the heavy bag charge. Heavy bag charge is different from excess baggage charge. It is payable when the bag weighs more than 23 kg.

This is payable for any bag over 23kg, unless travelling in CE, CW or F.

In CE, CW or F, heavy bag charge is waived (I think it is also waived for BA Silver and Gold but definitely not to non-BA OWE/OWS).

Thanks! Very frustrating because had I known before I travelled I would have just taken 2 bags or taken less stuff...