I've been flying for 22 years now, about 100K-200K per year. Yet, still I do not underestand the reasoning or logic behind the "piece system" for itineraries to/from/via North America.

Why, when I fly on a booking that has no routing to North America, say from Johannesburg to London with British Airways, do I only get 23kg in economy or 40kg in FIRST?

But if I fly onwards to somewhere in North America, then I can bring with me two bags each weighing 32kg regardless of class traveled? That means that a person traveling in economy gets to take 64kg, or 24kg in excess of what a First class passenger gets for a similar trip outside North America!

The aircraft are all the same, afterall.

I tried an internet search and even asked the airlines, but never have received a descent answer. I hope a more frequent and/or seasoned traveler here will have the answer to satisfy my curiousity.

International travel baggageand death payment is governed by the Warsaw Convention1929/1955 rules (do a search) for weight and reimbursement if lost. Travel within the USA is governed by the rules of the particular airline you are flying on (they do vary and frequectly change). Here is some info on the NWA site http://www.nwa.com/freqfly/direct/wa...#international

MisterNice

The OP's question is in regard to international flights.

I'm flying the following itinerary in September:

• EWR-LHR
• LHR-NBO
• NBO-LHR
• LHR-EWR

If I had just booked the inner pair my baggage limit would be 23 kg total. Since my itinerary is "to, from or via" North America, I am allowed to check 64 kg -- more than twice the luggage -- on each leg.

Even if the itinerary was reversed -- NBO to EWR via LHR -- I'd be able to pack more than the First Class NBO-LHR passenger.

I could think of a really cynical answer, but I won't

Woaw, I had heard/read about the piece rule but never realised it applied to the other legs of your journey as well!

I've got an RWT coming up that passes through the US, so I am entitle to 64 KGs for all 20 sectors of my trip? Or am I getting it wrong?

Does everyone know about this? Or will the good people in, say, Cairo send me back?

Your airline will privde the final answer - I don't know whether the rules are universal.

I'm flying British Airways, and their baggage rules include the phrase "to, from or via" a list of North American countries (and others) as defining the itineraries for which the piece rule applies. In addition, the detailed itinerary for my trip specifically mentions the piece rule for each individual leg.

EDIT: OK, the above is still ambiguous, but there's also this info provided by BA:And I still have my detailed itinerary to fall back on which says "2 pieces"

Thanks pdhenry - I've contacted Air NZ, let's see what they say. My next RWT is on Thai, so I'll contact them too.

I noted that *Gold get an extra piece, so that's 96KGs !!?? That's amazing!

Actually it does come back to the differences in the Warsaw convention and domestic US rules. As you may note, the last Warsaw convention which most international airlines follow did come up with these limitations, you may also note that the last one was in 1955!! Jets were just starting at that time to exist, let alone be used by commercial carriers. In Europe, the masses did not start flying until relatively recently (en masse) while in the US for quite a long time flying has been much more of a "mass transit" solution. This of course was based on lots of factors (government owners, lot of little states, strict regulation, strong unions, restricted slots, etc).

As things were tightly regulated and bureaucratic, the airlines figured they'd stick with the 1955 convention as with little competition, it was not in their interest to change it.

Therefore, if you want to fly into N. America, you have to follow the rules there (as again the North American air market has traditionally been much bigger than the rest of the world's put together - much the same way that many countries follow FAA regulations even when not flying too/from the US).

As far as RTW goes, sorry is this your first big trip abroad? As far as I can remember, the greater limit (2 pieces) takes priority on any multisegment flight, even RTW.

Now for one of my pet peeves (and I'll give an extreme example here)....... Let's say I fly BA in Biz every week RT for a year between LHR and IST. Let's say that I never check in luggage and only do carry on. That means that I've spent appx $50k on the airline in a year on that particular route and have never checked in one piece of luggage (although I could have carried 3060 kg legally in that time and in reality up to 5000 kg's as they always let you do extra in J on these flights).

When I take a trip with my wife and child for holiday, and am 20 kilos over COMBINED between the three of us, I really really do not need to have some snotty nosed little TRAINEE, berate me that I am overweight and DEMAND that I pay several hundred pounds (of which he does get a bonus - many airlines incentivise their agents this way). I should say that I have never had to actually pay in such a situation, but the pain of the argument is something that I should not have to hear (although this problem is better worse with certain airlines alliances, who "reward" their FF's with extra allowance).

Just got a reply from both NZ and SQ - both say that on a RWT that passes through the US, the piece concept applies to all flights on that ticket. ^