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StumbleUponAre the Airlines Overcharging for Your Check-in Luggage?
We are all starting to suffer from the same syndrome. We watch anxiously as the luggage we have laboured over for weeks and carefully packed disappears on that squeaky conveyor belt behind the check-in person and into the bowels of the airport. Will we ever see it again? No matter the tricks we may use for easy identification – garish coloured luggage or tying bits of coloured ribbon or multi-colour straps around them, it won’t help identify your precious bags on the arrival carousel if they’ve gone AWOL. The unbelievable chaos at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 will only compound the growth of luggage paranoia among travellers.
To make matters even worse there are reports that airline scales that weigh our luggage and charge us if we go over the limit are often faulty. The Trading Standards Institute has done some sleuth work and found that 10 out of 18 sets of scales they tested at one airline’s check-in desk were overcharging! Often the scale was already showing a weight before the bag had been placed on it. So watch out for this one next time you fly!
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is on the case and working to make airlines simplify their pricing structures for luggage weight. Problems have also been discovered on airline websites regarding the systems used for checking in luggage online. Despite OFT’s efforts to make airline fares more transparent, it appears that luggage is one area where they are still managing to get away with some rather naughty behaviour.
I have my own portable luggage scale, and I’d advise everyone to get one so that you can weigh your own luggage and dispute excess baggage charges if you think the airline is wrong. Unfortunately, unless you can pack everything in your hand luggage you have no choice but to trust your luggage to the airlines. The best advice we can offer is to make sure you have travel insurance in case they lose it! For a quote (without any tricks or misleading information) click here.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Airlines, Travel News .You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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