Happy to sad in 10 seconds BA rant.

alihisgreat

CambsNewbie wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

He's a student! 5 of those kilos are probably pot noodles!

I wish! Got sick from the dodgy food in Ghana.. you go out there to help and all you get in return is a t-shirt tan and a dodgy stomach bug :roll:

With hindsight maybe should have gone up to the 15kg limit!

That will learn ya!

Loosing 6kg in 10 days did wonders for my climbing though -> every cloud!

CambsNewbie

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

He's a student! 5 of those kilos are probably pot noodles!

I wish! Got sick from the dodgy food in Ghana.. you go out there to help and all you get in return is a t-shirt tan and a dodgy stomach bug :roll:

With hindsight maybe should have gone up to the 15kg limit!

That will learn ya!

Loosing 6kg in 10 days did wonders for my climbing though -> every cloud!

Just stay away from Bolnhurst!

danlikesbikes

CambsNewbie wrote:

I think a lot of us take flying for granted now but if this family have never done it before maybe they didn't know about weight limits. Then rather the embarrassment of taking stuff out felt it was easier to just pay than create a scene.

I am asking for a kicking by responding & please don't its be a stressful enough day so please play nicely.

I disagree simply as BA make it very obvious when buying tickets from them. If you purchase over the internet it is on 3 or possibly 4 pages & as its BA they do make it very simple to understand unlike some other air lines who might try and hide things in the small print. If the purchased from a travel agent, I assume you can just walk in and buy/order tickets, then the agent would have pointed this out to them.

Whilst I have every sympathy with the couple in question as its never nice to be overweight at check in & I do also feel that the penalties are somewhat over inflated. However as cruel as it sounds if the penalties were made softer e.g. much lower and similar to that of paying to check a bag the airlines would be in real trouble. As they would not know if 300 odd passengers were going to turn up with their paid and allocated luggage & then the same about again expecting to just pay as they get on.

I am by no means an experienced traveller & am slightly OCD when it comes to these sorts of things so perhaps my view is skewed by the fact that I know what all our bags weigh & check the wording precisely.

CambsNewbie

Danlikesbikes wrote:

CambsNewbie wrote:

I think a lot of us take flying for granted now but if this family have never done it before maybe they didn't know about weight limits. Then rather the embarrassment of taking stuff out felt it was easier to just pay than create a scene.

I am asking for a kicking by responding & please don't its be a stressful enough day so please play nicely.

I disagree simply as BA make it very obvious when buying tickets from them. If you purchase over the internet it is on 3 or possibly 4 pages & as its BA they do make it very simple to understand unlike some other air lines who might try and hide things in the small print. If the purchased from a travel agent, I assume you can just walk in and buy/order tickets, then the agent would have pointed this out to them.

Whilst I have every sympathy with the couple in question as its never nice to be overweight at check in & I do also feel that the penalties are somewhat over inflated. However as cruel as it sounds if the penalties were made softer e.g. much lower and similar to that of paying to check a bag the airlines would be in real trouble. As they would not know if 300 odd passengers were going to turn up with their paid and allocated luggage & then the same about again expecting to just pay as they get on.

I am by no means an experienced traveller & am slightly OCD when it comes to these sorts of things so perhaps my view is skewed by the fact that I know what all our bags weigh & check the wording precisely.

Got to be honest, my other half does all the booking stuff. I just pack hot or cold as told, and make sure I turn up at the right airport/terminal at the right time! So you could well be right.

daviesee

VTech wrote:

I believe you when you say that, I'm just not sure I could get anywhere near that. Do you wash your clothes on holiday ? I know people who do but I don't like too, for 10 days I would need at least 25 changes of clothing, maybe 4 pairs of shorts/tshirts, 2 pairs shoes, 3 trainers, pool footware and bits n bobs which I know would be more than 20kg.

Just curious. Wouldn't one pair of trainers suffice? Is pool footware entirely necessary?
It is very easy to reduce your luggage.
As anyone with a wife will know, convincing people that they don't need to take everything is half the battle.

danlikesbikes

CambsNewbie wrote:

Got to be honest, my other half does all the booking stuff. I just pack hot or cold as told, and make sure I turn up at the right airport/terminal at the right time! So you could well be right.

Who knows for sure

I know that my other half does the booking & I do the logistics of getting us there on time and any driving of a hire car etc.

As someone else pointed out it is a common issue with people getting it wrong so maybe you were right.

However on my travels I have only ever seen a few people being over the limit. One was a chap coming back from Spain who promptly left the cue, went into the bathroom & returned wearing 2 jumpers & who knows how many t-shirts getting more and more red faced struggling with poor air con. The other was a jumped up bloke who refused to let a porter in Egypt carry his bag onto the scales, rather unfortunate as the same porter also put his sandal on the scales making it appear over weight. Thankfully my OCD gene also points these things out to me & I paid the princely sum of £1 for both bags to make their way onto the scales and they were within the limit so no drama.

thefd

VTech wrote:

I believe you when you say that, I'm just not sure I could get anywhere near that. Do you wash your clothes on holiday ? I know people who do but I don't like too, for 10 days I would need at least 25 changes of clothing, maybe 4 pairs of shorts/tshirts, 2 pairs shoes, 3 trainers, pool footware and bits n bobs which I know would be more than 20kg.

VTech - I like you, and I think you get unfairly sometimes a hard time, but...come on - 25 different outfits for 10 days?

I wonder if this comment is done tongue in cheek to get a reaction. Why would you need two or three different outfits for each day? Surely the same trunks and T-shirt can be worn at the beach for a second day? And the same shirt can also be worn a second evening? - I know I would.... :oops:

On the original topic - I can understand BA making these rules and fines whilst sitting in an office somewhere - but I would also feel for this family when the fines are dished out on the ground. Would have been kinder if the desk clerk had told them they could buy another suitcase and be ok without a fine.

slowbike

TheFD wrote:

On the original topic - I can understand BA making these rules and fines whilst sitting in an office somewhere - but I would also feel for this family when the fines are dished out on the ground. Would have been kinder if the desk clerk had told them they could buy another suitcase and be ok without a fine.

+1

On return from a winter holiday one of our cases was overweight at check-in - we were allowed to shuffle weight around to equal it up or take some out and put in hand luggage; or we could've paid a charge. No fuss as to which - and as the terminal was practically empty there wasn't a rush either!

I'm surprised at the reported attitude shown to a family - I thought the 'overweight' bravado was usually shown to couples or individuals rather than those (normally struggling) with children too.

ballysmate

VTech wrote:

I believe you when you say that, I'm just not sure I could get anywhere near that. Do you wash your clothes on holiday ? I know people who do but I don't like too, for 10 days I would need at least 25 changes of clothing, maybe 4 pairs of shorts/tshirts, 2 pairs shoes, 3 trainers, pool footware and bits n bobs which I know would be more than 20kg.

Do you not have a Jeeves to take care of your luggage?

VTech

I don't have a Jeeves I'm afraid

As for holiday clothes, I would usually wear something in the day and change for the evening.
Depending on where you go, normally hot and humid means clothes need to be changed. I'm not sure a single change of clothing per day is over the top ?

ballysmate

How many Borats can one man need?

the playing mantis

ive never seen it happen, i ve seen people swap stuff around though. ive been slightly over and pretty close many times to the limit, but as i rarely travel alone, the whole, 'group' weight allowance thing is there, so never had an issue.

the most difficult was when doing a 2 week road trip across cali, as limited chance of doing washing. coming back i would have been way over as would the others, with our holiday purchases , had we not just carried on a sh*tload of bags as hand luggage instead.

i think its one of the first things people check when they book flights though so is common knowledge. i tend to fly with virgin when i can who are quite generous. but the fine has to enough to be a deterrant.

i always take day wear and evening wear myself. if im on a beach hol though mostly day wear will consist of boardies and flip flops, thus giving everyone else the pleasure of my physique, but despite that i still end up packing daywear that i wont need on a beach hol.

imo its better to have and not need.

ShutUpLegs

I'm so rich I always buy a new wardrobe when I get to my destination.

VTech

ShutUpLegs wrote:

I'm so rich I always buy a new wardrobe when I get to my destination.

Well good on you, Im out shopping in the morning for new clothes as I was quite a bit underweight on this trip. Im not like you, I dont buy a new wardrobe each trip, I prefer to take enough clothes as I feel are needed but the weather here is up and down and isnt due to get really hot until the day after we return so I may well need a few more changes.

Ill keep you posted as to how I get on.

vitesse169

daviesee wrote:

VTech wrote:

I believe you when you say that, I'm just not sure I could get anywhere near that. Do you wash your clothes on holiday ? I know people who do but I don't like too, for 10 days I would need at least 25 changes of clothing, maybe 4 pairs of shorts/tshirts, 2 pairs shoes, 3 trainers, pool footware and bits n bobs which I know would be more than 20kg.

Just curious. Wouldn't one pair of trainers suffice? Is pool footware entirely necessary?
It is very easy to reduce your luggage.
As anyone with a wife will know, convincing people that they don't need to take everything is half the battle.

For the last 15yrs I've had this with Mrs V.... 'I cant close my suitcase...!' Looks like a bloody washing machine in there... 5mins later when I rearrange/fold stuff, stand back and ask ' you now have room to take half as much again...'

Gabbo

Seems legit - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/airlines-charg ... ml#30gnLiS

Frank the tank

No pun intended but.

Dr Ian Yeoman, editor of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, threw his weight behind the suggestion.

peat

It seems the Samoan's are reading BR:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22001256

MountainMonster

I hate flying, I have had so many problems with not just overweight carry on bags, including being 100g overweight and the ugly old Ryanair lady telling me I have to check the bag in at a cost of £50 (yeah right, i'll just wear underwear on my head instead), and I have seen so many people be treated rude by flight related people.

On the other side, I can understand why they are rude. They get shouted at daily, they get abuse from people who don't check the restrictions, and then get yelled at when someone was busy eating and delayed a flight.

The_Special_One

To be fair to BA they have a very generous cabin baggage allowance to go along with your checked baggage allowance. Flying Y class with BA you can check-in 23kg, plus you can take the same again onboard as cabin baggage add to that you can also take a small bag onboard as well as long as it fits under the seat in front of you.

As someone who prefers to fly with cabin baggage only, been able to take up to 23kg + a small bag onboard, I think BA's baggage allowance is bloody darn good.

mroli

BA have always been pretty good to me and far better than budget airlines. I remember one time in particular when I was helping a girlfriend catch an easyjet flight from Luton to Amsterdam, so she could catch a BA flight from Amsterdam to Bangkok via London. We turned up on time to Luton, but the easyjet desk was tucked away, there was one desk and by the time we got seen, they said they had closed the flight (literally a minute beforehand). Point blank refused to help. We got down to Heathrow where we explained the situation to BA and they said they were hamstrung by international flight ticketing regulations. A customer services person then spent about 1 hour (in front of us) on the phone to various people sorting stuff out, which finally ended up her re-imbursing the original flight to my (then) girlfriend and then booking a new flight from Heathrow and writing off the cost increase so she could get on that flight. Really went well beyond the call of duty and was in complete contrast to Easyjet.
They have helped me out on a flight when I turned up without my passport :oops: by swapping me to the next flight giving me time to go home and get it without additional charge, advised me to take stuff out of my suitcase and put it in hand luggage to avoid paying charges and let me off overweight bags. I have also been upgraded on a number of occassions.
Generally, flying and airports have increasingly become a rip off though - could not believe at Luton what a scam so many things were - £2 for a trolley! A "drop off" charge! When people fly into this country, they must think it is a total rip off nation.