kbfree

I flew TA for a trip to Europe and on my return flight, I was 22kg over weight. This was my first time traveling between Asia and Europe. I usually fly to/from the USA) So, I traveled per piece rather than per kg. I was shocked when they told me the fee would be $1200 and they charged me for 24kg. In addition, the reps at the airport were rude and not one of them were helpful or offered any suggestions for my dilema.

Later I found out that a young, blond European colleague recently traveled Thai Air and was overweight by 20kg but she was only charged $40.

I can not find a fee schedule for excess baggage, but it certainly seems disrectionary and maybe even discriminatory.

Anyone, know about the excess baggage fees with Thai Air?

JamesA

Flights from the US and certain other places permit you a number of pieces, elsewhere it is a per kg/lb allowance. The standard international economy/coash baggage allowance is 20 kg. Normally most airlines won't bother if you have say 24, 25, even 27 or 28 kg but if you have 42 kg then they would usually charge. Though most would not charge the full 42, they might say charge you what they might normally allow, perhaps 25-26 and then charge the difference.
The old rule and I guess still may apply is 1% of the one way First fare per kg.

Sadly if you arrive for an international flight with 42 kgs of baggage you certainly have a very high risk of being charged, yes, crazy amount, sadly though that's the way it is. The amount though is very very high indeed and they have it seems charged you the maximum, I would take it up with Thai back home and tell them your dispeasure, though I would go along the lines of agreeing that you have 42 kgs but it was 'over the top' for them to have charged you the full total.

JamesA

Some airports around the world have commerical companies with desks that will take excess baggage at somewhere over the cargo rates, but it is unlikely to fly on the same flight as you and you would have to get separate customs clearance at destination.

Maybe as a warning / tip to others, if you are way overweight contact the likes of UPS/DHL/Fedex as they have special deals for baggage, again, won't fly on your flight but at least they can handle all the paperwork, you just sign the contents declaration and if just personal belongings should not be a problem, and it gets delivered to you back home, probably a couple of days later.

Spygirl

DB-I think that's more than a little naive on your part. What, did you not think when you're almost 40 pounds over the limit, that you would be charged anything at all? Or that it would be nominal? All air carriers clearly state on their website what the free baggage limitations are, many carriers then state very specifically that you will pay-which is A LOT -if you are signficantly over that weight limitation. There's such a thing as weight and balance calculations that must be done on each aircraft before it takes off-if everyone were allowed to go over the limit, then you wouldn't be taking off-or your luggage would be going on a separate flight, therefore causing an workable situation for a carrier whose job it is to transport baggage and passengers safely to their destination.

So grow up and quit complaining! It's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to check those things BEFORE you decide to go, they have no obligation to accomodate someone who is not in compliance with rules designed for YOUR SAFETY!

glorialf

I have a question now. I normally fly to Bangkok, leave stuff at the hotel there before I go elsewhere and pick it up at the end of the trip. However, this time I am going to Chiang Mai on the same day I land and then will be going to Yangon before going to Bangkok. I had planned to take 2 suitcases to be checked and one carry on. I'll be traveling business on all flights. Thai Airways says I can check two bags from the US but will I have a problem when I go from Bangkok to Chiang Mai?

Any advice?

Kathie

Gloria, for domestic flights, you will have to adhere to their domestic luggage policies (rather than from the US policies). In Business Class you will have more of a baggage allowance, of course. Still, when I'm flying domestically in Asia I do keep tabs on the weight of my luggage. If you are flying anywhere within Burma, the planes are small and they are very strict about luggage limits. If I were you, I'd either spend a night in Bangkok so I could leave one suitcase at the hotel or I'd store one suitcase at the airport in Bangkok.

kb, I'm sorry you had to pay so much for your extra luggage. Most guidebooks warn specifically about this issue, as the rate for excess luggage is traditionally 1% of the FIRST CLASS fare per kg. over your allowance.

Those of us flying to/from the US are accustomed to counting pieces of luggage rather than Kgs, but even the US carriers have changed their luggage policies in the last year or so. While the free baggage allowance is still generous, they are imposing weight restriction.

Walter_Walltotti

Regardless of the helpful advice from Spygirl (who I suspect, based on this and previous form, is a luggage handler at an airport), these things do often seem to be at the whim of the airport check in staff. Whether or not that is the case, that is the perception I have.

I recently took a flight to Jburg from London in Premium Economy with Virgin. The hand luggage allowance is 6kg - mine weighed 8 kg - the check in person said i would have to pack some of my hand luggage into my checked luggage, which put me at 24kg above the checked in luggage allowance - they said that was fine. Coming back my case was 24 kg (hand luggage was weighed and was fine) - the check in staff said they were going to charge me for the excess. At this point I pointed out that I had paid over £1900 for my ticket and they were taking the P**s - considering BA's rival world traveller plus has a more generous luggage allowance - and that it was fine on the way out. After a brief discussion with a supervisor they said it would be OK - we're they trying it on?

In the past I have taken the same flight with about 28kg luggage and hand luggage weighing upwards of 11kg without so much as a bat of an eyelid from staff at either airport!

JamesA

Gloria, are you flying Thai or United? If so you should be able to check all the way thu to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai, Phuket and Hat Yai are designated International for the purpose of trhu passengers, so if you are flying Thai or United ( as United is Star Alliance ) you should be able to check your bags thru, in this case, and it is a strange 'anomoly(spelling?)' that the 'per piece' allowance carries 'thru' if you get what I mean.
If you are not flying wither of those you will probably have to re-check in domestic, your allowance would be 30 kgs ( about 64 lbs ) and Thai domestic are very relaxed, and as Business Class I shouldn't worry if you are up to even the 35/37 kg mark, they are very unlikely to charge anything.
However on your Yangon trip things could be much much different.
But there is an easy solution. Thai operates are very efficient domestic network and what you can do in Chiang Mai is just take what you need for the Chaing Mai-Yangon-Bangkok part and have your other bag/s sent from your Chiang Mai Hotel to your Bangkok Hotel.
Any decent hotel can arrange this for you, simply tell them that you are going to Yangon and you need this baggage sent air to your BKK hotel, if they don't know how don't worry because like anywhere there are local express companies who will do that for you. If I get a chance tonight I'll skim though what I have and will try and post back who to contact in Chiang Mai.
That anyway is a lot less hassle than taking a load of baggage with you and as someone else just noted they will be strict on the Yangon flight as it's only a 42 seater ( this is pressuming that you think you will be a lot over ), that flight operates Economy/Coach only so the allowance 20 kgs.

Even if you are not flying in on Thai or UA I shouldn't worry at all over the domestic sector Business Class unless we are talking here of 'huge' weights.

glorialf

James-
Thanks for the info. This trip isn't until next December so I have plenty of time to worry about it.

I am flying Thai on a frequent flyer ticket from Chicago. So it's United to NY, then NY to Bangkok. The Bangkok-Chiang Mai to Yangon to Bangkok air is something I planned on buying separately on Thai Air. Do you think they will still check things all the way through?

Good idea about shipping stuff to bangkok before going to Yangon. Any idea how much something like that would cost for a 26" case?

Who knows, maybe this will be the time necessity forces me to learn how to pack light!

bajaflash

Could you have used part of the $1,200.00 to upgrade your ticket
to business class which has a higher weight limit?

Neil_Oz

I admit that my knowledge is way out of date, but there was a time when the carriers themselves offered a "baggage as cargo" facility. At that time the rate was very low (50% of the under-45 kg cargo rate), and I expect that's changed. Of course, it did require some pre-planning on the passenger's part, as the excess had to be lodged with the carrier's freight terminal and separately customs-cleared and collected at the other end.

I sympathise with kbfree - I'm not one for reading the fine print myself - and there's no excuse for the airline reps' unhelpful attitude. I'm not 100% convinced that the excess weight is a safety issue, else why would flights to and from the USA apply what in effect is a volume limit? I accept that 300 passengers each checking in at 10-20 kg over the limit would affect fuel upload requirements, but the reality is that most people, for practical reasons, are unlikely to exceed the current limits by much. We've never been more than 5 kg over between the two of us, and we're not the lightest of packers.

NoFlyZone

Overweight passenger luggage is not strictly a safety issue. On international flights, where valuable weight is used for high-paying cargo, each extra kilo of luggage reduces the amount of air cargo that can be profitably carried.

So there is a very valid economic reason for charging heavily for excess baggage: it offsets loss of cargo revenue.

Spygirl

Absolutely correct-NoFLY-it is not strictly a safety issue-(as it would be on GA aircraft) but the safety issue of weight and balance limitations is certainly a factor. However, as you correctly point out, the carriers make their money in cargo, and excess pax luggage deprives them of that revenue, hence the added charge.

But to come on a website and naively assume you can be 40 lbs. over the limit and just pay some nominal amount is REALLY nutty.

And it has nothing to do with the "fine print" of a ticket-you can go on virtually any airline website under "check-in" or "baggage" and it will provide baggage limitation information in BIG print.

lbrown7

I just have to reply to this. Why would you not have just thrown out some of your clothes (22kg worth) and bought new? It had to be cheaper than $1200 in excess luggage charges. Are you sure that is $1200 USD or maybe Baht? I find that very high and have never heard of such a thing for 22kg.

I would follow up with the airline and find out if this is legitimate.

cochin321

i just returned from Yangon. i was about 35kg overweight.at the check in they took off about 15kg as a discount. they charged me about 100$ for the rest. the flight was from Yangon to Bangkok.Interesting because it was a connecting flight onto Korean air to Korea and then to JFK there was no extra charge for the last two legs of the flight. So in the future this is valuable info for a short flight which connects to a much longer flight.

Neil_Oz

I accept that baggage can displace profitable cargo traffic, and I don't think anyone would argue that carriers shouldn't have the right to levy a reasonable excess-baggage charge. The question is what is "reasonable". To my mind the US$54/kg that kbfree was charged, which must be far in excess of general cargo rates (to say nothing of the container and commodity rates applying to most air cargo) isn't.

It should be remembered that the excess baggage rate of 1% of the first class fare per kg was introduced decades ago, when international fares were agreed by the IATA cartel, price competition didn't exist, economy fares were much higher in real terms than today, and the first class fare was a 50% surcharge on economy (from memory - it's been a long time since I worked in the industry). These days first-class fares are multiples of typical cattle-class fares. I have to conclude that this is a disproportionate impost.

Lyndie

Thai are one of the most tolerant airlines regarding excess baggage in our experience. We went over by approx 6 kgs and they did not charge us. If you knew you'd be over by 22kgs you maybe should have made other arrangements. $1200 is a hefty charge!

kbfree

it is true, assuming that all international travel had similar reguations ie: two bags @ about 31 kg each was ignorant on my part. I did not know I was over weight before i checked in. I was alone, two hours from departure time and did not know what my options were and the reps were no help. However, the Thai reps at the airport did absolutly nothing to be helpful-make any suggestions such as send it cargo rate, buy a ticket for that price or anything. In fact, they were very rude to me.

I did unload some of my stuff thinking of the replacement value but most of the stuff i bought is stuff that I CAN NOT find in Korea--and needed such as clothes, etc. some of it was sentimental things I got from a deceased family member in Denmark. but the point is-the airline reps were rude and not helpful. And the fee they charged me seems VERY excessive-especialy when my young, blond, cute, European colleageu was only charged $40 for her 20 kg over weight!!!



I guess one needs to take a course in travel and study thoroughly each and every airline you fly with before departing. I did not do that.

I have since looked online for Thai Air excess baggage fees and can not find them anywhere. So, again--does anybody know WHAT is the fee for over weight on Thai Air or where to find that info.

kbfree

T spygirl-i asked for information not judgement. what did i think?? I think the airlines could have offered some suggestions on what my options were in that unfortunate situation. Not everyone who travels is as experienced or well-informed as you!! i think the repressentatives could have been polite and i think that it is entirely unequitable to charge one person $40 for 20 kgs and another person $1200 for 22. Of course I'd expect to pay an charge if I am overwieght but I also think $1200 was over the top and out of line. 1% of a first one-way? hmmm $5000 for a one way 1st class ticket from Copenhagen to Seoul????

kbfree

To Gloria,

I was told that if N. America had been anywhere on my itnerary I would have been allowed the two check-in bags and one carry on. But from a sadder but wiser traveler, I guess the only way to know for sure is call them or look online.

Perhpas, purchasing a RT ticket to and from NY , then on to Seoul would have been cheaper than $1200.