Beware Europe by Air Charges
 

Author: rjkollar
Date: 09/27/2005, 05:00 pm
We recently traveled from Venice to Barcelona via Alpi Eagles with tickets purchased in the U.S. from Europe by Air at $99 each. We expected the airport taxes but NOT the excess baggage charge. Europe by Air states that you are allowed 44 Kilos of baggage per person. Alpi Eagle said we were allowed only 15 kilos each! We had 65 Kilos for BOTH of us (since we had to check our carry on) and were charged 25 Kilos excess (she gave us a 5 kilo break) at 6 EUROS PER KILO! That came to a whopping and unexpected 150 EUROS! So, between taxes, weight and the tickets it came to $484 USD! BEWARE! It would be better to book through Alitalia or Air France or any other legitimate airline and NOT Europe by Air who books on these nickle & dime airlines.

I thought that the international standard was 20kg or 44lb per person. That was the posted limit for SkyEurope.

You can get an Alitalia or Air France ticket from Venice to Barcelona for $242?

And I agree that you were confusing 44 pounds with 44 kilos.

Interesting stuff. Sorry you got pinged for a charge like that when you were trying to going budget AND I really appreciate you sharing information like that.

I did find where it says on the on the europebyair.com website that it's 44 kilos, not pounds. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. On their FAQ it has a very direct question "What is my luggage allowance?" followed by a very direct "44 kilos."

Then it says to check with the airline for more details. Can't say I can see the point of stating a specific number if ultimately that isn't the number at all and it's going to come down to individual airline policies. Kind of odd, really - it's 44 kilos, unless, of course, it's not?

Seems a valuable piece of info to share on what might be a very misleading (and costly) policy. I'd think I'd contact Europe By Air and see what they have to say.

i would copy the europe by air website mistake before they change it and ask for refund of all expenses up to the 44 kilos they advertised.

There is definitely a mistake in the FAQ section. I suspect they meant to say 44 pounds but they didn't.

Did you use a credit card to pay for any of the passes or for the "excess" baggage charges? If so, and given the circumstances, you might have a cause for disputing the charges.

I definitely agree that you should call someone at EuropeByAir and don't deal with the lowest level there.

Be interesting if you could post information about how successful you are.

143 pounds of luggage. Astonishing.

But I bet you looked stunning the night you wore that kitchen sink to dinner.

;)

Best wishes,

Rex

Did you miss the part where the OP said that 65 kilos was for two, including their carryons? So, assuming a carryon per person of about 15 pounds, that would be about 55 pounds of checked luggage each. Granted, that's a hell of a lot more than I ever pack, but it's not that incredibly outrageous compared to what a lot of others seem to bring.

I didn't miss anything. Do you really not think that 140+ pounds of luggage is crazy, for two people?

Rex, maybe the poster is a geologist and couldn't leave his rock collection at home?

I never think of myself as a light packer and usually don't think much about the weight of luggage, but on a recent three week trip, my partner and I jammed all our stuff together in to one rolling duffle. AA balked when they weighed it as 52 pounds and put an "overweight -- watch your back" sticker on it, but since it was for the two of us they said nothing. Along with our one carry one that weighed maybe 10 pounds -- that's a total of 62 pounds for TWO of us --not 72 pounds each. That's still less than HALF of what the poster had. I can't imagine traveling with more than double the luggage we had -- and somethimes we go for 5 months!

But back to the basic problem. I think Europe by Air should be held accountable for their blatant error is suggesting you could take 44 kilos of luggage on ANY airline! That's almost 100 pounds!

Actually, 100 pounds is exactly the amount of checked baggage permitted on international flights by most, if not all, of the major US carriers. Two pieces NTE 50 pounds each.

Personally, as an impoverished student many years ago, I flew off for an academic year abroad with the maximum amount of checked baggage then allowed for free on my ticket: 45 pounds. So give me a medal. I've also flown back from a trips to Britain that included too much book shopping with at least half that much in books alone.

The point (to me) at anyway, was that Europe by Air gave erroneous information, and that the OP's baggage would have been well within their stated limit. Otherwise, as long as I didn't have to carry it, I don't care how much the OP took.

Sorry about all those typos, but I'm sure you know what I meant! Aaackk.

That is an incredible amount of luggage for a vacation trip, I agree. I am not a light packer, and often have a lot more books and shoes than most people, but I've never had a bag over 36 pounds.

I agree that their website appears erroneous -- at the least, they may mean it another way, but it is misleading. For example, perhaps they mean 44 kg is the maximum allowed on one of the airlines they use. Actually, it doesn't say you won't have to pay extra for the amount, it just says that is what you are allowed to take on. Maybe they mean 44 kg absolute max to check, even though you may pay extra for over 15 kg, at least on Alpi.

They should just say check with airline, or it varies by airline or something.

But really, if you were going on some super cheap airline you didn't know anything about and were packing that much luggage, wouldn't you take the little tip to "see airline for details"? I sure would. How hard is that -- I just did it for Alpi Eagles and saw the limit was only 15 kg. You know Europe by Air uses those budget airlines and that was the whole reason rjkollar was using them.

I do think it is always good advice for people to hear stories that basically reinforce the idea that one shouldn't assume things or noy bother to check out baggage allowances on budget airlines. 6 euro per kilo doesn't sound that outrageous to me, actually.

Well, I didn't think we had that much luggage for a three week trip. I think it might have been the 8 bottles of fine Italian wine we were shipping! But, we dutifully drank 4 of them in Spain. We had no problem with the flight from Barcelona to Paris to connect to LAX as they were full size planes with ample overhead space. Live and Learn and drink more wine!!!

Hi rj,

Good attitude.

Thanks for posting useful information.

((I))