Excess, excess Baggage?

Excess Baggage?

The scenario has been experienced by us all – there you are returning home after a good time in the sun, have bought all the bits and pieces and get stung at check in for Excess Baggage charge. Then you realise you have been had, you have no way of checking if the scales are accurate and the staff are obviously “incentivised” (i.e. they get a cut) to charge you. This has become a more common occurrence since the restrictions on liquids in hand baggage and on the size and weight of hand baggage. And what has been the caring response of the airline industry? – Why? to reduce the baggage allowances and increase excess charges as a “nice little earner”! We have all had suspicions that it may not just be a case of our luggage getting heavier but of scales at overseas airports getting dodgier. And as always we are left with a zero choice scenario as we are held to ransom at a check in desk. Now it seems our suspicions about sharp practice are well justified.

Nearly one in five of all baggage weighing scales at London's Gatwick airport gave an inaccurate reading in a spot check test, it has been revealed. An investigation by Trading Standards showed that 62 of the 321 scales used at the north and south terminals worked against the passenger, showing that bags weighed more than they did.

Airlines could have made vast profits out of the errors. At one airline in particular, 10 out of the 18 scales gave a wrong reading. Bruce Treloar, from Trading Standards, said the problem was a combination of human error - with the scales not set at zero - and faulty machines. "It was an incredibly high number of machines which were giving the wrong reading," he said. “We are talking about 20 per cent of the scales working against the consumer and it was not a particularly busy day. It was a mix of human error and problems with the machines as they are used so much - a lot of traffic goes across these scales. There is no legal requirement for them to be checked, so there is no way of knowing if they are becoming increasingly inaccurate."

In its “Hiding the Extra Charges in the Baggage” report, Trading Standards looked at the much publicised issue of the misleading price of travelling. They cited the case of a woman who complained about a flight to Tignes on January 19 this year. She said she had been told as she booked online that there was a 20kg weight limit and a £5 per kilogramme charge if in excess of 20kg. Her luggage weighed 23kg at check-in, despite the fact that she had tested it before leaving home and it had weighed 18kg on her scales. Facing an extra charge of £15, she took her bag off the check-in scales which read 5kg when empty. When re-set at zero, her bag weighed 19kg, well within the limit.

Another woman going to Spain arrived at the airport and thought her bag was too heavy, so had it weighed before she checked in. Told her suitcase was 3kg overweight, she removed 3.74kg - a duvet cover and a book - and placed the items in her hand luggage. When she went to check at a different desk with a different set of scales, she was told her original bag was 2.4kg too heavy and was charged £12 for excess baggage.


Kos Airport

Ryanair charges £7.50 per kg if a bag is overweight, Flybe charges £6 per kg, Easyjet charges £6 per kg, while Monarch charges £5 per kg. Traditionally scheduled airlines have charged 1% of the First Class Fare for a destination meaning astonished passengers have ended up spending more on baggage charges than they paid for their economy fare.

Mr Treloar said the investigation into the baggage weigh-in was prompted by an increasing number of complaints to two major airports. Although the airliner with 10 out of 18 inaccurate scales was not disclosed, Trading Standards warned that airliners and airport would be "named and shamed" if conditions did not improve.


MyTravel?

Our experience with MyTravel coming back from Kos last year is salutary. First and foremost the reps MyTravel use are generally next to useless, generally no hopers from Salford or, even worse, Wolverhampton who want a summer of sun, sex and booze but find they are working sweatshop hours for buttons and there only hope of “extra” is from selling excursions at 50% more than you can buy them downtown – here and elsewhere we discovered you don’t see them unless you go to the dreaded “welcome meeting” and buy these overpriced excursions or rent a car to drive on roads considerably more dangerous than in the UK. We had to laugh as they pitched to a room of parents with kids and 30 / 40 year olds for a “Greek Night” where you could get “hammered on rocket fuel” and wouldn’t remember much afterwards. Yep, I asked and they had worked for Club 18:30 the previous season and their “local knowledge” consisted of a rubbish bar in town where the Reps got free drink and it had a “stormin” Karaoke Night. Victims who went to the Greek Night did get plenty of rough wine, a BBQ and the spectacle of dancing sailors! Bit of a specialist interest!


Worth paying "Extra"?

Never mind, on the way back to the airport the rep we hadn’t seen all week came alive and excitedly told us we would have the “opportunity” to pay for additional (sic) luggage at “only” £5.50 a Kg. MyTravel (don’t these silly names annoy?) give you an allowance of 20kg. Whether you go for 3 days, a week, or as we did 2 weeks and at check in they demanded £105 extra from us for, as we know, the scales don’t lie! After some bartering I got them down to £55 to get on the plane and resolved never to travel with them again. This year they have been taken over by Thomas Cook and I checked what the deal was. Your “Standard” allowance is now 15 kg. but they automatically charge you £18 for the “opportunity “ to buy 5kg. extra! This of course in their long tradition of charging you for things which used to be included such as meals, transfers and even sitting together. The last one is a “hilarious” extra because they have no system and the only couple in our hotel who bought this “extra” ended up sitting apart! So the head of Thomas Cook has announced that Summer Bookings are strong – No Sir. With the credit crunch and the strength of the Euro it certainly won’t be. And if you keep trying to charge customers for nothing they will walk. MyTravel? Nope, don’t think so!