19 replies to this topic

[harribobs]

i got my tickets tonight for manchester/chania tonight

i was disgusted to see that XL has reduced the baggage allowance to 15 kilos and now what to charge you £7.50 per person per journey

so effectively they have increased the cost of the flights by £30, seeing as most of us chose our airline by cost i think this is absolutely terrible

[Tim]

Chris
What is the extra £7.50 per leg for? The 15 kilo 'allowance'?

[harribobs]

sorry Tim, i wasn't being clear

they are charging £7.50 per person, per journey for an extra 5 kilos on top of the 15kilos they are giving you

[Emma1310]

They should have made that clear when you booked the ticket. if they didn't, talk to trading standards.

Easyjet have a similar pricing structure where they charge you around £7.50 to check a bag into the hold. Given current security procedures, you have little other choice.

[Tim]

Thanks for the clarification Chris.
It strikes me that all these little add ons, all these inconveniences and additional expenses, mount up and are doing nothing for the tourist industry. I doubt that I will ever see the days back when I used to look for a flight to Crete three of four times a year, as and when the fancy took me. Now I really need a reason, rather than a whim, to go anywhere overseas. The strength of the euro doesn't help either.
I wonder if there is anything we can do that will improve things or whether we must just put up with all the inconveniences of one sort or another.

[Laid Back Lil]

Hi all, have to ask.... when did you make this booking out of curiosity. We made our booking for July back in September last year so does anyone know if this will affect us too? Blinking cheek eh? Better carry out as much as we can this time round....

[harribobs]

no mention of it when booking, at that time they had the same policy of a 20 kilo limit as their competition (which doesn't seem to have changed, i checked monarch tonight)

[harribobs]

lil, i made the booking last year, november (ish)

[Wim]

Hi all.

There's and old Chinese proverb that says: He who travels light travels far and cheap..

[Tim]

I think there is a priest in south america who might agree with you - but the landing issue was his problem. his balloons have taken him off goodness knows where and he is regarded as lost at sea I understand!

[househunter]

Well the cost of traveling has gone up in the past 6 months so the airlines can either charge more for their tickets or try to lighten the plane to save fuel and help keep tickets prices down.

If you take a flight with 250 passengers all carrying 5 kg less (2750 lbs) on a flight to Athens then how much less fuel does it need? Other airlines are charging fuel surcharges.

How much more would driving (for example) from Manchester to London and back cost now compared to 6 months ago? What will it cost in 6 months time?

Days of cheap travel by land, sea or air are gone for good!

Just the way it is!

[harribobs]

the good news is i rang to complain this morning and they agreed to waive the charges as i booked last year, prior to them changing the allowance

so it's very worthwhile to get on to them!!

[bondopollis]

Booked on the net in March for October the flights were bad so paid extra for a good flight time, yesterday got a letter from the airline to tell us the flight as been canceled so they have put us back on the bad flight time with no refund.Rung the airline today didn't want to no about it they said call your agent but in the letter it said any problems ring us. So we rang the agent we are now on the 0500hrs flight with no refund, the flight was booked with Freedom Flights little did i no it was part of the XL group. Had a lot of hassel with XL over the years, but the flight is with Air malta, its a long time off so anything can happen.

[Laid Back Lil]

I took your advice and contacted XL to say I wanted the 20KG allowance since I booked my flights back in Sept/Oct last year but they have not responded at all. It won't be too much of a hardship if I can't swing it this time as we took a huge amount out with us last time. I had to laugh yesterday, I was watching some 'very old' Airline or Airport on the TV and there was a woman who had over 4x the weight limit who was flying to Bahrain. She said her husband was a pilot and had worked for Air Gulf or Gulf Air (can't remember) for many years and therefore she should be entitled to take as much weight as she wanted. Anyway, to cut a long story short the chap at the airport wouldn't let her take it, only via cargo or by paying the excess, (this was £500). She then said she would ask another passenger to take her bag who hadn't got all their weight limit and the chap at the airport told her this was illegal, and she replied, my husband told me to do this on the phone a moment ago. She said, my husband is a pilot and is your boss, and the chap said, I'm sorry madam, he is not my boss, I am his boss. It was really funny! Anyway with all the too-ing and fro-ing she missed her flight. So, moral of the story is.... even if you're married to a pilot you can't take the extra weight without paying!

[Tim]

Just to add another cheery airline experience which seems to be a sign of the times, I am having a devil of a job getting a promised refund out of Olympic. April flights cancelled early March and, after meeting all their requirements was promised refund would be back in my account a month ago. "It is there at the top of my pile, it will be in your account by Friday" No sign of it so far.
Thinking of changing the homepage on my website to draw attention to the problem-especially as the website is likely to get a mention in a national daily shortly and there may be a rise in hits.
Choosing an airline to travel with is indeed becoming a minefield!

[Kritsa Yvonne]

Exciting news re the website Tim, please remember to let us know so that we can add to the circulation figures

[Emma1310]

I though Olympic flights were running ok?



I'm about to book a flight back to the UK and was going to use Olympic as they are the cheapest and also the only people who fly direct to Manchester.

Can anyone who has flown with Olympic recently, tell me what the luggage allowance is and if they allow a laptop as well as a cabin bag?

I can't find this information anywhere on the website.

[harribobs]

further to the baggage allowance i had another experience at Manchester airport when i flew out


two weeks ago at manchester airport, we were pretty sure we were close to the 20 kilos limit but i was very surprised to be told the first case was 24.7 kilos and they were going to charge me £25 for it!

being somewhat surprised, i asked to see their calibration certificate and there was a definite buttock clenching behind the desk, the supervisor came over and told me their scales were better than mine so i asked why? show me the cert to prove it ! ( they didn't have one) the case was then re-weighed on the adjacent scale and miraculously came down to 20.5K

to show their authority they made us transfer half a kilo to our hand luggage, wonderful people....

my understanding is that the check-in staff are being incentivised to charge for 'heavy' bags

[Emma1310]

That's shocking! Wonder if trading standards would be interested....? Or do weights and measures laws only apply to foodstuffs?

After calling 3 different numbers and speaking to 4 different people, I eventually found out that the hold allowance with Olympic is 23kg, cabin allowance is 5kg plus my laptop.

We'll see what happens when I get to the airport though as I have no way of weighing my bags.

[Tim]

For info, I have just got my refund from Olympic! It has taken around three months and quite a few emails and calls.