British Airways "Don't Ask - Don't Tell" $460 extra luggage charge

Diane Clarkson | February 09, 2007, 12:32 PM

British Airways new baggage policy goes into effect next week amid some controversy.

The airline will begin charging some of its long haul passengers up to $460 per flight for every extra piece of luggage on a return trip beyond an allowed single bag per passenger.

As outlined by MSNBC, the change applies to passengers flying economy class to destinations outside North America, the Caribbean, Nigeria and Brazil. While passengers to destinations such as Europe and Asia were previously allowed as many bags as they wished, they would now be limited to one bag — and charged for the excess. Domestic passengers would be charged 30 pounds ($59) for every bag beyond the first, while the price for extra bags taken to Europe would rise to 60 pounds ($118).

British Airways has posted a (somewhat defensively worded) press release outlining their new policy. They state their intention is to simplify existing policies. The airline asserts that these charges will only affect 2% of their passengers who exceed the free baggage allowance. It's not clear to me if they are referring to number of bags or total weight. It's hard to believe only 2% of passengers have two bags totalling 23kg. It's equally hard to understand why the airline would set forth on this poorly managed public relations excursion for only 2% of its passengers.

The airline assures it is not their intention to discriminate against passengers who cannot comfortably carry a 23kg bag, their offer to waive that fee “where it is clear that a passenger cannot managed one bag” isn’t reassuring. What does “where it is clear” mean? What exactly do your passengers have to do to demonstrate they qualify for this seemingly arbitrary exemption.

The airline confirmed yesterday to the Telegraph that its sales staff were not instructed to tell customers in advance when they booked their tickets. (I'm surprised more media hasn't picked up on this point.)

Charging for “extra” baggage is not a new idea. Ryanair in Europe has been charging for checked luggage for years. Air Canada is testing discounted fares for no checked luggage. Spirit Airlines announced yesterday that they are implementing a surcharge for an extra bag: $10 for a second bag and $100 for a third.

As far as I know, none of these airlines felt it necessary to instruct their staff not to mention the new policy.