Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)
  • Qatar Airways Bike Allowance – HELP!
  • Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Hi folks

    When we booked tickets and when we flew out of the UK the Qatar policy of taking sporting equipment (bikes) gave you an extra 10kg, total of 40kg per person. This was confirmed when we checked in at Manchester.

    NOW (we fly back tomorrow) it would appear that the policy has changed and anything over 32kg is charged as excess baggage.

    I’m on my mobile looking for a Google cache of the old baggage allowance info page to use as evidence when we turn up at the airport with 80kg of kit between us.

    Clearly changing T&Cs in between booking and our (return) flight is nonsense but I can’t find anything concrete to help us when we try and check our bags. There’s lots of historical anecdotes relating to the old policy on the web but nothing that will really help.

    Can anyone help me out here please?

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Normally your baggage allowance is on your ticket, the only difference is with the FF tiers where it changes on the status when you fly. It should be on the T&C’s you booked though.

    Best bet is normally call the local office and speak to somebody, explain what you got on the way out and get them to flag it on your tickets.

    oliverracing
    Full Member

    I may be wrong but I think most airlines allow the policy of when you booked the tickets (When booking a few years back Swiss air allowed us to carry skis, boots and luggage for free but there policy at the time of flying was to allow skis and luggage but boots would be extra – but after a bit of checking they said they due to ticket booking under the old regs we were ok.)

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    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    mikew – I had a look at our e-ticket in my email but it doesn’t explicitly state the sporting goods baggage allowance on it, just the basic “economy – 30 kgs” . True the sporting goods extra 10 kgs is not on the ticket, it was on the website.

    oliver – if I can’t find anything online I’ll Skype the UK office tomorrow and ask them to email me confirmation of the old policy at time of booking.

    Cheers for the help guys

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    not that this is the best way round things but…. most airports make you wheel the bikes round to the oversized luggage counter. If you have some extra weight (small stuff in a carrier bag) then you can slip it into your bike bag on the way to the drop off after it’s been weighed then it’s possible to avoid any nasty fee’s. Worth scoping the checkin zone in advance 😉

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Haha, we were wondering whether Kathmandu airport had scales at all anyway!

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    some US$ then….

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    OP, strictly speaking I am sure contractually they can change the baggage allowance and/or their excess charging, I bet that’s in the small print. This is also an example of how companies change websites, mobile phone companies have done this repeatedly so yo cannot find the exact terms you signed up to.

    All I can suggest is best of luck, hopefully they will honour the higher baggage allowance. You may wish to have a back up plan if they do not, eg pay up or leave some stuff behind or wear heavy things !

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    I guess I could wear that spare derailleur..

    -What’s this sir?
    -It’s my religious 10 speed dyna-sys necklace.

    -And these are ear rings I suppose?
    -Yes, they’re kevlar compound high performance long lasting ear rings.

    I was actually hoping that someone with better google-fu would turn up a cache of the old sporting allowance page. I’ve found lots of threads, undated anecdotes and quotes but no cache of the old page 🙁

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    OP, strictly speaking I am sure contractually they can change the baggage allowance and/or their excess charging, I bet that’s in the small print. This is also an example of how companies change websites, mobile phone companies have done this repeatedly so yo cannot find the exact terms you signed up to.

    That’s a different case as you pay monthly for a phone contract and if you don’t like the new T&C’s you can leave before they take effect, contracts have to have four parts, offer (what was on the website at the time), acceptance (“I accept the T&C’s”), consequences (would be in the T&C’s outlining what they’re liable for, and what you’re responsible for, paying on time, turning up sober with a passport, etc) and consideration (the payment). In the case of a plane ticket you should get what you paid for. Unless they had a clause that said they could change them unilaterally without notice (which they probably do have to allow for stuff like changes in the law about liquids in hand baggage), but then you’d have to argue that they were acting unfairly in their changes.

    IANAL (or an airline check in desk clerk in Nepal).

    p.s. Fancy a ride when you get back or will all those 4000m passes have killed your enthusiasm for the south east?

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member
    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Not sure I’m going to get down to the SE any time soon… The flat needs work, have a wedding to plan, need to find a job….

    F it. Let’s go riding.

    p.s. That was a 5416 m pass thank you very much.

    p.p.s. Edit/ YOU BEAUTY that’s what the page used to look like. Have a beer on me. Everest or Gorkha?

    tomhoward
    Full Member

    I thought any single bag couldn’t be over 32kgs? Nothing to do with the airline, but to stop the baggage handlers putting their backs out?

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Correct, we checked two bags each on the way out. As we saw with other passengers on the same flights, they didn’t care how many bags you had, just the individual and total weight limits.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Yep they will/should ask you to repack at over 32kg. though 2 bags up to the limit is fine.

    gary
    Full Member

    Haha, we were wondering whether Kathmandu airport had scales at all anyway!

    Heh, that’s what I thought when leaving KTM, they were actually more grumbly about my blatant excess than at Heathrow!

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    have a wedding to plan,

    I thought the whole point of having a girl who rode bikes was that this wasn’t an issue?

    p.p.s. Edit/ YOU BEAUTY that’s what the page used to look like. Have a beer on me. Everest or Gorkha?

    I’m not fussy, house moving means I’ve drunk nothing by my own homebrew for months, surprised I’ve not gone blind!

    magszh
    Free Member

    Hi John

    What happened in the end? Did they give you the extra luggage allowance?

    We just realised that we are in the same boat. I booked tickets through Qatar specifically because of their bike policy (in January) and we are flying to Australia, so excess baggage will be ridiculously expensive. I grabbed a screenshot of the policy from the web archive and plan on calling the local Qatar office today to confirm that we will be able to fly on the old T&Cs.

    magszh
    Free Member

    Update in case anyone else is in the same situation: Qatar came through and is allowing us to travel on the old policy as the tickets were purchased before the policy change.

    Pretty bummed that they changed the rules though – cost of my long-haul flights with bikes is going to go up 🙁

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Hi magszh, we had the version of the old docs we managed to find thanks to the efforts above on my phone but the staff at Kathmandu didn’t seem to be phased and I don’t think we had any trouble getting our bikes on the plane!

    madproductions
    Free Member

    Hi Jon, I’m basically on the same situation as you. Booked and payed the flights back in April when their policy was 30kg + 10kg (complimentary bonus for sporting equipment). I’m traveling to Kathmandu on 24th November and trying to solve this. How did you manage to solve it? Thanks.

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Hello folks, looks like this thread is being picked up by Google now, so I’ll copy in my reply that I sent to MadProductions above.

    I’ll expand on our experience. We had a print-off showing the terms and conditions from when we booked the ticket and we were ready for an argument to get our bikes on the plane. We got to the airport in Kathmandu with plenty of time in case we had to escalate the problem or spend time discussing it. In the end, they just weighed the bags, and put the bikes onboard under the extra 10kg allowance.

    In your position, I’d get in touch with your local Qatar Airway customer service people and explain the situation. I would ask them to write a letter (an email would be sufficient) stating that you are entitled to the extra 10 kg and that you will be cancelling the booking if they wont do this for you.

    madproductions
    Free Member

    Hi Jon, thank you for your response. I’m still trying to solve this. Have a great weekend!

Viewing 23 posts - 1 through 23 (of 23 total)

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