Article: Why Airlines Charge So Much for Excess Baggage

[AFF Editor]

Why Airlines Charge So Much for Excess Baggage is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Why Airlines Charge So Much for Excess Baggage

Airlines charge high excess baggage fees to compensate for the extra fuel, labour and opportunity costs... and, well, because they can.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Berlin]

It’s essentially a good way to make money AND as you say, they simply can.

Highlights how important it is to hold status: Having literally moved continents several times in my life, this can be one of the essential benefits as you can quite frankly carry half your belonging with you as a highest tier member. And the other half can just be thrown away- it’s a great way to force oneselves to declutter life

And when we wanted a nice new Raclette grill? I ordered the fanciest one possible to my parents in Germany and just checked it on my way back. Heck- it was free thanks to status!

 

[Scarlett]

As someone who flies with golf clubs on 90%+ of my travel, excess baggage (and the closely related yet sometimes different ‘special baggage’) is a key consideration for me. Can’t HLO even if I wanted to.

Lifetime SG helps with oneworld flights and current *G with TK covers trips on Star. On others I have to add the cost of the extra baggage to the base fare and then compare. Based on my experience I tend not to fly LCCs as the combined cost of the cheaper ticket plus the significant extra baggage cost, then matches the cost of the ticket on a ‘better’ airline. I’ve certainly done this in Europe where I’ve flown BA and LH rather than U2/FR because of the extra baggage costs. In that case the extra baggage fee the airline charges loses them a sale. I’m sure they don’t miss me!

I have also chosen to fly J or Y+ when there is better value in that choice.

To get around Indonesia with my sticks I’ve paid a one off fee (about the cost of one flights extra baggage) using the Citilink ‘Citisport’ program and can now take them free with me for a year.

It’s a really good idea as there are options for surfboards, bikes and other sports equipment. The numbers don’t lie, since joining Citisport I’ve flown domestically in Indonesia on:
Citilink - 21
Garuda - 5 (interestingly they carry golf clubs as excess baggage for free!)
Wings Air - 2
Batik - 2 (once in their cheap J…)
Lion - 1

This leads me to wonder why credit cards in Aus haven’t jumped into the ‘free checked bag’ or ‘free extra bag’ thing like those in the US. Or have they? Is there currently a JQ credit card that gives a free bag?