One world check in luggage policy

[wxxnxs]

Hi All,

I’m a bit confused with one world alliance check in luggage policy and hope someone here could help me out. I have a long haul award ticket with CX in business class from HKG-AKL, and another separate cash ticket with QF in economy class from AKL-SYD within the same day connection. My question is am I able to check in my luggage all the way to SYD, and get the same check in allowance in the 2nd segment? I have already can seen 2 reservation numbers on my Qantas app, but not sure if ground staff can manually link those 2 trips together. Thanks

 

[henrus]

My question is am I able to check in my luggage all the way to SYD

Yes, when you check in at the Cathay desk they will be able to check it all the way to Sydney, just give them the booking reference for the Qantas flight. In the past I've even had Cathay issue boarding pass for separate tickets.

In their system they have the ability to "add connection" which basically creates a link between them at check in. It's worth noting that whilst all Oneworld carriers have the ability to do this many (including BA and QF) chose not to however CX is not one of them.

Cathay even notes this on their website:

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/baggage.html

and get the same check in allowance in the 2nd segment?

Nope and here is where things get very tricky.

Between Hong Kong and NZ, Cathay partners with Air New Zealand and as a result the business class baggage allowance is 3x23kg bags (matching Air NZ Business class). This is a per piece limit and the allowance does not pool between bags for example if you're only checking bag but it's 29kg this is over the 23kg limit (despite the fact that you could still check in 2x more bags) and as a result you'll be charged Cathay's overweight fee of 1430 HKD (~AU$280) per piece.

Qantas' limit is 30kg which can be split over a number of bags. The excess limit is AU$20 per KG!
If the Qantas flight is booked via Qantas (with a 081 ticket number) you can pre purchase extra luggage at the following rates:
5kg $75
10kg $155
15kg $230
25kg $380
35kg $530

What this means is that you could check in a single bag up to 23kg and it'd be fine, or you could check in 3x10kg bags or check in one 23kg bag and one 7kg bag (or any similar combination).

But any single bag over 23kg will attract a fee (due to Cathay's 23kg limit) and any total weight over 30kg will attract a fee (due to Qantas' 30kg limit)

 

[wxxnxs]

Yes, when you check in at the Cathay desk they will be able to check it all the way to Sydney, just give them the booking reference for the Qantas flight. In the past I've even had Cathay issue boarding pass for separate tickets.

In their system they have the ability to "add connection" which basically creates a link between them at check in. It's worth noting that whilst all Oneworld carriers have the ability to do this many (including BA and QF) chose not to however CX is not one of them.

Cathay even notes this on their website:

View attachment 367149

https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/baggage.html

Nope and here is where things get very tricky.

Between Hong Kong and NZ, Cathay partners with Air New Zealand and as a result the business class baggage allowance is 3x23kg bags (matching Air NZ Business class). This is a per piece limit and the allowance does not pool between bags for example if you're only checking bag but it's 29kg this is over the 23kg limit (despite the fact that you could still check in 2x more bags) and as a result you'll be charged Cathay's overweight fee of 1430 HKD (~AU$280) per piece.

Qantas' limit is 30kg which can be split over a number of bags. The excess limit is AU$20 per KG!
If the Qantas flight is booked via Qantas (with a 081 ticket number) you can pre purchase extra luggage at the following rates:
5kg $75
10kg $155
15kg $230
25kg $380
35kg $530

What this means is that you could check in a single bag up to 23kg and it'd be fine, or you could check in 3x10kg bags or check in one 23kg bag and one 7kg bag (or any similar combination).

But any single bag over 23kg will attract a fee (due to Cathay's 23kg limit) and any total weight over 30kg will attract a fee (due to Qantas' 30kg limit)

Thanks so much for the reply, really appreciate it. I’m not too concerned about issuing the boarding pass. However, I’m worried the luggage allowance, I checked the Qantas website regarding the checked luggage rules, and it says if the trip includes several sectors, then the most significant carrier rule will apply. If I understand correctly, my trip the most significant carrier is CX, and the business class allowance is 2x32kg? Sadly, Qantas website doesn’t provide more details on that.

 

[henrus]

I checked the Qantas website regarding the checked luggage rules, and it says if the trip includes several sectors, then the most significant carrier rule will apply.

Here you are confusing the word trip (each individual booking) and sector (which is the individual flight).

In your case have have two trips with 1 sector each.

Most significant carrier rules only apply when you have a single trip with multiple sectors and as a result don't apply to your trip.

If I understand correctly, my trip the most significant carrier is CX, and the business class allowance is 2x32kg? Sadly, Qantas website doesn’t provide more details on that.

You have two trips:

Trip 1 - Hong Kong to Auckland
Sector 1 - Hong Kong to Auckland on Cathay - note as I mentioned earlier Cathay flights to NZ have a different allowance of 3x23kg bags (not the usual 2x32kg bags).

Trip 2 - Auckland to Sydney
Sector 1 - Auckland to Sydney on Qantas - strict 30kg allowance for economy class.

It makes no difference if you through check the luggage or collect in Auckland and re check in, the two flights will always have the above allowances.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

The other thing you have not mentioned is whether you hold frequent flyer status with Qantas or a OneWorld airline or Qantas Club status as any of those things will have an impact on your allowance.

-RooFlyer88

 

[henrus]

The other thing you have not mentioned is whether you hold frequent flyer status with Qantas or a OneWorld airline or Qantas Club status as any of those things will have an impact on your allowance.

This is where things get even more confusing and rather complex, you've opened a can of worms here.

If holding status recgonised across both airlines such as oneworld sapphire or emerald status (which includes QF Gold/Platinum) then the additional oneworld allowance can be applied during a through check. For oneworld sapphire this means an extra piece when a ticket has a piece allowance or an extra 15kg on weight allowances. For oneworld emerald it's an extra piece or an extra 20kg on the weight allowance tickets.

If holding a status/club membership such as QF Silver, EK status or QF Club then this wouldn't be applied during a through check as Cathay Pacific wouldn't see this in their system and to take advantage of such additional allowances rechecking luggage would be required.

Now what this would normally mean is that someone with OW Sapphire/Emerald status could take an extra 23kg bag on the HKG-AKL flight however as confirmed by the luggage calculator on Cathay's website, the HKG-AKL route actually has a limit of maximum 3x 23kg bags per person (matching their co-operation partner Air NZ on this route). This means anyone with status in business class gets no extra oneworld allowance (Econony and PE still get 1 extra bringing the allowance to 2x and 3x 23kg bags) - and yes before anyone asks they are allowed to have exemptions on the extra status allowance - QF do on their Lord Howe Island route and other oneworld carriers have other exemptions as well.

So taking the above into account regardless of the OPs status they are still only getting 3x23kg bags on the HKG-AKL flight.

Then on the AKL-SYD flight if holding OW Sapphire status they'd get an extra 15kg bringing the total to 45kg or 20kg for Emerald totaling 50kg if they were to through check from HKG.

Now here is where things get even better,
QF gives their own Gold FFs 16kg extra on QF operated flights (an extra 1kg comapred to standard OW allowance) however to get this extra QF allowance (the extra 1kg) check in would have to be with Qantas (meaning luggage recollection in Auckland).

QF Club/Silver members get 12kg extra on QF flights which once again is only accessible if check in via Qantas.

Then Qantas also has other patenrs including AF/KL Flying Blue and Emirates both of which also get extra luggage on QF operated flights but again only when checked in via QF.