Beware Air NZ baggage charge

[MotherBear]

Air NZ plans new bag charge
Page 1 of 2 ........ 5:00AM Saturday April 05, 2008
By Grant Bradley and Lincoln Tan

Occasional travellers will be allowed one bag free and will be charged between $10 and $20 for a second one - regardless of the weight of the bags.

All passengers with three or more bags will be charged at cargo rates.

Some items, including wheelchairs and other medical equipment, will be exempt from the new charges. But items such as golf clubs will count as a second bag. The airline could not say last night if strollers or prams would be exempt.

Under the plans, to be finalised within the next month, the domestic luggage allowance will rise from 20kg to 30kg a passenger. It means passengers could be better off, if they pack tighter and not lighter.

More here .

[ExPat]

I wonder if the airlines ever factor in the loss of tourism dollars from these fees. When we visited NZ, we ended up limiting our shopping because we were worried about the $5/kg fee for additional luggage beyond a certain amount.

Instead of buying 5 kg of honey for friends and family we bought about 0.5 kg.
Instead of buying 4 bottles of wine, we bought 2.
Instead of buying wool rugs, coats, throws, and other items we bought none.

I could go on but you get the point. So I'm guessing NZ lost $700 in tourist dollars because AIR NZ wants to charge an extra $10.

Totally dumb and it's no wonder the NZ economy is heading into a tailspin......

[SNataliaH]

$5 per kilogram is pretty wonderful compared to any of the airlines I have flown. I know some people who have paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a few extra kilograms on other airlines.

I think this is always more of a shock for Americans because North America has much more generous luggage allowances than most of the world.

If only we all had those kind of weight allowances!!

[gnom]

When we moved to Wellington we flew up to with Emirates. In Auckland we had to take Quantas to our destination. We had to pay NZ$ 400.-- because we had to much lugage. We even had to pay for the pushchair. And all that after the transfer from the international to the national airport in Auckland. (My wife and I had two trolleys and one pushchair. The trolleys were packed)

First we wanted to go trough LA because of the much higher allowence. But they told us that our Baby has to go for an interview in an other city. She was 8 months at that time. All that only because she did not have a biometric passport. The first time to go there was in February 08, they told us. Our plane left in January. Then we had to change our route.