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Share Flights - Interpretation by Aer Lingus in relation to Baggage charges introduced
in January 2007 Aer
Lingus takes nearly six months to reply to customer complaint letter The
following is about a situation whereby a large airline introduces a new policy,
announces there will be exceptions, but in reality does not do what it has said
it will do. There is not normally any real problem when an airline introduces
a different fare structure, however as the case below illustrates stating one
thing and doing another is not fair practice In
August 2006 it was announced that Aer Lingus will be charging for carrying luggage
-"The
Irish airline Aer Lingus has followed Ryanair and FlyBe in announcing that it
will charge passengers extra for baggage it carries in the aircraft hold. This
will be from the 17th January 2007. They will levy a fee 8.00 / £5.50 for each
bag carried for short haul flights or half if it is booked on line in advance.
This fee policy reflects the moves among some low cost airlines like Irish competitor
Ryanair to apportion costs for optional services. The company has abolished complimentary
catering on its European network. The policy will not affect British Airways passengers
who are booked on "code share flights" (EI127 /BA329 for example) that operated
from London Heathrow to Dublin, Cork and Shannon. British Airways has negotiated
for its passengers to be exempt from the charge
" In
January 2007 the charges fell into place. On the 3rd February 2007 this was tested
on a flight from London Heathrow to Dublin. It was classified as a "Code
share flight". What
is a code share flight? It
is a business term in the airline industry dating back to 1990 when American Airlines
and Qantas combined their service to and from cities in Australia and the USA.
It means that a flight operand by airline a) is marketed in addition by airline
b) or even C) & d). It is very common these days. The
booking Was made on line and when the passenger arrived at Heathrow airport had
to pay an extra £5.00 E1163 is a code share flight with British Airways. The
Aer Lingus website was stating" Baggage Policy
Changes Short-haul Flights (UK/Europe): If you are travelling on a shorthaul flight
on or after the 17th January 2007 and your original booking was made after the
9th August 2006 then new baggage fees and rules will apply to your journey*. Details
are as follows: Checked-In Baggage:Pay online prior to day of departure: €4 fee
for every bag checked in for each flight. Pay at the airport on day of departure:
€8 fee for every bag checked in for each flight. Excess Check-In Baggage: A maximum
of 20kgs (44lbs) in total weight per passenger is permitted. Bags in excess of
this weight will be charged an excess baggage fee at an additional €8 or equivalent
per kilogram at the airport. Cabin Baggage Allowance (no change): A maximum of
1 Bag per passenger weighing no more than 6 kgs. See all other information on
Baggage here. *Codeshare passengers (AA, BA, or KLM flight number) travelling
on Aer Lingus operated flights will not be subject to these baggage fees. They
even issued this leaflet in Dublin 
Click on image to open It
is rather difficult to contact Aer Lingus by email. You can do this via some of
their central European offices, but not in the UK or Ireland. Three
offices were contacted advising the passenger would be returning and would there
be a baggage charge because of the "Code share" arrangements.Two offices
actually replied. Thank
you for your inquiry. You have booked the flight on our homepage and it is a "pure"
Aerlingus flight and the ticketnr. is also Aerlingus. I cannot recognise a BA
flight nr. nor a BA ticketnr. The checked-in baggage was not paid online or in
advance and therefore the check-in agent from Aerlingus charged EUR8 on the day
of departure. You can pre-book your baggages online and the fee is EUR4/segment
and baggage. If not Mrs..... will be charged EUR8 at the airport. mit freundlichen
Grüssen - with best regards i. A. Gerelynn Maliksi-Trisl Reservation & Ticketing
Aer Lingus I
am sorry to tell you that she is going to be charged again. I have seen her booking,
and she has a flight operated by Aer Lingus, the code is EI, so she is going to
be charged. Kind regards, AER LINGUS Hello,
As fas as I am concerned you can only book Aerlingus flights from our website
(www.flyaerlingus.com) and not Codeshares. The message from our website regarding
codeshare passengers are exempt from the baggage fees is correct but your flight
is not a codeshare that's why your wife has been charged for the baggage fee.
I attached 2 screenshots from our website containing that the flights you have
booked is Aerlingus and not a codeshare@EI 192 Z THU 8FEB DUBLHR HK1 2050 2205
LK- /ETK 3 HT 6 Y SUN 8APR ETKTTT HK1 1111 1212 PNR REF-236VZB . Yes,
it is Aer Lingus flight so we charge for baggage. But you can pay for baggage
in advence by internet at our webside pls choose MANAGE BOOKING and then Book
your bags in advance. By internet it costs 4EUR Iwona Nagraba Aer Lingus Al.Ujazdowskie
20. Letter
faxed to AER LINGUS Dublin 11th February 2007 Good
morning I
refer to our exchange of emails last week regarding being charged for baggage
on Aer lingus flights. I collected my wife from London - Heathrow on Thursday
evening 8th February. She had to pay for baggage. The
overhead signs at Dublin said EI 192 was BA5992 (the same at Heathrow as you will
see from attached photos). She then phoned me to say she could get on an earlier
flight E1 184 or known as BA5984. When
I arrived at Heathrow, as it was quiet I went up to the check in and asked them
about charging for baggage. I said on the Aer Lingus website you state that you
do not share on code share flights and the two Aer Lingus people said they were
unaware of this and had been taking money since the rules came in. 
(Click on
image for larger picture)
My wife brought back a leaflet from Dublin - various languages (scan attached)
again stating no charge on code shares. I am also attaching an item on code sharing
off the internet. If you are being paid by the other partner air lines is this
not wrong that you still show these flights as code share flights on the overhead
timetables (as per photos) and probably take money from two sources? I am sure
one of your major shareholders Rynair of course would welcome the extra dividend.
I am copying this email to Mr Simon Calder travel writer at The Independent in
the UK who I am sure would be interested in this story, in the same week that
BA has started charging for additional luggage. I would appreciate if you can
forward this to your head office as I do not appear to be able to communicate
directly with them. Regards ...... 
(Click on
images for larger picture)
Aer
Lingus posted out an acknowledgement on the 21st February saying: "Thank
you for your letter. Your letter has been assigned to a member of our Customer
Care team and you will be contacted shortly. In the meantime, I thank you for
your patience. etc". At the 5th April 2007 when this page on this
website was created no further communication has been received. See This
situation was reported to "Which" The Consumer Magazine in the UK who
replied
" I can appreciate your frustration at being unable
to get a satisfactory response to your emails to Aer Lingus about the charge for
baggage checked into the hold.
I've checked the Aer Lingus website help section and it quotes a charge of 4 Euros
if baggage booked in advance, 8 Euros is checked in on the day, no mention is
made there of the charge being waived on particular shared flights and it seems
that the definition of a shared flight needs to be clarified.
I will make sure that your comments are passed on. We have a complaints database
where we can record incidents like this and generate a monthly report of the companies
we have received the most complaints about. This will help us determine if this
is a large problem and helps greatly when planning future reports and campaigns.
Regards, Diane Hacker Which? Many
thanks for your email this is the section of the Aer Lingus Website: Please see
bottom line.I found it by following the New Checked in Baggage Charges on the
Home page. I think it is very important that they clarify this. I also attach
their leaflet they give out and the flight timetable showing code sharing If they
are going to charge fine, however if they say they don;t on a code share and still
do I belive that is againt the Misdicription act or similar legislation. I look
forward to hearing from you Thank
you for emailing Diane again, with additional information. I am replying on behalf
of Diane this morning. We have all of the details and we will keep these on record.
You may also wish to put in a complaint to the Air Transport Users Council to
draw their attention to the issue. Here is a link to their website: http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=306
Regards, Susanne Long Which? As
this is an Irish Airline, The Consumers' Association of Ireland was contacted
HI
I refer to your query regarding Aer Lingus charging for baggage on code share
flights. Unfortunately
it seems Aer Lingus are within their rights to do this and you maybe should have
booked through BA. We agree that it is confusing and we will be highlighting this
confusion in our upcoming piece in monthly Consumer Choice magazine about airline
extras.
If you have any other experiences that you would like to relate or any other questions,
feel free to give me a shout. Many thanks John Cradden The Consumers' Association
of Ireland 43-44 Chelmsford Road Ranelagh Dublin 6 The
issue has been passed to the Trading Standards authority in the UK. The
Aer Lingus website no longer appears to have the words "Codeshare passengers
(AA, BA, or KLM flight number) travelling on Aer Lingus operated flights will
not be subject
to these baggage fees" However
in March 2007 charges for baggage were increased again " Both
Aer Lingus and Ryanair have defended increases of up to 33 per cent in charges
levied on air passengers carrying baggage that is not hand baggage. Aer Lingus
first introduced baggage charges in January 2007 with the online price for baggage
being €4.00 and it is going up to €5.00 - a 25% increase per flight. The
Consumers' Association of Ireland has denounced the increased baggage charges
as "a scandalous rip-off of the traveeling public". Rynair's online
baggage charges have risen by over 71 per cent in the the year since they were
introduced. The British airline BMIBaby ( the budget airline of British Midland)
has also increased it's baggage rates. Online they have increased
from €4.00 to €4.95" At
least they do not appear to be stating that code share flights will not be charged!
©
jml Property Services April 2007 August
2007 Letter
sent 11th February 2007 - Acknowledged 21st February and on the 31st July Aer
Lingus finally replies. "Thank you for your correspondence.
Aer Lingus are committed tp offering our customers low fares on an increasing
network of routes. By reducing our costs, we are now in a position to offer our
customers fares to the UK starting at 1.00 and to Europe from 19.00. As
you are aware, we have now implemented a charge for checked luggage. This is 5.00
per bag if paid in advance online or 8.00 per bag if paid on the day of
travel. We appreciate that such an initiative may not be attractive to all customers.
However, we feel this is keeping costs low for customers travelling with only
hand luggage. Code
share passengers travelling on Aer Lingus flights are not charged baggage fees.
However, on this occasion, your wife was an Aer Lingus passenger with an EI ticket.
Some of our flights are stated EI192?BA... The BA flight number is for the benefit
of British Airways passengers with a connecting flight on Aer Lingus to Ireland
and travelling on a British Airways ticket. As your wife was not travelling on
a British Airways ticket, she was charged the baggage fee. If
I can be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me
in writing quoting the above reference. Yours sincerely S C W...Customer Care. ©
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