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READERS SHARE FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCES AND TRAVEL SOLUTIONS B U S I N E S S T R A V E L L E R . C O M /F O R U M
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MOST FRUSTRATING AIRLINE RULES POS T C EDRIC STA T HE RB Y What is the most frustrating or petty rule you have encountered in your air travel? I will start the discussion with BA’s rules on use of lounges on a codeshare flight. I have a gold BA Exec Club card and if I fly on a BA-operated flight, or a Oneworld airline’s flight, I can take a guest into the BA lounge with me, but if I fly on a BA codeshare flight on a non-Oneworld airline, I cannot take a guest into the lounge with me even if we both have BA tickets bought on
ba.com and BA flight numbers. This is the very definition of petty and pointless. If BA sells me the ticket it should honour the standard terms of its FF programme, which is that gold card members can use their lounges and invite a guest to join them. One does wonder who dreamed this restriction up!
➜ F RUSTR A TEDF LYER In the US if you turn up at the airport early for a domestic flight an American airline will be happy to try and get you on an earlier flight at no cost. In Europe/ UK if you are on a British/European airline they will charge you a fortune even if the earlier flight is empty (unless on a flexible ticket)!
➜ TIR ED OL DHA CK2 Having to take out the contents of the amenity kits, when you’re in transit, and then having to put them in transparent plastic bags. Even if the amenity kit bag is still sealed. For God’s sake.
➜ S ANR AN The worst rule I came across with airlines was with Swiss/Lufthansa: I needed to cancel the final leg of a four-
leg trip and asked my travel agent to cancel it with the airline (I thought the airline would like this, as they could sell it to someone else). Well, they asked me for SFr200 (US$212) for that: obviously I kept it and didn’t pay anything and the airline kept the seat empty. I still cannot figure out the logic behind this.
➜ MIDDL E CL A S STR A V EL L ER For me, the most frustrating airline rule would be not allowing passengers to change (read “correct”) the booking name at all. I haven’t encountered this myself, but I’ve heard a few cases where passengers weren’t allowed on board because they (or the booker) misspelt one letter of their name, or by mistake chose the wrong gender.
WHEN IS PRIORITY BAGGAGE NOT PRIORITY BAGGAGE? P O ST L U G A NOP IR A T E Many frequent flyer programmes tout priority baggage delivery as one of the reasons for attaining status with them, but I question if this is a benefit that can truly be delivered? The reason I ask is despite being Gold with Swiss, my bags are only sometimes among the first to be delivered, and on a couple of occasions among the last. I recently flew from New York to Milan with Emirates in first class with Gold status, one colleague was in business with Silver status and the final one economy with no status. We all checked in at the same time and at the respective desk for our class. On arrival among the first cases delivered was my colleague from economy, about 20 bags later my other colleague’s bag followed, and after another 20 or so my bag arrived. Of course it made no real difference, but I question if airlines and their FF programmes can really deliver on this benefit?
➜ C A THA YLO Y AL I ST2 I have had the same experience. It is down to whether priority bags are loaded into a container for that purpose and loaded last, thus offloaded first, or not. I would say my bags have been in the first 20 bags 20 per cent of the time, middle order 60 per cent of the time and last 20 per cent of the time. Oversized bags seem to be delivered quickly.
➜ E S S E LLE I think the issue will always exist when airlines contract to local ground handlers away from their home base. Unless the contract has big penalties attached for non-compliance, the ground handler will default to whatever is easiest.
➜ GIV INGUP B A I agree that airlines cannot really deliver on this benefit because delivering earlier is often outside their control. However, promising the benefit is not outside their control – I wish they wouldn’t do that.
➜ ANTIP ODE S I agree with most of what has been said but would like to point out that in Indonesia, Garuda separates the premium class luggage and has it delivered on a designated carousel.
➜ V IA JER OUK Agree with antipodes about Garuda: even better, premium passengers don’t need to wait at the carousel at CGK or DPS – Garuda staff will collect bags from the carousel and deliver to you while you sit in a small arrivals lounge. That’s what a “Priority Baggage Service” should be; bags have always arrived pretty quick for me so I guess the luggage tags do make a difference there.
S H A R E Y O UR E X P E R I E N CE S ON OUR F O R U M B U S I N E S S T R A V E L L E R . C O M /F O R U M AP RIL 2 0 18 bus ine s s tr a v el ler .c om
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