VIRGIN DECREASE baggage allowance from 1st April

[Lindy Loo]

Ive phoned Virgin in INDIA. well that was FUN........... NOT couldnt understand each other. She aid LOTS of people are unhappy with changes, however they WILL be enforced from 1st April. I said we booked a year and more from the flight date, I feel cheated and conned. She aid Virgin makes no comment!!! NOT HAPPY AT ALL.

I hope Virgin have the decency (sp?) to honour what they offered when we booked !!!!! emmmmm doubt it

 

[Cochise]

Sign of the times...

I dont think this is a way to make money from over weight bags. This is more to do with reducing the expenditure for flights on fuel costs.

 

[terrynewpack]

My ambition has always been to take as little as possible not as much as possible.
Whats up with you people


Terry

 

[Goofyish]

It's a bit off if VA are not honouring the luggage allowance at the time of booking

Having said that we have never had case that has been over 23Kg - to be honest I wouldn't want to lift a case weighing anymore than that. Although last December we found we needed more cases due to having to pack clothes for 'all' weathers and so ended up taking 4 cases out and 5 back.
Previous trips in August and October we have managed with 3 cases out and 4 back (although DDs were younger then and their clothes didn't take up much room).
We don't hire a car, but I can see taking more cases will have an impact on car choice - especially as US cars don't seem to have overly large boots (trunks). Even the huge Lincoln Towncars struggled to take our 5 bags.

 

[alisonbestford]

Just checked in online and the confirmation says 2 x 32kg bags per passenger
No mention of the 1st April change.
I've packed 4 cases anyway and will slip in a couple of foldable ones, for the way home - just in case

 

[marv]

My tickets are coming tomorrow so i will let you know what the baggage allowance is on them... we booked over a year ago..its such a pain.
I have just spoken to the TA about this but she made it clear to me that even if one case was over the 23 kg that would be fine for us as we are only taking 2 and there is 5 of us with full baggage allowance so even if we brought back some more cases ....i couldn't see that we could get any whare near our luggage limit... as we could bring back 10...and there's no way we could do that..only if we hired a bus


Marv

 

[carolfoy]

Yes that is Fine Marv, what they're saying is that you can now have 2 cases per person, with a maximum weight of 46 kgs, no 1 case can weigh more than 32kg (health and safety) but you could have 1 at 32 kg and 1 at 14kg!!

 

[TraceyL]

VA Link

I read it as from Apr 1st no one piece of luggage can weigh more than 23kgs - you cannot combine the two pieces.

 

[carolfoy]

Ah, right, thanks for the update Tracey

 

[marv]

VA Link

I read it as from Apr 1st no one piece of luggage can weigh more than 23kgs - you cannot combine the two pieces.

I have spoken to the TA about this aslong as you dont go over your 2 case limit and stay within your luggage limit of 46kg then thats fine so you could have a bit more in one and not the other also we have 5 passengers with full luggage allowance altogether thats 230kg that we are allowed no matter how many cases we take or bring back.


Marv

 

[TraceyL]

Hope your TA is right - that's certainly not the case at the moment (pardon the pun ) with the 32 kg per piece limit

From 1 April 2006 we are making some changes to the baggage allowances on our flights.

On transatlantic, Caribbean and Nigerian routes, we've adjusted the allowance for Economy class to 2 pieces at 23kg per piece

 

[marv]

When checkin in last time at Sanford they weighed all our 5 suitcases and we were just under our limit and that was with Britannia who only had a 20kg limit and 1 case per paying passenger.
I didn't see them individually weighing our cases on the way out and on the way back and saying well this one is alittle over so youd better takes something out and put it in another case. They just weighed everything then added it up which makes sense to me.

I hope my TA is right or well have to hire that bus


Marv

 

[tartangirl]

With other airlines we've flown where we've been allowed to combine allowances - it makes sense as they wouldn't want extra bags.

I think the 32Kg limit was there because anything heavier is deemed too heavy for the baggage handlers so Virgin wouldn't have the authority to allow heavier bags. Too heavy for DH as well

I wonder what will happen at downtown Disney as we've never had our bags weighed there - I dont recall ever seeing the equipment to weigh the bags.

 

[carolfoy]

thats the way I read it too, that you could combine weight but not exceed 32kg on one peice

 

[TraceyL]

We'll all be hiring buses Marv - the car rental companies had better order in extra for us

Where did you read that Carol? The only information about the new restrictions I've found is what I've quoted above - every thing else pertains to the current limits - have I missed something?

 

[Lindy Loo]

Its on the Virgin web site under baggage allowance, right at the top. It is DEFINATELY no more than 2 bags per person, no bag weighing more than 23kgs ie 2 cases on max at 23kgs = 46KGs.

I have emailed virgin on customer.services@fly.virgin.com, to get and print off their reply.

My TA THINKs cos we booked prior to 1st April the 32kgs allowance still applies. However as we go in Oct, I want it in black and white, so im not at Gatwick unloading a suitcase!!!

I think the max of 23 kg per bag is H & S issue, which is OK, however IF I CHOOSE to us 3 cases and not go over the 64 kgs in total, I had arranged when I booked, well over a year ago, suely thats MY choice!
Dont change the rules, after ive booked Virgin!

 

[marv]

I rang virgin atlantic head office and they said each check in operator has there own way off doing things. She said it would make more sense for the checkin operator to do a large groups luggage together...similar to us as there is 5 in are group me DH and 3 kids with full luggage allowance.

Oh well just hope it go's well on the day.

Marv

 

[UKDEB]

In the days when we used hard cases, we often had 'heavy' stickers slapped on them at check-in. However, we got fed up with handling large, heavy cases, so we've gradually replaced them.

I can understand that anyone with large cases might be miffed at having to buy new ones, but I don't understand the fuss about the allowance itself. 2 x 23kg PER PERSON! That's way more than anyone can possibly need, surely? Dh and I don't take that between us! If you need to take a buggy and/or a car seat, then you receive an additional allowance, so that's not an issue. If you're a family of four, you could potentially take 8 fair-sized cases within your allowance! As Hilary says, how could you even transport that to the airport? You've lost me on this one, guys.

 

[kristieuk]

Yes, but I think the point is, 23kg per case is not that heavy, and if it means taking 2 pieces per person, to carry, say 30kg worth of things per person, it's not feasible if there are 4 people = 8 cases.

DF takes golf clubs, so that means his case can't weight more than 23kg, and he normally takes his clothes plus DD's - his case is usually around 28 - 30kg . It would mean rethinking the whole thing in terms of transport to and from the airport if we had to take extra cases.

Besides which, there are many reasons why people would want to rely on the 32kg per piece allowance, it's not for us to question what they take or why they take it. I totally agree that it's unfair to change the goalposts after flights have been booked.

 

[mushumadness]

just got off the phone to virgin

we booked sunday, our weight will be 2times 23kg 2 cases each

I said I wasnt happy at all with this, their advice to upgrade to pe both ways so we still get the 32kg per case, as thats what pe will get, so we have upgraded both ways to the tune of £490 each!