No free suitcase on domestic US Avios flight redemptions – and what to do

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• Amol (@PointsToPointB) says:

  1 Sep1 September 05:58

  The only 3-class flights are LAX-JFK, SFO-JFK, and select LAX-MIA flights, which are all 37,500 Avios in business vs. 12,500 Avios in coach. However, they do offer flat beds, so the extra Avios would go to a much better experience on the plane in addition to $60 of free baggage.

  Worth noting that any AA flight that crosses into other countries (like Canada) have the forward cabin on 2-class planes marketed as business. So JFK-Montreal is cheaper than JFK-Boston.

• James67 says:

  1 Sep1 September 06:03

  … just another of those stealthy creeping avios devaluations as BA continues it’s slide to Ryanairesque clone. Really time they got rid of Walsh and replaced him with somebody witg vision and ambition imo.

  • Callum says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:51

    It’s been like this for years… It’s not remotely “stealthy”, and anyone who got free bags included were the lucky beneficiaries of a glitch. Just like you can get AA priority security and boarding with Avios redemptions – it certainly isn’t policy.

  • Mark says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:52

    Why? I’d imagine that the shareholders are quite happy at the moment. I doubt Walsh will be going anywhere soon.

    In any case this has little or nothing to do with BA. It has been the case for a while that pretty much all US airlines charge for luggage on domestic and Caribbean coach tickets, redemptions or otherwise. Ironically the one exception is the original budget airline, Southwest which allows two free bags.

  • John says:

    1 Sep1 September 08:21

    This is AA policy and applies to award redemptions from any oneworld program, nothing to do with BAEC. It has also been this way for a years, it is nothing new.

• Brendan says:

  1 Sep1 September 06:31

  It’s been this way for nearly a couple of years.

  In fact I struggles to convince the check in agent I was entitled to a free bag even with status as she said it wasn’t notifying her of such on the monitor. I had to load the exceptions page on AA.com at the desk and she eventually said “I’ll let you away with it this time but in the future of it doesn’t appear on my screen then you shouldn’t get it”. I bit my tongue rather than give any further retort!

  • Polly says:

    1 Sep1 September 06:55

    Ok we plan to be silver by next march on our trip to SEA. As we plan to either fly or train it to SFO and VAN, this info is v v useful. As silver, surely we are entitled to free bags on status? Anyone sure about this? Or if we fly coach, will we still be allowed our one stored bag? Any help very much appreciated. Mind you, the cash prices are quite good on those routes also.

    • Bobajob67 says:

      1 Sep1 September 08:26

      Our experience in the summer matches that of Brendan. Our avios flight on USair from IAH to PHX was booked in economy and I noted on booking that it was a HBO fare. I have Air-Berlin gold status (courtesy of AmEx platinum Cx and statusmatch via GulfAir, thanks Rob!) which is oneworld sapphire. I made sure my status was in the booking via Finnair but this wasn’t recognised at online check-in. Even at the airport it took the supervisor a good 20 minutes to get the system to acknowledge that only 1 of our 3 checked bags should be paid for. I’m not sure how she sorted it but I’d recommend extra time be allowed at the airport!

      • flibbly says:

        1 Sep1 September 11:09

        I and two non-status friends flew on AA earlier this year and my GCH status was enough to get checked bags for all three of us (and free food/drinks on board). No questions asked, no problems.

  • Caffers says:

    1 Sep1 September 18:05

    I flew on an economy redemption AA ticket from LA to DC in March this year. I knew about the hand baggage extra in advance, but banked on my Cathay Pacific Gold being able to give me free checked bags.

    However the LAX check in staff, although surprisingly helpful, were unable to get the system to accept the Oneworld status and offer free checked bags. Eventually I gave up and paid the $25 charge per bag (we had two) to get the luggage checked in. I emailed AA customer service for a refund, but never received a response.

    I had the miles from the AA credit card from a few years back, so given I was effectively saving over £200 per ticket I chose not to follow up. You win some, you lose some.

• Volker says:

  1 Sep1 September 07:01

  “If there are two of you, perhaps one flies in economy for 4,500 Avios with hand baggage whilst the other books into First for 18,000 Avios and checks in two or three cases for free?”

  Your wife must be very understanding, Rob… When I got upgraded to CE thanks to my then silver status, Mrs Volker insisted on having me beside her in Economy – I had initially been put in front of the curtain, she was in the row right behind me (and the curtain). For the sake of peace, I finally swapped seats with the lady beside her.
  To be fair, my OH needs my hand and (if the seating configuration allows this) my shoulder to lean on whenever a flight gets slightly bumpy.
  Therefore, your suggestion wouldn’t be an option for us. Same applies to single/individual Business/First seats.

  • Brian says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:25

    You mean to say you didn’t offer to swap seats with Mrs Volker instead? No wonder she wasn’t prepared to let you sit in CE. Come on, sir, be a gentleman!

    • Volker says:

      1 Sep1 September 10:55

      Haha, of course I did, but that obviously wasn’t the problem! I think I mentioned on HFP before that she asked me on her first CE flight why she couldn’t sit right beside me but was meant to leave an empty seat between us. No wonder she loves travelling via LCY 😀

• Karen says:

  1 Sep1 September 07:04

  I flew JFK to SJU in May which I believe is treated as a domestic flight and the same rules relating to baggage were shown. I had expected to check my baggage free due to status but have to pay for my husband’s 2 bags. In the event though we paid for none which rather surprised me.

  • Callum says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:54

    It is treated as a domestic flight as it is a domestic flight. Paid baggage isn’t a domestic only policy however – you have to pay to Mexico and the Caribbean (with a few random exceptions – presumably for legal reasons).

• Kipto says:

  1 Sep1 September 07:26

  Just to clarify, if I book a flight for my family of four within the U.S. using avois, and we have four suitcases in total, are the baggage charges per person ie $25 each or would I be charged $150 for our third case ?

  • Callum says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:55

    If you have a bag each then $25 per person. If for some bizarre reason you check 4 bags under one name then you’ll be charged whatever the relevant fees are.

• rich says:

  1 Sep1 September 08:13

  I just booked lax-van for 15k in business. I get two bags

  • rich says:

    1 Sep1 September 08:16

    and £3 tax

• Mark says:

  1 Sep1 September 08:36

  One word of warning to anyone booking an AA domestic/Canada/Caribbean Business or First ticket – do not expect to get lounge access unless you have OneWorld sapphire/emerald status.

  Bizarrely that also excludes AA status. If you’re AA platinum flying First Class domestic then you’re out of luck, whereas a coach ticket with BA Silver will get you in…..

  • Brian says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:27

    But then, American lounges are generally very poor in terms of what they offer, so it’s no great loss.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    1 Sep1 September 10:18

    Not necessarily much of a loss, US domestic carriers’ lounges are pretty dire most of the time!

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