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British Airways changes its baggage rules – effective today, no notice given

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British Airways changed its baggage policy last night with literally no notice.  Even the travel trade was not informed until yesterday.

For all BA bookings made from today, the Most Generous Allowance luggage policy no longer exists.

The Most Generous Allowance policy allowed you to retain the biggest luggage allowance from any flight on your itinerary and have it apply to all flights.

The most common use of this would be if you flew outbound in one class and inbound in another.  Fly out in Euro Traveller but back in Club Europe and, as long as the entire flight was on the same ticket, you got the higher Club Europe baggage allowance for both legs.  No longer.  You will now have to pay for extra baggage on the Euro Traveller leg.

This does NOT apply to tickets with a connection on the inbound or outbound.   If you are flying domestically from Manchester to Heathrow and then onwards in Club World, you still get the Club World baggage allowance on the domestic flight.

Except …. this no longer applies if you have a stopover of more than 24 hours.   Fly from Manchester to London on Monday, with your onward flight in Club World on Wednesday, and you do NOT get a higher baggage allowance on the Manchester to London flight.  You will need to pay.

Here are two example from BA’s own travel trade site:

Gatwick to Barbados – outbound in World Traveller, returning in Club World

Previously:  2 x 32kg allowance on both flights

From today:  1 x 23kg allowance outbound, 2 x 32kg allowance inbound

Edinburgh to Barbados, with the domestic leg to Gatwick in Euro Traveller and a Club World onward flight and a stopover in London

Previously: 2 x 32kg allowance on all flights

From today:  1 x 23kg allowance on Edinbugh – Gatwick, 2 x 32kg allowance on Gatwick – Barbados

For clarity, in the 2nd example it is the stopover that causes the problem.  If the passenger is connecting immediately then they keep the higher allowance on all flights.

Existing tickets booked before today are not affected.  British Airways has said that, even if such tickets are amended, they will retain the old rules.


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Comments (101)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Simon says:

    So what they are doing, is giving people the appropriate allowance for the flight they are travelling on….. SHOCK. ANGER. HORRIFIC.

    • Barry Cutters says:

      I’m totally with you. its like going to a hotel for two weeks and paying for the all inclusive package on just the first week. -then complaining when they say you have to buy your food on week two. This was a nice loophole or agreement while it lasted, but they have brought the service inline with what is fair. so we can’t really complain.
      think if ba increased the luggage allowance people would still complain.
      Do the maths and lots of times you will find its cheaper to travel on BA in club europe than it is to travel with ryanair and take 64kg of luggage.

      • Drav says:

        considering ive seen many return club europe flights for 500-1000 im not so sure…

    • Relaxo says:

      What an idiotic comment.

    • Alan says:

      What they are actually doing is giving people (mainly higher spenders as this doesn’t affect those going WT out and WT back) another opportunity to bash BA.

      I wonder how many people this would actually affect? Probably not many and I can’t really see this as being much of an earner for BA, but the damage to reputation would probably outweigh any gain.

      It is very unlikely to be a problem for me as I only, really travel economy, but I can see why people see it as another reason not to fly BA (even if it won’t directly be a problem for them)

      • Genghis says:

        Some people just like a good whinge

      • Simon says:

        I just cant see the issue. If you want a CW allowance, book a CW ticket. Should these people also get lounge access on their return leg because they had it 2 weeks earlier when they left Heathrow? Oh it is only a few people, and it wont really affect BAs bottom line.

        • Tom says:

          Kinda agree with this. Sometimes we end up booking split tickets (just due to how things work out at the time of booking journey), which can mean an internal flight in Economy and a long haul in CW. Do I demand lounge access when I’m on the economy flight – no.

        • Relaxo says:

          You wouldnt demand lounge access because it was never offered as a benefit. Its about ‘taking away’ things that irks people and the ridiculous assumption that fairness implies a zero-sum game.

        • Tom says:

          Taking away or evening up? I can see the annoyance for those who use this as a ruse to get lounge access / greater baggage allowances on cheaper tickets but ultimately you get what you pay for….

        • Simon says:

          But existing bookings aren’t changed. Nothing is being taken away. In future. bookings will be treated more appropriately on a flight by flight basis. Loyal flyers with Gold/Silver memberships will still get extra baggage allowance regardless of travel class. Superb.

  • John says:

    I think I have travelled with more than 23kg of checked luggage only once in my lifetime, which was after my grandmother’s funeral when we needed to move 100kg of family photos from Canada to Hong Kong (the weight was mainly the albums)

    I always wonder what those Americans and Africans with 5 bags each are carrying

    • the real harry1 says:

      probably snacks

      • CV3V says:

        its not a joke, you should see the food order i have to take over to friends and family in malaysia (shortbread (from various manufacturers), chocolate, tea bags….Amazon orders, oh yeah and Lego!) which is then followed by my order of things to bring back. I can easily fill one suitcase with food outbound and return. All within the appropriate custom rules and regulations.

        That said, even when trying to max out the luggage allowance i havent exceeded about 50kg, really annoying when travelling in First with a 96kg check in allowance!

    • Genghis says:

      Agreed. I think max I’ve carried is around 30kg of hold and hand baggage when I moved to Japan. Normally around 13kg is enough to last me any amount of time (apart from really cold climates). I’ve tried to get it down further but I don’t like the idea of washing clothes most nights.

      • Tom says:

        Agree – most I have carried is 20kg’s, and to be honest, I am more than happy doing a week with hand luggage only. My other half however……

        I have more of an issue with split bookings and the inability of BA to merge these. We have an upcoming flight where the tickets are split on two booking references (we weren’t sure how we’d be getting to Heathrow at the time of booking the long haul flight). Anyway, we’re economy down, CW out, F back and then CE up to Manchester. As the ticket is split we’re hand luggage out to avoid collecting and rechecking, but we do plan to buy a case abroad, and then hopefully blag when checking in F that we’d like it checked back through to the MAN as BA cannot combine the bookings annoyingly!

      • Gavin says:

        94 kg across three checked bags, and a further 45kg of hand luggage when helping Mrs Gavin move out of Cyprus. I could barely move the luggage trolley!

        • Rob says:

          I have one, admittedly large, suitcase with me at present, containing everything me and two kids require for 11 days.

          I haven’t travelled abroad on my own with a case for probably 15 years. When I went to Tokyo about 10 years I took one spare shirt (knowing I could launder them via the hotel each day) and then felt bad when I realised the Peninsula did overnight laundry so I didn’t even need to do that 🙂

  • Tony says:

    Come on guys don’t be so pessimistic about our national carrier. They’re rolling out the White Company bedding in club world this week. What more do you want?

  • Kaz says:

    On Monday, I booked the outward leg of of 2 business seats to Jamaica for next year. Due to the way my points year started earlier, I am currently on Bronze and my husband is on Silver. If I booked using myself as primary they would only give us 2 x 23 KG, however if booked using my husband, we got 2 x 32KG!

    • Genghis says:

      Thought so as long as a Silver is on the PNR, it doesn’t make a difference who booked it?

    • Leo says:

      Why the surprise? That’s the rule. Like when choosing which seat. Use the highest status person to make the booking to get the best terms.

      • Genghis says:

        I make bookings from my wife’s account for us (i.e. if she has a 241) (on the same PNR) but we can still select seats due to my status.

        • Leo says:

          Really? I’ve been caught out booking as bronze travelling with silver partner before. Wouldn’t let me move either seats to exit row. Didn’t try asking the silver travel companion to do it – maybe that’s the reason.

      • AndyR says:

        It doesn’t matter who books it as long as you’re on the same booking.

  • BP says:

    OT: Anyone had issues adding a return leg to a 241 voucher booking when the booking was made by another member of the household account (I’m travelling on it)?

    Japan at 1am wanted to speak with my Girlfriend to confirm it was ok to add this to the outbound booking.

    The flights have been held but they are insisting on calling my gf today to confirm with her.

    • Genghis says:

      Which makes sense. She can set you up as an authorised third party online

      • BP says:

        I wasn’t aware of this 🙂 I have added return legs to the gf’s bookings in the past without issue.

        I manage both accounts, so have added myself!

    • mark2 says:

      I don’t think that that is unreasonable. Yesterday I booked a 241 online using my wife’s 241. I expect them to want to speak to her to add the return leg, although I may be lucky as it is a Household Account. Fortunately there is plenty of availability so she will not have to get up early.

  • Gavin says:

    off topic as no bits – is Combine my avios working? I can’t get it to work for either Ib-Av, Av-BA, BA-Av on both mine and my wife’s accounts

    • Rob says:

      ALL personal data must now match following a recent change. Compare name, address, email.

      • Gavin says:

        That fixed my wife’s BA account, it turns out different email to Avios / Iberia. Her Iberia account also isn’t 90 days old until next week.

        My Avios account was in arrears, i.e. less than zero, 20 minutes on chat sorted that out.

  • Suzanne says:

    Does immunity from these new rules extend to ex-EU connections or just UK domestic?

  • Michael says:

    I’m very lucky that I booked a CE-outbound and economy return two days ago. It’s hard to keep track of all these negative changes.

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