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I’m planning a trip from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu (falls).
The baggage allowance is only 15kg but I’ll be travelling from UK with a 23kg allowance.
The baggage and excess details on the website is confusing. https://www.aerolineas.com.ar/en-us/baggage-allowance?tab=excess-baggage
If I take 23kg is the excess one price?
What have other people done. Any advice would be appreciated.
@Skovronp – I’m not sure if I fully understand your question but with AR on domestic flights, in economy your allowance is 15kg unless you have travelled long haul with SkyTeam or have the relevant status. There’s also an absolute limit of 23kg per bag. Any excess between the 15kg up to 23kg, you will pay the ARS21,000, it’s not per kg. There’s a separate tariff for excessive sizes bags, extra bags or sports equipment.
It’s really worth considering Premium Economy (the highest class on domestic flights). If you book early, it doesn’t usually cost more than economy plus a bag, you will avoid the very long queues for economy check-in at Aeroparque (and the queues at the excess counter), plus priority boarding and proper business seats. Your baggage allowance is also 2 x 15kg which they pool individually and collectively. They will generally ignore excess if travelling PE – at least that’s our experience on 10 of 12 recent flights with significant excess.
Status doesn’t matter. I’ve got Virgin Gold, and the 1st AA flight my internal 23Kg was not charged, but the second was charged approx £16 by the check in agent. She was adamant that status got me nothing and it was pay up or don’t fly. Both flights were PE booked directly on AA’s website. Nothing anywhere about extra allowance on a PE ticket.
Basically it’s a lottery depending on check in agent.
Status doesn’t matter. I’ve got Virgin Gold, and the 1st AA flight my internal 23Kg was not charged, but the second was charged approx £16 by the check in agent. She was adamant that status got me nothing and it was pay up or don’t fly. Both flights were PE booked directly on AA’s website. Nothing anywhere about extra allowance on a PE ticket.
Basically it’s a lottery depending on check in agent.
@davefl – PE gets you 2 x 15kg which is stated in the fare conditions grid, on the booking page and the e-ticket. It also gives you 8kg hand luggage vs 3kg. They have recently removed the second bag from PE promo fares. It is as you say, and I commented above, random as to whether you get charged extra but we generally haven’t been charged, even when travelling with a lot of excess as we stay for a long time and have a big golf bag.But 2 x 15kg doesn’t help when you have a single 23kg bag that 7 other airlines have been ok with.
But 2 x 15kg doesn’t help when you have a single 23kg bag that 7 other airlines have been ok with.
It’s fine, because they pool the 2 x 15kg to allow 30kg for one pax or 60kg for two etc. No idea if that aspect is written down anywhere, but it has been our experience for many years, both from Aeroparque, Ezeiza and domestic outstations. On four flights in March/April with excess weight and a (chargeable) golf bag we were never charged for the excess and only charged for the golf bag on one flight.
Well she refused point blank from Bariloche
We took several AR domestic flights a couple of years ago. We had done our best to get our luggage down to meet the weight limit, but mine was still significantly over, my wife’s slightly over. We had very variable experiences:
Sometimes they just allowed them through (especially if we’d been queuing to check in for 90 minutes and the flight was going soon!)
We’d worked out it was cheaper to add a 2nd bag rather than pay for an overweight one, so I had a collapsible bag that I could put laundry and a few other things in and so check 2 <15kg bags – we had to pay a few £ once for that, but other times they just let us check the extra.We had one flight with JetSmart, who have a sensible luggage allowance.
JDB’s suggestion of PE sounds like a great idea, especially if flying from AEP – the queues were ridiculous.
As a Virgin Silver I did not have to pay for my (22kg) bag on a recent domestic flight at all. My wife had to pay for hers but they didn’t say anything about any excess weight fee
As a Virgin Silver I did not have to pay for my (22kg) bag on a recent domestic flight at all. My wife had to pay for hers but they didn’t say anything about any excess weight fee
And yet I was denied even though my VS Gold status was on the system, on the boarding pass and I challenged her about it.
We flew last November and December with AR from El Calafate to Bariloche and Bariloche to Aeroparque (BA). We had no FF status. We travelled in economy and were unable to pay for extra baggage online so our limit was 15kg each plus hand baggage. Our suitcases each weighed 20kg and so we were expected to be charged for the additional kg. We also had 2 small rucksacks and 1 small handbag. Everyone else checking in appeared to have heavy bags too. We were not asked to pay extra at either airport. The payment desk appeared to be at the end of the check in desks but we didn’t see anyone go there. Check in was incredibly busy on both occasions. If everyone had to go and pay, I think half the passengers would have missed the flights. Sounds like we were lucky.
The payment desk appeared to be at the end of the check in desks but we didn’t see anyone go there. Check in was incredibly busy on both occasions. If everyone had to go and pay, I think half the passengers would have missed the flights. Sounds like we were lucky.
That’s wierd, the check in agent took my payment rather than having to go to an different desk.
Thanks everyone for your input.
We’re travelling on BA companion voucher and therefore buying the ticket separately. We’ll only have the one bag each of 23k and prefer not to go down the route of taking another bag with us, even one folded up in the suitcase.
I like the idea of just going PE and paying extra for 2 x 15k if the weight is pooled as has been indicated in the responses. Also if it’s a proper business seat and expedited check in etc that’s helpful too.
@davefl – sounds like we were lucky. It was chaotic at both airports with so many people with lots of luggage and only 2 check in desks in operation. If everyone in line had to pay, we would certainly have missed our flights, even though we arrived at the airport with plenty of time. The planes were full, so even if we had wanted to buy the business seats, we wouldn’t have been able to do so.
For the one flight where we had to pay for the extra bag I was given a receipt from the check in desk, then had to take it to another office nearby to pay.
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