Great to hear you had a good experience travelling with all your gear.

Like a lot of things in life if you pay a bit more the service is often (not always) a bit better.

Happy Easter

Usually these days it's extremely rare to get away with overweight bags at QAN as they changed their internal policies surrounding it, there is no longer any discretion on behalf of the check in desk. That said with QAN's current baggage rules if you pre pay for the extra bag/s before check in (and it's easy to spread the weight over x bags) you are golden and it's much cheaper than Virgin as you pay a flat fee 'per bag' rather x$/kg on Virgin; IE as long as you are maxing out your bag/s weight you end up way in front.

Case in point last time I traveled to WA fron SYD it cost me ~$200 each way extra baggage on Virgin (was a few years ago) and last time I flew with QAN (they had their current rules) it was ~$60 each way (2 extra bags, had 2 board bags and sail bag).

Also bear in mind board/sail bags are very large, the weigh scales are very small, all i'll say ;)

may the gods bless quantas
yesterday we arrived too late after an international flight to get our flight home, and when we rocked up to quantas they said our domestic flight was 1hr late ,but was boarding now so just rock up with this here boarding pass and just carry all your bags by hand
sweet!!!
made it home for dinner in Kalgoorlie after brekkie on the beach in benoa
how good is life
thank you quantas and jetstar for having both flights breakdown

I will ask a few check in crew next time I am at work. Yes it's definitely been at their discretion in the past. It may have changed (for the worse) lately but I have not heard of it.

Nothing better than being staff. Extra baggage, what extra baggage

JBFletch said...
i pre purchased an extra bag, giving me 1 board bag and 1 quiver bag as checked bags.
The board was light, about 10kg and the quiver bag was about 29kg. rather then making me change gear between bags, she said "well seeing as their both not over, the combined limit, its fine". so off the bags went.

That would be one of those situations where it's up to the check in staff to make a call. Qantas Club, Plantinum members and Business Class passengers get 30kg per bag on domestic flights anyway.

From my experience it's the more seasoned staff that generally lets things slip or should I say they use their brain rather than following protocol.

The "no windsurf boards" rule I think is probably a left over from the old days and was never revised.

To be honest I prefer them having a clear "pay x $ for an extra bag" rule rather than going to the airport and playing lottery.

I remember way back in the early 90s I once flew to Fuerteventura on a charter flight. I managed to pack all my gear into a single bag that weight 25 kgs but the airline had a "no windsurf" "no surfboards" policy which I only found out about at the airport. The check in staff gave me 2 plastic bags to re-pack my cloths and asked me to leave the board. I said to them there was no point of going without the gear.

Just as I was about to go home again one of the pilots dropped a bag at check-in and asked what this was about. I explained the situation and he turned to the check-in lady and said just check it in. She started to argue with him re company policy. He simply replied: "Who's flying the plane?" Done... board got checked in. Sadly those days are gone.

Just remember any bagS over 32kgs want as won't accept won't. There new policies are good just pre pay baggage and if any are over 23kgs you just pay an extra $20 for up to 32kgs. Leaves no nasty surprises.

Best baggage I've ever had was with Hawaiian air 2 wave boards, 6 sails, 2 booms, 4 masts, 2 kites, 1 kite board, assorted bits and pieces and a bag full of boardies from Maui to Sydney $100.