Air France has introduced a new baggage policy that it claims will allow passengers to achieve a 30% reduction on excess weight prices compared to current tariffs.
The new scheme will allow customers booking flights online with Air France to buy extra weight in tranches of 5kg up to a maximum of 50kg, for 30% less than they would pay at the airport.
Available from 30h up to 30min before the latest check-in, the passenger will be able to pay for excess baggage online, with the information then passed to the relevant airport desk.
Air France applies what it terms a ”weight concept” for the majority of its services apart from those to the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Papeete, West Africa, Cairo, Djibouti, Antananarivo, Havana, Santo Domingo and Punta Cana, where it has a ”piece concept” dictating the number of bags allowed. The weight concept generally allows two bags.
”At the start of the year, Air France and KLM had a root and branch review of their baggage policy,” said Air France marketing director, Patrick Roux.
”This innovative new service will now permit passengers to avoid the stress of last-minute excess baggage charges. We envisage rolling this out to other international markets.”
From January this year, Air France/KLM simplified their joint baggage structure into five zones, with areas one to four applying the weight concept and zone five carrying its own piece concept tariff. The former includes French and Dutch domestic services, short and long-haul European flights, North African, Caribbean and Indian Ocean flights, as well as those to the Middle East and Libya.
Members of Air France”s Frequent Flyer Programme ” Flying Blue ” benefit from extra baggage allowances. Silver card holders have 5kg extra, Gold, 10kg and Platinum, 20kg on top of the standard Economy, Business and First Class maximum of 20kg, 30kg and 40kg.
The multitude of differing baggage policies has become a minefield of late, with several airlines setting widely varying limits and charges. British Airways significantly ruffled feathers earlier this year by introducing a one bag limit for World and Euro Traveller passengers, while UK Transport Select Committee chairman, Gwyneth Dunwoody has called for an industry-wide debate concerning a return to standard baggage allowances.