Forced to Pay an Airline Fee I Didn't Owe
A Hawaiian Airlines customer
experience agent spoiling my customer experience at Kona International Airport two days ago.
Have you ever wrongly been charged a fee at an airport check-in counter? And you had to just shut up and pay, or you'd miss your flight?
It happened to me on Monday in Kona, Hawaii. My family and I were flying back to Oahu (where we are now) after a week on the Big Island. The Hawaiian Airlines check-in agent insisted we owed $40 in luggage fees: $10 per bag times four checked bags. I insisted we did not, showing her my credit card that waives luggage fees: I had booked my familys airline itinerary--from Newark to Honolulu to Kona to Honolulu to Newark--on Continental, and I carry a Continental Airlines Presidential Plus MasterCard that waives fees for checked luggage on flights booked through Continental.
The Kona check-in agent would not budge, even after I told her that a week earlier the Honolulu check-in agent had waived the fee after I'd shown her my credit card. The Kona agent said the Honolulu agent had been flat-out wrong. I had no choice but to pay the $40 or miss my flight, so I charged it to the MasterCard in question.
Yesterday I called the number on the back of the credit card to report what had happened and, sure enough, they said that I should not have been charged the luggage fees and that the $40 charge will be removed from my bill.
There are two morals to this story:
* When you're forced at an airline counter to pay a fee you don't think you owe, charge it to a credit card that will dispute the charge on your behalf.
* If you're sick of paying baggage fees, consider getting a credit card that waives them. On this Hawaii trip alone, with four family members each checking a bag on each leg of our itinerary, my Continental Airlines MasterCard has saved me something like $280 in luggage fees.
Has anyone else been wrongly charged a fee at an airport check-in counter? If so, I'd be interested to hear about it. Please let me know in the Comments section below.
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Wendy, would be very surprised if a Continental Mastercard waives checked baggage fees on Continental's partners.
It certainly waives the checked baggage fees on Continental for you and up to 8 other passengers in the same reservation and checking in at the same time.
It occurred to me that since this is a Continental ticket, if the baggage fee waiver were written into the Contract of Carriage that's what would govern your ticket issued on Continental ticket stock (and any ambiguity would go away if you were also on a Continental flight #).
But the Contract of Carriage describes waived baggage fees for credit card holders as CONTINENTAL making an EXCEPTION.
The Contract of Carriage that applies to your ticket which includes other carrier flights wouldn't seem to be a help, then.
And Hawaiian certainly doesn't get anything from Chase or from Continental as reimbursement for their not collecting checked baggage fees from Continental Mastercard holders.
So I'm pretty sure that Hawaiian IS entitled to collect their bag fees from Continental Mastercard holders, even when flying on a Continental-issued ticket.
The recourse, though, appears to be Continental's marketing language (http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/travel/baggage/chasebag.aspx) which says that baggage fees are waived automatically if your Onepass number is in your reservation. And it doesn't SAY (although they presumably INTEND) that this is limited to Continental flights. So they potentially have a hole in their marketing language.
But Continental's baggage page does explicitly say (http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/travel/baggage/checkbag.aspx#q21) that when traveling on a codeshare or other partner, that the partner's baggage rules apply -- not Continental's.
So, Wendy, I think the Hawaiian Airlines rep was technically in the right. But you have a reasonable case with Chase that they ought to eat the charge due to their potentially misleading marketing. And you're rather lucky that they simply agreed with you without need for further argument.
Best,
Gary
Posted by: gleff | February 24, 2010 at 02:16 PM
This is exactly why I head to my local travel agent and avoid the headaches. They have great service http://www.foresttravel.com
Posted by: daniag | February 24, 2010 at 05:51 PM
@daniag what problem would a travel agent avoid in this case (will they accompany you to the checkin counter)?
Posted by: gleff | February 24, 2010 at 06:06 PM
Hi,
I just checked on the credit card site that you mentioned in your post and I found that there is an annual fee of $375.12,so I guess I am better of paying the checked luggage fee or may be traveling on airline that promotes luggage travel free!!!!
Posted by: TheTraveler2010 | February 25, 2010 at 06:40 AM
The $85 Chase World Mastercard comes with a baggage fee waiver.
The Presidential Plus Mastercard ALSO comes with Continental Presidents Club access, Hyatt Platinum, and Avis Presidents Club. And bonus miles on flights.
For the frequent Continental flyer the Presidents Plus Mastercard may be a value, albeit a not inexpensive one.
Posted by: gleff | February 25, 2010 at 09:50 AM
The Continental World Mastercard ($85) also comes with the baggage fee waiver.
The more expensive Presidential Plus Mastercard also comes with Presidents Club access, Hyatt Platinum and Avis Presidents Club status, and bonus miles on flights.
Not inexpensive, but still a pretty good value for frequent Continental customers.
Posted by: gleff | February 25, 2010 at 09:51 AM
The Continental World Mastercard ($85) also comes with the baggage fee waiver.
The more expensive Presidential Plus Mastercard also comes with Presidents Club access, Hyatt Platinum and Avis Presidents Club status, and bonus miles on flights.
Not inexpensive, but still a pretty good value for frequent Continental customers.
Posted by: gleff | February 25, 2010 at 09:52 AM
On a trip to Hawaii (3 islands) 3 years ago, we had luggage and one set of golf clubs. Every single leg of the trip, I got diferent information. We travelled First Class and on the final flight back to the states, the agent wanted $25 but encouraged me to simply take stuff out of a suitcase and move it to my golf bag. Wait a minute - isn't that the same total weight?! With five people behind me in line, I paid the fee rather than holding the line up. But the lack of consistency was maddening.
Posted by: stevens397 | February 25, 2010 at 10:29 AM
I booked several flights through Expedia.com for my honeymoon adventure. On one leg, I had a flight from Puerto Rico to St. Marteen at a specific time to co-ordinate with a cruise departure. About a week before we left, I got an e-mail that stated our flight departure time had been changed (too early to catch), so I had to re-schedule a different flight. Got to the airport in P.R. and was asked for the tickets. I didn't have the canceled tickets, but was assured I was booked on the newer time flight. Well, because I did not carry the old (canceled) tickets, I had to re-pay for the flight, and at a rate that was 2X higher (due to last minute booking). Once I got home, I contavted Expedia for help in re-embursement. I talked to them over the course of a year, about 15-16 times; no help. I lost the extra flight costs for two people (well over $350.00) and Expedia.com would not help in any manner. They would tell me to call back in 30 days; over and over, they would say this, and yet NOTHING was ever done to protect/help their customer (me) what-so-ever! I would never book any form of any reservations with Expedia.com! They are the worst company with "customer service"; more like "customer screw-them-ness"!!!
Posted by: sfttailpaul | March 27, 2010 at 05:29 PM
My daughter got to the ticket counter with a bag that was 18 pounds overweight--68 pounds. She was heading from Dulles to a student internship in England. She knew she'd be charged if it was overweight, but had no idea how much because the information on United's web page is several links deep, on a spreadsheet. Her charge, and, in fact, if she had been even one pound overweight: $200 for one bag. You're warned on page 1 that there is an extra charge for extra weight, but you're thinking $30 or $40.
When you get to the counter and they hit you for $200, that's out and out robbery. They know it, and they sent me a $100 check with an apology. Can you imagine?
Posted by: MarciaBreeden | July 13, 2010 at 08:55 AM
http://hawaiian.eatspoop.com/
Heh, heh!
Posted by: poopcommunications | August 18, 2010 at 05:45 PM
I just checked Continental.com and it clearly states that this card only waives first and second bag fees on "Continental-operated flights." Of course, an Hawaiian Airlines flight is not Continental-operated.
Posted by: keithandmissy | August 28, 2010 at 09:29 AM