Feedback of the week: scales at the airport

The first in a new series highlighting the best piece of feedback submitted by our readers over the past week.

This week's feedback of the week is from Wiley who tells us that if you are stung at check-in for having luggage that's slightly over the weight limit, you should ask to see the certification for the scales they are using.

Wiley says: "The demand payment for the transit of baggage is a retail sale by weight and therefore the scales MUST be certified."

Should you discover that the scales are uncertified, Wiley tells us that it's an "offence to charge for a transaction based on weight using uncertified scales".

Excellent feedback we think. As a consumer champion, Cheapflights is calling for transparency at every stage of travel - from booking flights on airlines' websites to checking-in at the airport.

Read Wiley's comment (at the bottom of this page) in full.

If you have feedback on this or anything else you see on Cheap Flights News, let us know by using the form below. We'd love to hear from you.

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Comments

[Fred]

This all sounds news to me and I'm puzzled as to why nobody has picked this up before. In particular, Ryanair is not the first airline to charge by excess weight - British Airways has been doing it for years. Presumably UK airports would be well aware of the rules governing this kind of thing and thus certify their scales. Has Wiley's claim been verified by anyone?

[pete myring]

If you have any reson to contact bmibaby Customer Services after you have bought your ticket, expect to be charged 60p per minute to speak to them. Don't be surprised if you are immedately placed in a queue, and do expect to be charged £2.80 for the pleasure of waiting to speak to someone on their help desk who... well, can't help you. Normally you would want to escalate but I wasn't sure that my bank balance could stand the cost.
Whether it's a restaurant or a flight, its poor customer service that people remember before the cost of the service. I will certainly think twice before using bmibaby again.

[Hilary]

Very useful info, but presumably there are no laws governing this in other countries for return flights. What is really annoying is when I have been charged excess on return flights where it has been decreed the baggage allowance is 10 kilos LESS than outgoing, which is almost impossible even if you have bought nothing whilst away. Kenya Airlines is a prime example.

[Paul Rivers]

You have to make sure that the scales are set at zero before you put your bags on! You'd be surprised at how often they are not.