matt-and-jenny

I can't believe it.
My travel agent (AusTravel) ASSURED me (twice) that Matt had 40kg baggage allowance. "It's on Cathay Pacific's system" she said "No need to have it in writing" she said.
After reading similar stuff on this forum, and advice from your kind selves, I phoned Cathay directly today, and they told me he didn't because he didn't pay the immigrants fare (of which I've also heard about on this forum).
The girl I'm dealing with doesn't start work for another half hour. Maybe I'll be calmer by then. Right now I'm shaking with anger. We've already shipped our stuff over. With stress mounting as the days go on (we leave on 25th April), this is one thing we didn't need. What if I hadn't checked it out myself?
AARRRGH!

JG04

Hi Jenny,
Hate to make you feel even more depressed, but good luck, we're in the same boat. Travel agent didn't tell us about migration fare, we've been back and forward since to Cathay Pacific with polite letters and requests but they flatly refuse to give us 40kg. Got an e-mail today that said even though our tickets were non-refundable they would make a 'gesture' on our behalf, refund them and allow us to pay £285 each on top of what we've already paid to get our 40kg!! Think we're fighting a losing battle. Even considering doing that for one of the tickets. Has anyone actually managed to get 40kg out of Cathay recently? I know it has happened in the past but possibly they are clamping down on it. Therefore (as I mentioned to the customer relations advisor (!!) perhaps they should inform the travel agents to advise clients of migrant fares!!)
Sorry, had to rant! Hell of a day! Time for ....

moneypenny20

A lot of them seem to be tightening up on this. Either doing away with it completely or you have to buy a Migrant ticket which, as you say, costs another £2-300.

Too many of us b*ggers leaving the country - that's the problem.

JayDeee

I would pretend you have not called Cathay direct and tell her you need it in writing as friends who have also migrated have told you they needed to show this at check in. she will probably phone cathay and realize she has screwed up and she is goin to probably not want to have to tell you this so will pull all the stops to get cathay to allow you the 40k's. At the end of the day and agent is goin to have more power with the airline that you.

You will need a letter or to have 40k's stated on your ticket

Worth a try
Kala

JJL family

we seem to be in the same boat ( no tickets have to pick them up when we get there i think they are called E-tickets )

booked our flights with lee's travel and mentioned to them that we were migrating (1 way). had to send off copies of our passports to show we had visa's in them .

hoping we get 40kg's each (does that include children), don't leave till 15th june so will have to get hold of singapore airlines. would'nt like to get to manchester airport and have to give his clothes away

lesley

little miss c

We flew with Singapore and the tickets stated the usual 20kg, so I emailed Singapore airlines and told them we were migrating so we needed 40kg each, children included, they sent me an email saying we could as long as we showed the visa at check in, so I just took the email with me when we checked in and all was fine, although as we stopped over for 2 night in Singapore, when we checked in at Singapore for the last leg they seemed a bit unsure, and went off to check with a manager I think, we were a bit worried but they let us take the luggage in the end.

wmoore

As if that is EVER true

Keep pestering them.

JG04

I tried yet again with Cathay and practically begged, asking to have even one of us with 40kg. I told the rep I was a teacher and wanted to take certain resources immediately with me (that's true). Got another 'no' back! How grovelly and polite can I be?!! I'm getting worried now that if I keep pestering them they'll 'blacklist' us at check in and they'll be incredibly strict, not even allowing 23-25kg as most airlines do!!!

wmoore

Maybe it's worth checking out someone like UPS to deliver your 'excess baggage' as boxes or something? I don't think it's too expensive to do. And it might be a lot less stressful knowing you're not gonna have that hassle at check-in.

GinaUK

Definitey! Have a look at "excess baggage": www.excessbaggage.com
You can send boxes with them by airfreight. 20kg per person by airfreight will be cheaper than £200-£300 extra per person for the "migrant's fare".

Gina

pako

Also had the same problem with Cathay....they quoted me more for 40kg than I paid for my one-way ticket. We've decided to send stuff over in 2 loads with sevenseas as they are quite reasonable... its a lot cheaper... It wasn't Cathays fault it was ebookers for mucking me about..

ub40fan

Sorry if this is completely obvious or been asked before, but why do you have to pay more if you are migrating? Surely this is discrimination? Can you just pay for a one way ticket, or is that what is causing the baggage allowance problems?

matt-and-jenny

Thanks for all your messages. To update:

Since I wrote this thread, I kicked up a massive stink at Austravel. They got back to me today, saying that Cathay are going to honour the extra baggage allowance (although strangely have given both me and Matt 10kg extra, rather than just Matt extra 20kg). I have this in writing from my travel agent, but not the airline.

BUT, she also said that she can't guarantee what will happen with our initial flight from Manchester to London! All she could say was that it would be higly unlikely that we would be charged for extra baggage on this domestic flight, but if we were, we could take it to Austravel and they would reimburse us.

So my next point of call is to phone Cathay again, I suppose.... But like you said, jaydee, maybe I should insist this from my travel agent?

We fly in 6 days. Good god.

Pollyana

Get it from Cathay - then confirm it with Customer Services of the airline concerned at Manchester. Bit of jargon for you - ask the Customer Services to check your "PNR" - that is your personal computer reference for your flight, it then sounds like of baggage that they will let you have - its the info the check-in staff see.

philian4

Hi,

IMHO please get anything you can in writing.....we flew Cathay (Jan) and had to have a stand up row at check in and they still only allowed 4 out of 6 of us the 40kg allowance. Only because I had PMT did I become quite so irrate but they weren't going to budge. Austravel told me they were fine about the allowance and I too checked with Cathay. Duty Manager was having none of though on the day! Otherwise they were a great airline and the flight was as fantastic as it can ever be.

Good Luck

Phil x