Can someone please clarify the following point or if you have had the same problem can you let me know the outcome...............

The situation as it stands at present, we have some flights on hold with Emirates to fly from Glasgow on the 13 Aug 08 then onto Brisbane. At the time of booking I requested the extra luggage allowance due to immigration, only to be told that as we have already validated our visa's in February the airline would not give us the extra luggage allowance. (Before you ask how did they know this, we used them to book our trip in February.)

When we flew in February we used Singapore airline and only took our usual holiday luggage with us, not anticipating this to happen.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so what did you do?

Lesley-ann

My apologizes if this sounds vague........ just a tad angry at the moment.

I've read a few posts about this over the months and from what i've read, you only get the extra luggage allowance if you've never been to Oz before, that includes holidays etc.

Definitely look up the previous threads on here. I was reading some the other day. and my impression was that certain airlines will give you double baggage allowance provided that a) you've been granted your visa and b) your visa has not yet been validated.

Hopefully someone more in the know can clarify it for us all!!

happened to us ,OH has been on the phone for hours with singapore airlines with no joy sofar but she has not give up yet will let you know the out come

The extra allowance has nothing to do with whether you have been before...it's purely if you are heading there with un-validated visas

I stand corrected

Fly via the USA.

Precisely. 46kg each no questions asked.

But nobody ever listens to this piece of advice as they're all too busy doing what the masses do, and then getting caught out.

Buzzy

Apparently it is up to the specific airline whether they allow you extra luggage and even then they are not consistent.

My friend emigrated with Cathay Pacific and they allowed her 40kg each person, she had to send her passport off to them to show she had the one way visa.

We have just booked our one way flight with Singapore and they wont let us have any extra luggage So its a good job when we were over there for a month in December that we left all our baggage with the brother-in-law

Don't disagree with the wisdom of flying via the USA if your desperate for allowance. However, this does add several hours travel time compared to a direct asian route and is not so cheap either. Thats the downside.

Sometimes the London - Aus via USA route is cheaper

True - the timings are a hassle...but maybe a stopover for several days could help overcome this...

But trying to find anything less than 1000 pounds that route for next year I reckon will be tough. Fuel charging and the extra distance I think will make it even more unaffordable though.

That said, indeed if stopping off somewhere is your thing then the USA can be a good option.

currently the trip via USA is cheaper than via Asia - united airlines London to Sydney was £1100 in July/Aug whereas most Asia flights seem to be over £1200. Air Canada was also cheaper via vancouver. I noticed though that some airlines are reducing the baggage allowance via North America rather than increasing fuel costs - Air Canada have done this - but you can pay extra (I think it was just £50) for the 2 bag allowance

Hi Guys

Thanks for all your replies, we have reached stalemate with Emirates as they won't move on the allowance of 20kg.

So it is back to the drawing board to see what other options we can come up with.

Simple answer really (from a woman's point of view) just go on a massive shoping trip when we arrive...........

What about BA and there excess baggage policy of charging by the bag rather than by weight? Surely would work out quite cheap if you had a lot of stuff?