United baggage policy for international business class

[dfish]

I'm hoping you are right. The reason I questioned it at all was because the information on United.com did not show the correct baggage allowance.  It showed one bag at 50 lbs.  If it had the correct information, the conversation never would have happened.

[Ashland]

12 hours ago, 6rugrats said:

I'm going to take a wild guess that you booked your air through your cruise line?

I work at the airport and am well aware of the policy.  I don't understand the crazy answers you received.  You are entitled to two free bags, weighing up to 70 pounds each in business class, unless your routing (which you don't list) has a baggage restriction.  This should be stated on your itinerary on united.com.

Thanks for clarifying what I thought and posted.

[Globaliser]

16 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

You are bound by the rules of the airline whose plane you get on.

 

15 hours ago, SDHusker said:

So true, the first plane you get on, their rules apply.

 

10 hours ago, dfish said:

They said Lufthansa is the first flight and they govern the baggage rules for the entire itinerary.

 

10 hours ago, 6rugrats said:

You were correctly informed that the rules of the first operating carrier apply to your flight.

 

It's a bit more complicated than this. For this itinerary (because it ends in the US), assuming that the bags are checked at AMS and next collected in the US:

1. First, you have to identify the first marketing carrier. This is the airline whose code appears for the first sector on your ticket (which may not be the operating airline).
2. Then you have to find out whether that airline has chosen to use IATA's Most Significant Carrier rule, or to apply its own baggage rules.
3. If the choice is to use the MSC rule, then the MSC is the airline that operates the flight from Europe to the US (FRA-IAD in this case), and that airline's baggage rules apply.

 

For the OP, this may all end up coming to the same result. But "it's the rules of the first operating airline" is a misleading summary that's sometimes wrong and can therefore cause problems. Fortunately, in most cases the ticket will clearly show the correct result.

 

Stepping back, I'd be very surprised if the correct result is anything other than what 6rugrats has said. But in that case, the UA website does seem to be baffling.

[6rugrats]

It was never complicated.  All OP ever had to do was pull up her itinerary on UA (apparently the marketing carrier) and look near the bottom under "Checked Bags" and click on that heading.  It would clearly show she is entitled to two free checked bags up to 70 pounds.  Why this spun out-of-control, I have no idea.

Looks like this (this is on a reservation for a pax flying economy):

First and second baggage service charges per traveler	First bag	Second bag	Weight per bag
Fri, Aug 19, 2022 Washington, DC, US (IAD - Dulles) to San Juan, PR, US (SJU - Luis Muñoz Marín)	$35 per person	$45 per person	(50lbs)
Tue, Aug 23, 2022 San Juan, PR, US (SJU - Luis Muñoz Marín) to Washington, DC, US (IAD - Dulles)	$35 per person	$45 per person	(50lbs)

Edited July 4, 2022 by 6rugrats

[Globaliser]

15 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

Why this spun out-of-control, I have no idea.

 

In part, because the UA website seems to give misleading information. If it's wrong (and it immediately looks wrong to me), it's hardly surprising if passengers get confused.

 

Using the calculator and inputs of FRA-IAD in "Business or First", the website returns:

 

General and non-members in Business or First cabin

1st Bag	2nd Bag	Weight per bag
Standard: $0 Prepaid: $0	Standard: $0 Prepaid: $0	50lbs (23kgs)

 

Below that, it says (when you open the drop-down):

 

Overweight bags

$200 extra per bag

51 to 70 lbs (24 to 32 kg)

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

28 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

In part, because the UA website seems to give misleading information. If it's wrong (and it immediately looks wrong to me), it's hardly surprising if passengers get confused.

 

Using the calculator and inputs of FRA-IAD in "Business or First", the website returns:

 

General and non-members in Business or First cabin

1st Bag	2nd Bag	Weight per bag
Standard: $0 Prepaid: $0	Standard: $0 Prepaid: $0	50lbs (23kgs)

 

Below that, it says (when you open the drop-down):

 

Overweight bags

$200 extra per bag

51 to 70 lbs (24 to 32 kg)

 

 

That drop down appears to me to say if the bag weights between 51 and 70lbs, the charge is $200 per bag. That doesn't mean the bag is free up to 70lbs.

[6rugrats]

Agree the drop down menu needs to be corrected, but her TICKET says what I already wrote.  She WILL get the correct allowance.  But, feel free to post ad nauseam on this topic.

[Globaliser]

2 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

But, feel free to post ad nauseam on this topic.

 

For my own part, my apologies for trying to correct the (common) misconception that "the first airline's allowance governs the whole ticket".

[dfish]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:13 AM, 6rugrats said:

Agree the drop down menu needs to be corrected, but her TICKET says what I already wrote.  She WILL get the correct allowance.  But, feel free to post ad nauseam on this topic.

You asked me to come back and post what happened.  As I explained before, my ticket did not have the correct information on it.  When we got to the airport the ticket agent was quite confused with the whole ticket as there was missing information and incorrect information.  I asked her about the baggage allowance and she said she saw that and wondered why on earth it was like that, but the rest of the ticket explained a lot.  It took us over 30 minutes to check in and get boarding passes with the help of a couple of supervisors.  The app wouldn't let us since all the information needed was missing.  

 

We never had to worry about the luggage allowance as my sister's bag was lost somewhere between the ship and the cruise terminal during disembarkation.  That became a bigger worry.  

[6rugrats]

On 8/2/2022 at 2:25 PM, dfish said:

You asked me to come back and post what happened.  As I explained before, my ticket did not have the correct information on it.  When we got to the airport the ticket agent was quite confused with the whole ticket as there was missing information and incorrect information.  I asked her about the baggage allowance and she said she saw that and wondered why on earth it was like that, but the rest of the ticket explained a lot.  It took us over 30 minutes to check in and get boarding passes with the help of a couple of supervisors.  The app wouldn't let us since all the information needed was missing.  

 

 

I don't understand what was going on with your ticket.  Sometimes, tickets, especially when purchased through third parties, are not issued correctly, but no idea what happened.  Makes for fun times when you have to fix it.  I am shocked they found two SDs (or leads) to actually come out and look at it.  When the agent added your two bags, she should have seen there was no charge and your bag tags would have printed with a priority line on them and gotten one of those bright orange priority tags.  Another clue you were entitled to those free bags.

Edited August 3, 2022 by 6rugrats

[dfish]

44 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

I don't understand what was going on with your ticket.  Sometimes, tickets, especially when purchased through third parties, are not issued correctly, but no idea what happened.  Makes for fun times when you have to fix it.  I am shocked they found two SDs (or leads) to actually come out and look at it.  When the agent added your two bags, she should have seen there was no charge and your bag tags would have printed with a priority line on them and gotten one of those bright orange priority tags.  Another clue you were entitled to those free bags.

They did eventually print out correctly and we did get those orange tags, but it took almost redoing the tickets and information.  I tried to fix as much as I could before I left so it wouldn't be a problem at the airport.  

[FlyerTalker]

 

45 minutes ago, 6rugrats said:

Sometimes, tickets, especially when purchased through third parties, are not issued correctly, but no idea what happened.  Makes for fun times when you have to fix it.

 

 

On 7/3/2022 at 8:56 AM, dfish said:

This routing was not done at our request.  We never would have booked this. 

 

Sounds like a cruiseline air ticket (though the OP never actually says how the ticket was purchased).

 

Also sounds like a pig in a poke -- a "good deal" that really wasn't.

 

Caveat emptor.