Checked-bag policy unclear, but customers need to check the fine print

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Updated: January 29, 2012 2:26AM

Dear Fixer: Two weeks ago my wife and I traveled to Israel. We purchased round-trip tickets from Chicago to Tel Aviv, changing planes in Paris. The flight from Chicago to Paris was on American Airlines and the flight to Tel Aviv was on El Al, although both tickets were purchased from El Al, which shared flight codes with American Airlines.

My ticket from the travel agent said we would get two pieces of luggage apiece for the trip. I checked on American Airlines’ website, which said that travelers to Asia get two pieces of checked luggage — confirming what my ticket information said.

However, when we arrived at the airport, we were told that we would only get one free checked bag per person, and that we would have to pay $60 for each additional suitcase. I pointed out that their website indicated we should get two pieces per person because we were flying to a city in Asia (the Middle East being on the continent of Asia). The agent informed us that since they were only flying us to Europe, we would only get one free bag.

I sent a note to their website complaining about this. They responded that travelers only get one bag on flights to Europe. But on our return flight, El Al allowed two pieces of luggage per person.

Is there any way you can convince American Airlines that according to their posted policy, I should have been allowed to check in two bags per person for free?

Joseph Gluck, Evanston

Dear Joseph: It does seem nonsensical that you’d only get one free bag on the way there but two free bags on the way home. Were they thinking you planned to buy luggage in Tel Aviv?

We asked American Airlines spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan about this, and she said their agent was correct to base the baggage fee on American’s leg of your journey, which was only to Paris. She said that on the way home, the El Al agents are supposed to collect a baggage fee for the Paris-to-Chicago portion and remit it to American, though apparently there is a communication problem on this point.

Fagan said consumers need to consider each portion of their trip a separate instance and read up on baggage allowances for each.

We also asked the industry group, Airlines for America (formerly the Air Transport Association of America) about what seems to be an unnecessarily confusing system. Their answer: Consumers do need to cover their bases by checking on each airline’s rules for each part of the trip; however, the industry is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation to make this stuff clearer for consumers, including looking at ways to re-engineer the reservation, check-in and baggage systems throughout the airline industry.

But back to your specific problem. After we brought this to their attention, American offered you $120 in vouchers for a future flight. While it’s not a cash refund, it is better than nothing.

COSTLY LESSON: A consumer’s tale of woe

The way some politicians rant about the federal government, you’d think there was money just floating around for us regular people to pick up.

That’s also what the phony “government grant agencies” want you to think, too.

One reader who knows this well is Sam of Berwyn, who signed up for a free one-week trial of a grant-finding service. He gave them his credit card number for a $1 fee they said they needed to ship a CD-ROM. They sent him the disc, but Sam had second thoughts about the service so he called to cancel his enrollment.

Apparently, his cancellation came too late, though, because this company — based in Las Vegas — had already billed him for the next month of services.

“I was given a cancellation number, but I also got a bill for $49.95,” Sam wrote The Fixer.

They did promise to end Sam’s enrollment, but they would not give him his 50 bucks back.

What is a Costly Lesson? It’s an UNFIXABLE problem that cost someone a lot of money but holds a valuable lesson for the rest of us. If you’ve got something to warn the rest of us about, e-mail it to szimmermann@suntimes.com with Costly Lessons in the subject line.