British Airways Hand Baggage Overcharging

[tartansprite]

Travelling to Zambia from Heathrow with BA, we decided to 'take advantage of the generous hand luggage allowance' as BA encouraged one to do. We turned up with two sets of hand luggage which were purchased to fall inside the measurement criteria i.e, one large hand luggage and one handbag each. At Heathrow the BA Customer Services Manager!!! denied our handbags with the spurious reason that they were neither briefcases nor laptops and he pointed to a sign which mentioned briefcases and laptops but had no mention of handbags. I objected that online reference is definitely made to handbags but I was flatly refused. There was no opportunity given for us to measure our handbags in a handbag bin (I do not even believe I saw such a bin-only for the large handluggages which our large hand luggage fitted) and a tape measure was certainly not used to dismiss our bags which anyway were within the 45x36x20 cm limit for handbag, briefcase or laptop.

 

On complaining to BA I have merely been told they will not refund me but their reply did state that hand luggages included hand bags!!! Big deal!

 

How can I take BA to court since they wrongly charged me 270 pounds for these hand bags which were within all the criteria of weight and size and type. I still have the handbags and the recent ebay purchase information of our hand luggage/hand bags as proof of sorts. The maddening thing is that the reason for rejection was so spurious!!!!

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I hope the forum guys will be along soon with answers for you. This isn't a very busy forum, so it may not be today.

 

My best, HB

[renegadeimp]

You need to get a copy of the advert which states you wont be charged, then provide the receipt showing that they did charge you. Then you need to write a full complaint to the head office and give them a specified amount of time to explain themselves and rectify the issue. if they fail to do so, issue a lba then sue.

[tartansprite]

Thanks for your response. However clicking on the link "lba" is ambiguous and does not really constructively guide me.

[renegadeimp]

LBA is letter before action. It should outline your complaint and what they must do to rectify it and have a timeframe stated. If they fail to meet it, then you sue them. It only gets issued if you have every intent on following through to the end through the courts.

[foxtrotcharlie]

If you have the proofs then you have a strong case. Just send BA a formal complaint including all proofs and tell them that you will take legal recourse in case they fail to refund your monies. You were indeed wrongly charged if hand bags were allowed. BTW, did you book direct with airline. if you booked with teh agent, you could involve them too. good Luck.