Japan via Eastern Europe via blah blah blah - Part 0.5 - Fatwa on BA

I'm mecha pished at the moment...!

See - I have the free world's smallest backpack so normally I bring that bag plus another smallish sports bag to fit all of my booty from my travels.

But alas - Ant pointed out to me last night that British Airlines (BA) have introduced some crazy scheme that you are only allowed to bring one checked bag per customer - even if you are doing international travel.

Check it out yourself:

Checked baggage allowances

UK domestic routes allowances
Passenger
Free checked allowance
Adults and children aged 2 years and over
One bag Maximum dimensions per bag (H+W+L): 158cm (62in) Maximum weight per bag: 23kg* (51lbs)

Europe and all other international routes (including BA Cityflyer London City Airport routes)
Passenger
Free checked allowance
Adults and children aged 2 years and over
FIRST and Club World– 3 Bags Club Europe and World Traveller Plus- 2 Bags World Traveller and Euro Traveller – 1 Bag Maximum dimensions per bag (H+W+L): 158cm (62in)Maximum weight per bag: 23kg* (51lbs)

I'm in coach by the way (aka Euro Traveller)...!

If that wasn't bad enough - then the excess baggage prices certainly are:

Excess baggage charges
Longhaul - £120 per bag or £84 per bag if paid online (includes 30% discount)
Shorthaul - £60 per bag or £42 per bag if paid online (includes 30% discount)
UK Domestic - £30 per bag or £21 per bag if paid online (includes 30% discount)

So - let's say if I was travelling around Europe with BA (which Ant and I are) - we would be forking out a whopping £60 per bag - or if you were doing a long haul flight to say Hong Kong from London and stopping over - you would pay £120 per bag...! £120 into Australian Pesos works out to be almost $300...

So I've been tearing out my hair last night - trying to figure out how to pack... So that I have the opportunity to actually buy something overseas - I'm risking permanent spinal injury and am taking one of Ant's old "back-unfriendly" Kathmandu bag - plus I might take another small bag to try and even out the load a bit. But I can't bring that third bag out on any of the flights (until we are leaving the UK to Singapore) because I will be charged the whole £60 deal per flight...

Thank god Ant and I are dumping our suits at the Japanese wedding for other people to take home... otherwise we would be dressed like hobos for the wedding.

So if BA weren't bad enough in my books at the moment (I seem to remember flying from London to HK with an obese "Biggest Loser" taking up half of my chair last time... they are certaintly in my fatwa books now!

Me thinks that this whole baggage allowance thing (which is new) is just a whole money making exercise which will probably backfire on BA. Although they might make some cash off some unsuspecting customers in the short term - those who have been burnt will just choose to fly with someone else (Europe is a fairly competitive market you know!). So hopefully - this will hurt them in the long term.

Australia to Japan to Australia via Eastern Europe and Singapore - Part 0 the prequel...

As you can probably guess from the title - Ant and I are off to Japan (for a fake Japanese wedding) and then home to Australia (not without going to the UK, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungry, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, UK (via London then trainspotting Edinburgh) and Singapore (then transiting thru Brisbane because it is another country) then home...

Yes - Ant and I are doing our bit to pollute the planet with heaps of flights (although we are doing most of the europe bits by train)...

It's the night before and we are pretty disorganised (by our standards).... We've booked the Japanese accommodation and the UK, plus Prague but that is about it... We are doing the whole "let's travel Eastern Europe on the fly with trying to book train trips whilst we are there"... Agggh!

Ant - pished that he doesn't really get much of a say with what goes on this site (I'm a control freak) has started his own blog (alas not myspace!) at http://antelope77.blogspot.com/ (I can't believe he doesn't want to be a myspace whore like me - http://www.myspace.com/nickybangbang ).

Ant mentions something on his blog about purging out $130 worth of wagyu beef at my brother's wedding. I wait in anticipation to see if he can top that effort at my brother's fake wedding in Japan (eg: the reason why this holiday is happening)...

Anyhow - I had better pack or book accommodation or something travel related...