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Travel News > October 2010 > Passengers at Gatwick Airport hit by erroneous baggage allowance charges
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Passengers at Gatwick Airport hit by erroneous baggage allowance charges
11/10/2010
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A recent check by Trading Standards revealed that some of the weighing scales at Gatwick Airport have been giving incorrect readings. They found that 75 scales displayed inaccurate readings when tested, and some of the faults meant that air passengers could have been wrongly overcharged for their baggage allowance.
Some of the scales didn’t revert back to zero after baggage was taken off the scales which meant that the next item of baggage to be put onto the scales would be inaccurately read. In some cases, weight was added to items that adhered to the allotted baggage allowance.
During their investigation, Trading Standards queried 200 passengers at Gatwick Airport to find out if any of them had been overcharged for their baggage. Eight per cent of those questioned said they had been overcharged, even though they had all checked the weight of their baggage before departing for the airport.
Airlines charge passengers that exceed their specific baggage allowance and in many cases, it’s not cheap. EasyJet charges £10 for every kilo that exceeds their baggage allowance, while British Airways charges a set fee of £30 for overweight items.
Every year, around 60 million air passengers travel through Gatwick Airport, so the number of people that have been wrongly overcharged for baggage is potentially huge. It’s necessary for airlines to overcharge for excess baggage, but in order to do so they must ensure the weighing scales are accurate.
A spokesman for Which? Holiday commented on the problem: ‘We understand the reasons why airlines charge customers who go over baggage allowances. But, if airlines are going to charge then they have a responsibility to ensure their scales are correct. Excess baggage charges are not small, and can add a significant amount of money to the cost of a holiday.’
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