It's getting very expensive out there Jim. Thanks for that Howerd, I had a look but MAN-HKG would require a Philippine airlines HKG-MNL return and that's coming in at about 290 quid plus mismatched baggage allowance possibly, the dates were perfect for me though, total would be 770 ish. I do worry about my baggage in a transit that is not the responsibility of one specific airline, have any of you guys any idea how that works, if I book through an agent are they responsible for my baggage during transit, who has to fix it when it fails to turn up before my next transit flight? To explain I am specifically talking about the multiple airline scenario where you have to pick up your bags at one of the transit airports and go through check-in again to get on the next airlines flight, while I have been to the Phils a lot, I am not that experienced in general travel, never ever taken a packaged holiday anywhere. So my worry is that if I go for this kind of two carrier flight I will have to leave lots of overlap time to be sure of getting my bags in time for the next flight. Still have the 7Kg hand baggage problem though Anyway my preferred flight went up from 921 to 1033 today and I simply don't have the cash now, just going to have to give it a miss for a few months as the prices for the next few months are not good, no point going to the Phils and being really broke for 18 days, not good for the kids, Ana or me. Prices do get much better in September, not so much so in October, but I would prefer October for my sons birthday, a couple of months just now and maybe I can scrimp together enough to manage these horrendously priced flights
OSS quote" I do worry about my baggage in a transit that is not the responsibility of one specific airline, have any of you guys any idea how that works, if I book through an agent are they responsible for my baggage during transit, who has to fix it when it fails to turn up before my next transit flight? It's the flight that you are on oss, it's their responsibility, say it's Qatar then it's their responsibility. If your luggage don't turn up at the destination airport. report it and tell them where your destination. Say you have flown to Hong Kong and your next flight to PR,with PR airways you have to check out then check back in with your luggage providing it turns up
Thanks Jim, I was afraid it was like that, so even if you have booked a package deal with the a travel agent, if that deal involves two or more flights with different airlines and your bags don't turn up at one of the intermediate stops then basically you have lost your bags and you're not getting them back, as the airline that lost them will have no responsibility to forward your bags if they later find them after you have had to check-in for your next leg. Christmas 2010 KLM failed to get all my bags on my first flight, they were checked all the way through to Manila but the one containing all the Christmas presents did not make it to Amsterdam in time for flight to Manila, 4 days later they turned up which I guess is the big benefit of having one airline (or one airline and its partners) managing all the legs of your journey. We also had the same situation in late December 2009 when Ana flew to the UK from Seoul and none of her bags turned up at Liverpool, she arrived here with just the clothes she was standing in, but again we were lucky and the bags turned up again about 4 days later just after the new year. So none of these websites that sell the bargain flights seem to make clear what the conditions are, makes me very nervous to use them and I can't seem to find the class code or fare basis very easily either.
This is strange, Jim....and I'm not doubting what you've written, but I travelled all the time for 22 years and only had two instances of baggage being late to arrive. Maybe things have gotten worse I fear
Those are the only two instances we have had Mike, did you ever do many multi segment flights where the flights had been booked individually with different airlines, that is the bit I am interested in, clearly in that situation one has to pick up the bags at the intermediate stop and then check in again for the next leg, but it's risky on two counts, one missing the connection and two bags being late. I've just never ever flown that way, always had my bags checked all the way through and only ever had to check-in once for the first leg. Both of the times our bags failed to turn up we were supposed to have priority handling as well, Christmas 2010 I was still Flying Blue Gold and had paid for the trip with miles and made a small cash payment to upgrade as well and when Ana came to the UK from Korea I had to pay massive excess baggage charges, they wanted 600 quid but I ended up paying it with miles which got her upgraded. The reason it all worries me is that with the really restrictive hand baggage allowances on most airlines, I would end up having to pack camera's and stuff in the hold luggage and there is no way any insurance is going to cover that.
I have been considering flying to Cebu using hand luggage only! There are some benefits for me in doing this: 1. It would make the two airline journey feasible without worrying about checked-in baggage getting delayed/damaged/stolen. 2. The two airline flight is cheaper, especially as I could use Cebu Pacific for HKG-CEB at under £100 return. 3. It would speed up exiting at the final destination. 3. My disability makes it a bit difficult carrying hand luggage, pulling a suitcase and using crutches all at the same time! Of course, the big limitation is the 7kg allowance on the HKG-CEB route and the fact that a single male using just hand luggage on a long haul flight, may attract the attention of customs officials especially if he looks like this...
Over the years I made a point of leaving as much stuff over there as possible, clothes, computers etc. The idea being that if required I could simply grab a bag and jump a flight. However much of our stuff is wearing out now and we need for example new computer parts which are much much cheaper to source here, so I really need hold baggage, I need new clothes as well and my size is not easy to source over there For me all the HKG-MNL returns I can see are coming in at well over 200 quid, closer to 300 to be honest, so the combination MAN-HKG and HKG-MNL is still not as cheap as I would like. I really wonder what Ryanair's policy is for anyone turning up dressed like that picture Howerd Stuffing the pockets of my North Face jacket with technology is not quite so extreme but not a lot different I can get a flashgun, large lens or two , several 2.5inch hard drives, a couple of cellphones, my keys (which weigh a ton) and lots of other small items that add up to a fair bit of weight. Never once has my jacket been inspected manually after the X-ray although my backpack has been inspected a couple of times. I have sometimes had quizzical looks at check-in though, I usually try not to wear the jacket but to carry it on my arm where I can place it on the ground during the check-in process. I once had accidentally packed a scalpel knife in a very very concealed part of my backpack, it had made it's way down into the seams of my pack somehow, before anyone starts wondering there was no blade just the handle, I've had these for nearly 40 years and use them as modelling knives for trimming prints and so on, incredibly useful things, anyway it got picked up on the X-ray and of course was very embarrassing given that it looked like it was deliberately concealed, I was also a bit pished at the gate at the time it was spotted which probably didn't help either Never had my luggage checked at NAIA thank god not sure I could argue my side and justify some of the stuff I carry over there
You can pay for hold baggage on Cebu Pacific. It is only about £15 for 20kg return or £30 return for 30kg on HKG-MNL That brings down your near £300 return flight to well under £150. The savings for me flying UK-CEB using two airlines are probably greater than the savings you could make on two airline flights UK-MNL. UK-CEB single airline flights are more expensive than UK-MNL (I think) but HKG-CEB is actually cheaper than HKG-MNL on Cebu Pacific. One point to note is that Cebu Pacific is currently under a ban on flying to the EU, for safety reasons. BTW, many people have reported success using that Rufus Roo Jacket and Ryanair even issued a statement on its use.
I did have a look at the Cebu-Pacific site but found it hard to make head or tail of the site (my patience is a bit poor these days). Just had another look, I could probably do a KLM-Cebu Pacific combo for about 715 with the right hold allowance but as you say the hand allowance is a big problem Not checked the exact flight times available yet so it could be more expensive than that.
You may want to consider other destinations from UK as Cebu Pacific also fly to many other countries... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebu_Pacific_destinations
That's the same time when my bags got lost and with KLM. It was all the snow at Manchester airport, we got delayed and missed the connection at Amsterdam We had to fly to Beijing, this is when we lost our bags. What a balls up, trying to talk to some one with a mask covering their face and in broken English. So when we finally arrived at Manila, we missed our connection to Dumaguete minus our lost bags. We reported it, and two days later we when to Dumaguete airport to see the bags had arrived. I could not believe my eyes, there they were, all stacked up waiting for us.
they actually delivered ours to our doorstep, right to the house. That sounds like a worse experience than me, I left from Liverpool very early in the morning 6am or something, I've always found it worth getting to AMS as early as possible, I left on I think the 24th of December and the weather just got worse and worse, I could see the baggage handlers trying to get the aircraft packed but I could also see they were having some trouble, mine were priority which means they would be loaded last to unload first at next airport we ended up sitting on the tarmac at the gate for 90 minutes while I watched the handlers outside struggling with bags, i did have some forewarning in that sense I remember wondering if my bags had made it on board. The Manila flight left on time no problems, wonder if that was the flight you were supposed to be on Jim?
No, my flight was a week later or so, 2nd January if my failing memory serves me right. The snow was deep, had to slide our luggage over the snow. Strange feeling one day minus 10..... then next day over 30 c.
