Any tricks to not pay for bags ...

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

When flying to Europe any credit cards work with bags fees ..

[kabux]

Might not work every time, but we have packed in carry-on size, one for each person and then only checked one regular size bag. Then at the gate, when they ask for people to check their bags because the flight is full we hop right up and check the rest for free!

[Shorex]

When flying to Europe any credit cards work with bags fees ..

 

There is no "trick", there is only airline policy. Delta, for example, gives each economy passenger without elite status traveling between the US and Europe one free bag (up to 50 lbs.). On a cursory search of the DL website, it did not appear that DL gives an additional free bag to Europe for their credit card holders (I could be wrong -- suggest a diligent search of their website if you are flying DL.)

 

As kabux suggested, adding the maximum legal carry-on to the one free checked bag may be enough -- or not. Up to you.

 

Before you bother adding any additional credit card, you need to carefully review the website of the airline you chose to fly, then decide if the benefit of taking out their credit card outweighs the burden of an additional card and the associated fees.

[NMLady]

When flying to Europe any credit cards work with bags fees ..

 

One checked bag is free and you can take one carryon free. How many more bags do you need?? I don't think there are any airline credit cards that give second bag free. Maybe flying Business Class does?

[waterbug123]

One checked bag is free and you can take one carryon free. How many more bags do you need?? I don't think there are any airline credit cards that give second bag free. Maybe flying Business Class does?

 

Flying business class DOES usually entitle you to 2, or 3, free checked bags. But as the OP is looking to save on bag fees, I doubt he/she is interested in paying business class prices for seats. ;)

[Eng23]

When flying to Europe any credit cards work with bags fees ..

Book First/Business Class........

[lovemylab]

Anytime I've flown to Europe I was able to take one checked bag plus a carry on for free. If you need more luggage than that and don't want to pay perhaps cut back on the amount of stuff you're taking with?

[biker1972]

Or be like Jack Reacher and buy clothes there that you throw away near the end of the trip. He travels without any luggage. :)

[hightownCO]

Or be like Jack Reacher and buy clothes there that you throw away near the end of the trip. He travels without any luggage. :)

 

He does carry a travel toothbrush in his pocket. New Jack Reacher novel coming in September!

[iancal]

We have NEVER had to pay for bags on a TA flight. One each and one carry on between us.

 

Not sure what happens if you have more than one bag each.....nor do we ever want to know!

 

Last spring we boarded in Venice for Franfurt. The people ahead of us at a different station were going to the US. They each had two carry on bags. The airline said no. Unfortunately they had a great deal of fragile glassware in each of their carry ons. No question though.....two of the four carry ons were definitely NOT getting in the cabin and they were told that the charge per bag would be $75. I would not have taken odds on that glassware getting home in one piece.

[FlyerTalker]

Unfortunately they had a great deal of fragile glassware in each of their carry ons.

Bet they were trying to save on shipping the items by freight from the factory. Given that the factory ships regularly around the world and knows how to pack glass, I'd have been with that program from the get go. But then, doing it on the cheap is the American way. Or so it seems nowdays.

[iancal]

Yup.

 

I have never understood what the big issue is. Information on carry-on, checking luggage, costs etc. is easily available on line. Not sure if folks don't want to know, are too lazy to check for themselves, or are just plain dull.

 

I had no sympathy for them whatsoever.

[Zach1213]

Bet they were trying to save on shipping the items by freight from the factory. Given that the factory ships regularly around the world and knows how to pack glass, I'd have been with that program from the get go. But then, doing it on the cheap is the American way. Or so it seems nowdays.

 

To me it would be part of the cost of the product. If I can't afford to ship the product properly, I can't afford the product. Kind of like tipping at a restaurant - if I can't afford to tip, I can't afford the meal.

[vjmatty]

I don't think there are any airline credit cards that give second bag free. Maybe flying Business Class does?

 

United Presidential Plus Mastercard... but it is $300, though it gives you lounge access and annual discount coupons.

[marco]

Unless policy has changed in the past 4 months, we've never paid for checked bags for a TA flight on ANY airline.

[4774Papa]

We ran into a problem with our carryon weight on Air France, Healthrow to DeGaule then DeGaule to Miami. There is a 12K limit on a person's carryon. We had never had this problem before on international flights, but the flight from London to Paris was a problem. We had to check another bag and pay 60 GBP.

[iancal]

It seems to me that KLM also weighed our carry on when we flew from Canada-Istanbul.

 

We never carry much so it was not an issue for us...but I was surprised that they wanted to weigh it.

 

When we fly within Europe we are very careful. The lowest price is not always the lowest price. Last year we flew from Porto to Rome. TAP was $100 and this is what we booked. TAP was excellent.

 

Easyjet or one of the other discount carriers (cannot remember which) was slightly lower. But when we added the baggage charges, seat selection charges, and the 'credit card' charges of the discount carrier, the total price per person ended up around $180. Some bargain.

[thechicagoans]

United Presidential Plus Mastercard... but it is $300, though it gives you lounge access and annual discount coupons.

 

That card is no longer available and the fees listed are out of date. There are two options if you are flying purely on United metal (not United codeshare on Lufthansa or another airline):

 

1. United Mileage Plus Explorer - this is the basic card which you can get from Chase with the annual fee waived for the first year. After that, it's $89. This includes 1 free checked bag per flight (no benefit on TATL - transatlantic or TPAC - transpacific as you already get 1 free checked bag in Economy and the card doesn't give you an ADDITIONAL bag). This card includes 2 one-time use passes for the United Club. If you go on Flyertalk, you will find a way to get a 50,000 mile signup bonus when obtaining this card.

 

2. United Club - this is the premium card which has a $395 annual fee and includes 2 free checked bags, free United Club access for you + 2 guests, free Hyatt Platinum status, free Premier Access - security and check-in, and free Avis First status. You can occasionally find an offer for the first year annual fee waived when inside a United Club or certain Chase branches. You can earn 1.5 United miles per dollar

 

NOTE: I have no affiliation with Chase but do know a little bit about how to play the credit card game.

 

Two great benefits with both cards: no foreign transaction fees and primary car rental insurance.

 

For anyone considering the United Club, please be aware that domestic United Club locations are extremely unglamorous. In the mornings you might get a bagel and cereal but the rest of the day you'll have to live with carrot sticks, Milano cookies, snack mixes, and knockoff M&Ms. The clubs are generally clean, a break from the madness of the terminal, etc. but I would never pay the $50 per person one-time use charge they have. If you are a very frequent flier and expect to be in a club 30x+ year then you may want to get the United Club card.

[vjmatty]

That card is no longer available and the fees listed are out of date.

 

Actually, it is but under a different name..... it's the same card as the now-called United Club card, as far as amenities and perks go. You also get 2 miles per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and United purchases. The fee may have gone up since I received mine back in 2009 when it was called the Presidential Plus and was under Continental.

[thechicagoans]

Actually, it is but under a different name..... it's the same card as the now-called United Club card, as far as amenities and perks go. You also get 2 miles per dollar on hotels, car rentals, and United purchases. The fee may have gone up since I received mine back in 2009 when it was called the Presidential Plus and was under Continental.

 

Can you share a link to that (because I'd love to get it with those mileage earnings)? If you're grandfathered with old perks, I understand. As far as I know, the updated United Club card (all that's been offered since Summer 2012) is 1.5 miles on every $ and 2 miles per $ on United (hotels and car rentals are not bonus categories).

 

The Chase Ink Plus and Chase Ink Bold offer 2x on hotels but not car rentals while the Chase Sapphire Preferred is great for offering 2x on all travel and dining and the AMEX PRG offers 3x on airfare.

[vjmatty]

Can you share a link to that (because I'd love to get it with those mileage earnings)? If you're grandfathered with old perks, I understand. As far as I know, the updated United Club card (all that's been offered since Summer 2012) is 1.5 miles on every $ and 2 miles per $ on United (hotels and car rentals are not bonus categories).

 

The Chase Ink Plus and Chase Ink Bold offer 2x on hotels but not car rentals while the Chase Sapphire Preferred is great for offering 2x on all travel and dining and the AMEX PRG offers 3x on airfare.

 

I don't know of a way to provide a link to my online account without revealing secured information, though I tried to take a screen shot of my card statement with the account number xxxed out but it didn't work.

 

I actually have 3 different United cards all have entirely different perks.

 

One Mileage Plus card is horrible and doesn't give you double miles for anything, not even United purchases.

 

The other is Mileage Plus Explorer... it is for businesses and has double miles for restaurants, gas and office products. My DH has a personal Explorer and his only gives double miles for United purchases. Both have no foreign transaction fees and one free bag.

 

The Presidential Plus card has the hotels and car rentals but NOT a 1.5 miles per $, which I think might actually be a better deal than the double miles for limited items, at least in the long run depending on what you are using it for. The hotel miles aren't all that useful to me since we are Hilton Honors members and tend to use our Hilton cards. The PP has all the perks you listed for the United Club card though, such as the 2 free bags as well as priority boarding, bags and security.

 

It sounds like they may have discontinued some perks but possibly did grandfather them in as you say. So many changes have been made since the merger it is hard to keep track of them all. :confused:

[pris993]

We ran into a problem with our carryon weight on Air France, Healthrow to DeGaule then DeGaule to Miami. There is a 12K limit on a person's carryon. We had never had this problem before on international flights, but the flight from London to Paris was a problem. We had to check another bag and pay 60 GBP.

 

Air France has had that limit for carryon for sometime. Have found foreign carriers more strick about carryon weight limits than US carriers. Ran into this some years ago on Air Canada enroute to Israel through Vancouver Canada.

[griffy116]

Question: If I am flying from U.S. (ATL) to Rome (FCO) and I book through T'ocity (didn't know if I could list the website), there is a flight that starts in ATL with a carrier like SkyWest (domestic) or SW to JFK and then change planes, onto Rome on AerLingus, do I have to pay luggage fee on SW to get from ATL to JFK? Flight is shown as AerLingus, even though the first leg is listed with small carrier...Have I been confusing enough??

[FlyerTalker]

Question: If I am flying from U.S. (ATL) to Rome (FCO) and I book through T'ocity (didn't know if I could list the website), there is a flight that starts in ATL with a carrier like SkyWest (domestic) or SW to JFK and then change planes, onto Rome on AerLingus, do I have to pay luggage fee on SW to get from ATL to JFK? Flight is shown as AerLingus, even though the first leg is listed with small carrier...Have I been confusing enough??

Difficult to say when you use terms such as "like SkyWest". Specific airlines have specific policies, so a general question gets a general answer.

 

If, and this is a big if, this is ONE through ticket, then your entire ticket is an international itinerary. If it is two tickets, pieced together by an agency, then you have a domestic itinerary (subject to domestic rules) and an distinct and separate international itinerary (subject to international rules).

 

I can say for certain that if you mean SW to be Southwest (rather than Air Namibia :)) you have two tickets. SkyWest to Aer Lingus....could be either, though I suspect two. SkyWest to a SkyTeam carrier.....likely to be one.

 

Finally....what we say doesn't ultimately matter. The controlling factor is the baggage policies of the airlines involved, and you need to get an answer directly from them. Which means pouring though the fine print of their baggage policies which are posted on their websites.