A bit too much luggage

A bit too much luggage - ok, here we go! I did not shop that much - honestly, however upon getting to the airport with our 5 bags and thinking that we would be a bit over - we were actually quite a lot over! On Cathay Pacific me and the boys were allowed 30 kilos each (and more than one bag to make this up) however on Air France we were also allowed 30 kilos each, but only one bag of 30kilo each - Karl was only allowed 20 kilos on his ticket booked through his work.

Anyway, the checkout lady decided that our 21 kilo bag, as our lightest bag was our one extra and for 21 extra kilos the price would be 965 Euros - holy crap! No way!  Anyway we said this was crazy and she suggested we go and talk to customer service…………………………they agreed that upon this calculation she was actually correct but they would see what they could do.  If, like Cathay Pacific, we were all allowed 30 kilos (they thought Karl had 30 too) on multiple bags we were actually only 4 kilos over and so they agreed that we could just pay the 4 kilo difference to Hong Kong and then re-negotiate once there.

Phew, this was pretty lucky as two of the bags were between 25 and 26 kilos and she put them through as 23 kilos and so we were actually 9 kilos over and given Karl was actually only meant to have 20 kilos - we were in fact 19 kilos over - oops and we knew our hand-luggage was heavier than it was meant to be!

We were thinking we definitely have to do something in Hong Kong to reduce weight.  When I unpacked the next day I realised that we had a total of about 25 new books, 19 of which were Lachlans, totalling about 14 kilos.  He went through them and decided he could probably give one away but needed the rest!  The joys of having a bookworm in the family and he really does love the books but they might have to go or be sent home.  After much thinking or wondering we began to formulate a bit of a plan.

Karl, from Hong Kong was not flying home with us on Cathay Pacific but on Air New Zealand and he has free upgrades on offer and so we decided to use his free upgrade which entitles him to double luggage allowance.  The problem with this is that you often don’t know if you have an upgrade until you are at the airport. 

My friend Edwin, who lives in Hong Kong, advised that he was coming home for a visit in November and had about 15 kilos free space if we wanted him to bring stuff back.  We eagerly took him up on his offer - thanks Edwin - you are a lifesaver particularly as the kids really wanted to buy drones in Hong Kong and a shirt or two.  Edwin now has about 8 kilos of books to put in his bag!

We also rang Air New Zealand who advised that when you have an upgrade available and request it your baggage allowance doubles immediately whether or not the seat upgrade is ultimately given (which it was by the way!) Wahoo crisis averted and I am not even too upset that Karl gets preferential treatment on his way home as well as being kid free - well maybe just a little!!  But I can shop in duty free!!